Workshop to Focus on Media Metrics, Analytics and Impact
How can media projects get past measuring clicks and page views and come up with meaningful metrics that gauge real impact? That will be the focus of the upcoming Collab/Space Austin workshop on April 16, 2015. Co-produced by PBS MediaShift, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Media Impact Project at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, it will be an all-day, hands-on workshop focused on media metrics, analytics and measuring impact. The workshop will take place at the Belo Center for New Media at the University of Texas. It will take place the day before the 16th International Symposium on Online Journalism.
We will have 7 startups and innovation projects in the metrics and impact space presenting in lightning fashion, with questions from the audience. Later we’ll do collaborative exercises — using improv comedy techniques (facilitated by the fab Andy Boyle) — to learn how to work better together, and break out into groups to help each project get past their challenges. Plus, we’ll be collaborating with a diverse group of participants, including entrepreneurs, journalists, technologists, designers, marketers, investors and major players in the media metrics space. See below for more information on our speakers and presenting projects.
This workshop is sold out! But you can still RSVP for the mixer.
Key Speakers
Laura Evans is Vice President, Audience Development and Data Science, at Scripps Networks Interactive. In this role, Laura leads audience development, data analysis, data warehouse and DBMS initiatives; development and deployment of analytics across all SNI digital products; digital marketing execution and audience retention strategy through leveraging data and its management. Previously, Laura was head of Dow Jones’s Audience Insights & Analytics team, and she was Chief Experience Officer and Vice President of Research at the Washington Post. Follow her on Twitter @evanslaurab.
Lauren Fuhrmann is associate director of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Fuhrmann joined the Center in 2011, and previously researched audience engagement as a social media intern for Harvest Public Media and spent two years as a multimedia reporter for KBIA 91.3 FM and the Columbia Missourian. Fuhrmann leads WCIJ’s public engagement efforts, including events, social media, newsletter and promotional materials; is co-director of the website; tracks the distribution and assesses the impact of WCIJ’s news stories. Fuhrmann is vice president of the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenFuhrmann.
Andy Boyle is a full-stack web developer for NBC News Digital Group’s BreakingNews.com. Previously, he worked at the Boston Globe, St. Petersburg Times and the New York Times Regional Media Group, where his work was cited in the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. Most recently, Boyle was a news applications developer for the Chicago Tribune, where he built projects for the 2012 and 2014 elections, built tools for user-generated content, created new ways of tracking shootings and crime in the greater Chicagoland area and crafted other data visualizations. He also regularly writes and tells jokes throughout the greater Midwest. Boyle was a runner-up in the Chicago satellite round of the Great American Comedy Festival, and was a featured comedian in the Orlando Indie Comedy Festival. You can follow him on Twitter at @andymboyle.
Presenting Startups and Projects
The following projects and startups will be presenting at Collab/Space Austin:
Chute Insights
CIR’s Impact Tracker
Grist’s Engagement Analytics Tool
Guardian’s Ophan
StoryPilot
Texas Tribune’s All-Audience Metric
Verifeed
Read more about the presenting projects here.
Key Sponsors
The Media Impact Project is a hub for collecting, developing and sharing approaches for measuring the impact of media. Based at the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism, the Media Impact Project seeks to better understand the role that media plays in changing knowledge, attitudes and behavior among individuals and communities, large and small, around the world.
Despite advances in big data, elementary metrics such as page views, circulation, television ratings and followers are still commonly used to assess audience engagement and changes in individual perceptions and behaviors. The Media Impact Project’s role is to bring together the many people and organizations that are tackling the same issues and questions. For more information, please visit www.mediaimpactproject.org.
Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The Foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged.
The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University is proud to be one of the largest and most innovative journalism and mass communication programs in the nation. With a vibrant and active faculty of scholars and professionals, the school provides students with the best training and preparation for productive and responsible careers in media in the 21st century. Located in San Marcos, just 25 miles south of Austin, the school offers graduate and undergraduate programs, with alumni employed across the nation at progressive media outlets including the New York Times, National Public Radio, Spredfast, Austin American-Statesman, Box, Blackbaud and more. Learn more here.
How It Will Work
The presenting startups and projects will make brief presentations to the group and answer questions. We will list their 3 biggest challenges, whether that’s financial, technological, marketing, distribution or some other major challenge. Later in the day, we’ll divide into breakout groups around each project and develop solutions for their challenges. Solutions will be shared with the full group. We’ll end the day with a mixer which is open to the community, to encourage further discussion and networking.
Registration
The workshop is SOLD OUT!
Breakout at Collab/Space Atlanta
When?
Thursday, April 16, 2015
9 am to 5 pm for the workshop
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm for the mixer
Where?
Location: Belo Center for New Media at the University of Texas
300 W. Dean Keeton
Room 5.208 – 5th floor
Austin, TX 78712
Google Map location
Agenda
Below is a rough overview of the agenda, but you can see the full agenda here.
> Targeted talks on media metrics and measuring impact.
> Selected innovation projects and metrics startups present their work and list their challenges.
> Networking lunch
> Break out into teams for improv exercise
> Work collaboratively to help solve challenges for the startups and projects, and present that to the group.
And a Mixer Too?
After the workshop we’ll invite our colleagues to join us for a Texas Tribune/MediaShift Mixer with drinks and food for all at the Hole in the Wall, 2538 Guadalupe, Austin, TX 78705! Sponsors include KLRU TV, KUT Radio and UNITY: Journalists for Diversity.
Please RSVP for the mixer to save your spot!