Introduction
Organizations committed to social change through storytelling can use this four-part framework to design and evaluate their narrative strategies.
This article published in May 2025, How to Measure Narrative Change, is from the Stanford Social Innovation Review SSIR.
“Many organizations working toward social change understand the power of stories to transform how people think about and act on issues.
It follows that a common question among movement leaders, community-based organizations, philanthropy, government, and entertainment is: How do you measure narrative change?
These leaders want to know if their work is making a difference. Particularly now, when so many organizations are experiencing seismic changes in their work toward a fairer and more just world; they are rightly looking to ensure that the stories they tell are seeding the conditions for change.
Social change work is complex, non-linear, and long-term, and it isn’t always possible to fully trace the effects of a single campaign, media piece, or storytelling effort. However, organizations can take steps to connect the dots between the stories they tell and measurable shifts in beliefs, behaviors, culture, and institutions.
This article presents a flexible framework for measuring narrative change efforts that organizations can creatively adapt to their unique work.
Developed by a group of social scientists turned evaluation- and systems-change practitioners who work on issues ranging from pop culture to public health, this framework offers a way (versus the way) to document impact and learnings related to stories that aim to drive change.” – Source
Contents
- What Is Narrative Change?
- Start With Building Your Understanding
- Choose What You Measure
- Step 1: Identify your message and messenger indicators
- Step 2: Include indicators that will tell you if you have reached your intended community
- Step 3: Assess the immediate outcomes for the people you seek to engage
- Step 4: Connect the dots between your indicators to tell the story of the intervention’s contribution to cultural and structural change
- Four Principles for Measuring Narrative Change
- 1. Start from the center
- 2. Let go of prediction and embrace surprise
- 3. Focus on contribution
- 4. Engage in constant learning
Read Full Article
How to Measure Narrative Change
Explore Further
- Measuring Narrative Change: Moving From Theory to Practice
- Measuring Narrative Change: Understanding Progress and Navigating Complexity
- Our future, our voice: Designing, developing and evaluating public interest communication on a budget
- Outcome Harvesting
- Measuring Effectiveness of Narrative Change Campaigns
- Message Testing Methods for Narrative Change
- What Makes Narrative Change So Hard?
- Impact Narrative Tool
- Funding Narrative Change, Power and Systems
- How to Change the Narrative / Story: Guides, Worksheets and Templates
- Narrative Change: Start Here
- How Do We Know If We Have Transformed Narrative Oceans?
- Narrative and Storytelling: Training and Planning Tools