This week’s Community Media Leadership discussion (Thursday, 4pm UK time via Zoom) will focus on a key challenge: How do we evaluate the impact of community media?
For leaders in community-focused communications, the ability to measure and articulate impact is critical—not just to secure funding, but to ensure media initiatives are truly serving and empowering communities. Without meaningful evaluation, we risk reinforcing superficial engagement metrics rather than fostering deep, participatory media ecosystems.
We’ll explore:
🔹 Beyond reach and ratings – How do we measure genuine participation and community ownership of media?
🔹 Platform differences – Do radio, video, print, and social media require different evaluation approaches?
🔹 Inclusion and accessibility – Are we recognising barriers to engagement and amplifying diverse voices?
🔹 Sustainability and impact – How do we track long-term change and prevent short-term funding cycles from distorting community priorities?
Why does this matter for leadership?
Leaders in community media need to advocate for media as a public good, not just as content distribution. If we can’t demonstrate real-world impact, we lose ground to commercial and institutional narratives that reduce communication to marketing and branding. Evaluation is about accountability, empowerment, and ensuring community voices shape public discourse—not just being counted as audience statistics.
Join us this Thursday at 4pm (UK time) on Zoom to shape the development of a Community Media Evaluation Toolkit. Patreon supporters, check your inbox for the session link.
Let’s build tools that help communities tell their own stories—on their own terms.
#CommunityMedia #Leadership #MediaEvaluation #DecenteredMedia