Community media and community-focused communications projects are essential in giving people the tools, spaces, and opportunities to tell our own stories, amplify marginalised voices, and strengthen civic life. But when it comes to securing funding, building partnerships, and advocating for long-term support, how do we demonstrate their impact in a way that resonates beyond those directly involved?
Many funders and institutional partners demand clear evidence of social value, quality impact, and transformation, but community media projects often struggle to define these in conventional terms. What kind of evaluation framework can be used to capture the deep, participatory, and transformative processes that community communications enable?
What Do We Need to Measure?
The challenge of evaluating community media lies in capturing both tangible and intangible outcomes. Traditional media metrics—audience reach, clicks, engagement rates—fail to reflect the deeper purpose of community-driven media:
- How do we measure the shift in people’s confidence to speak up, share stories, and take part in civic life?
- How do we demonstrate that a local podcast, grassroots news platform, or community radio station builds trust and strengthens social cohesion?
- How can we show that participatory media changes individual expectations about their role in society?
- What tools can community media practitioners use to articulate their value in ways that funders and policymakers understand?
These questions point to the need for a Community Media Evaluation Toolkit—a framework that provides meaningful ways to assess impact beyond numbers, while still offering funders and partners the structured evidence they require.
Needs Analysis – What Questions Should We Be Asking?
Before designing an evaluation framework, we need a thorough needs analysis to ensure that it reflects the realities of those creating, producing, and engaging with community media. The following questions can guide this process:
- What challenges do community media managers face when articulating their project’s value?
- How do we assess the depth of participation in community communications projects?
- How do different media forms (radio, blogging, video, newsletters) transform people’s expectations about their role in community life?
- What does successful engagement look like for grassroots media, beyond digital analytics?
- What methodologies best capture the personal, collective, and civic transformation that participation in media fosters?
By identifying these needs, we can move towards a quality impact assessment model that is adaptable, accessible, and community-led.
Quality Impact Assessment – Beyond Metrics
Community media is about more than producing content—it is about who is involved, how they are involved, and what that involvement means for them and their communities. How can we assess:
- The level of participation: Who contributes to the content? Are new voices being included?
- The depth of engagement: Are people empowered to shape discussions and influence local narratives?
- The civic impact: Do people become more active in local decision-making as a result of engaging with community media?
- The cultural impact: How does community storytelling preserve and reshape local identities?
A robust impact assessment must go beyond surface-level audience data to capture long-term transformations in people’s skills, confidence, and ability to shape public discourse.
How Do We Define Social Value in Community Media?
For many involved in grassroots media, the value of their work is self-evident. They see the way local voices are strengthened, how stories are told that would otherwise go unheard, and how participation in media-making fosters a sense of ownership and belonging. But for funders, policymakers, and partner organisations, social value must be communicated in a way that is both compelling and rigorous:
- How do we prove that a volunteer-run community radio station strengthens social trust?
- What evidence demonstrates that local blogging networks bridge gaps in mainstream media representation?
- How do we quantify the civic empowerment that comes from co-producing media?
- Can we map the ways that participatory media reduces isolation and increases community resilience?
By developing a community-led evaluation framework, we can create a shared language for demonstrating why grassroots communications matter—and why they deserve investment and long-term sustainability.
Join the Conversation – Building a Practical Evaluation Toolkit
The development of a Community Media Evaluation Toolkit needs to be guided by those with first-hand experience in grassroots and participatory media. That’s why Decentered Media is inviting community media practitioners, advocates, and researchers to collaborate in shaping this framework.
Through weekly discussions on Patreon, we’ll explore:
- Practical ways to measure social value and civic impact
- Tools for capturing participatory engagement and transformation
- Strategies for advocating community media’s relevance to funders and policymakers
- Methods for self-evaluation that align with grassroots, DIY, and participatory principles
If you work in or support community media, your input is vital in ensuring that this framework reflects real-world needs and experiences.
Subscribe to Decentered Media on Patreon to take part in shaping this vital toolkit—and help ensure that the transformational impact of community-focused communications is recognised, supported, and sustained.