Our Impact

When Albert Einstein said, "Not all things that matter can be measured, and not all things that can be measured matter," he wasn't talking about media, but he could have been. Today, any expert will attest that media impacts are notoriously hard to measure. Despite extensive research and theories by academics, pundits and scientists, none has yet concocted the definitive recipe for measuring media influence.  

The field of development communications, Story Workshop’s main arena of work, faces this challenge daily. Many factors may influence peoples' decisions to change behavior, and isolating media as the stimulus is often impossible and usually inaccurate.

Despite this, as we look around at our world, we know that media matters. Few would argue that, for better and for worse, media has the power to changes peoples’ lives – influencing their behavior and spurring them to change on a day-to-day basis.

"Through this [Story Workshop] listener club, I have learnt to respect the rights of people.  Although I am the Traditional Authority here, I now appreciate that I am a driver leading people to a joint destination and not a herder whipping cattle to a destination of my choice...I assure you: A lot of positive changes are going to take place here." -Dan Walusa, Chairman, Namulenga Radio Listening Club, Mulanje

Story Workshop is relentlessly committed to evaluating our work. We do it with respect for the fact that we are reaching millions of Malawians each week. We do it to ensure the quality of our programs. We do it to create feedback loops between evaluators and scriptwriters so our creative content stays fresh and relevant to our target audience.

We do it to find out if what we are doing is working.

Our evaluation takes both quantitative and qualitative channels; it includes analyses of baseline vs. follow-up surveys, individual and focus group interviews on selected impact indicators, and national audience feedback initiatives. 

Learn more about what our audience, partners and the media are saying about Story Workshop using the links at the right.

Also, learn about the multi-functional nature of our measurement and evaluation techniques, including radio listening clubs, radio research gardens and action research.