Confronting hard truths about poverty: Evaluating narrative change impact for racial economic justice in the South

This session presents an evaluation of media narrative change efforts focused on racial economic justice in the Southern U.S. University researchers partnered with a non-partisan racial justice organization to examine how media narratives about poverty are shaped and challenged. Using an innovative sampling method, the team analyzed media content from digital news outlets, broadcast stations, and independent platforms. The evaluation explores the effects of the organization’s narratives to promote a human rights-based understanding of poverty to counter racist stereotypes in regional media that justify cutting public assistance. Guided by feminist epistemology, the team used an internal meaning-making strategy to clarify the organization’s framing approach, then compared it to narratives from other sources. Drawing on Lewis (2003), the method analyzes the stories that content producers tell about how the world works to reveal underlying ideologies and frames. This evaluation informs strategies to shift media narratives and support more equitable, rights-based approaches.
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Lina Romero Rodriguez – Senior Analyst, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, & Learning