Understanding journalism impact: A multi-dimensional taxonomy for professional, organizational and societal change

Abstract

How should we measure the impact of investigative journalism? Media scholars and practitioners have turned their attention towards understanding the causal effect of media reports on a range of social, political and economic outcomes. Their interest has been spurred by the increased availability of data, by the emergence of new tools for rigorously assessing causal effects and by pressure from donors interested in understanding the returns on their investments in media and journalism programmes. Drawing on literature from multiple disciplines, we propose a multi-faceted metric which future researchers, journalists and news agencies will be able to use when analysing media impact.