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February 4, 2015 | Category: Blog | Author:

What we’re reading: Harry Potter wins, measuring media impact, and info vs. wisdom

INFORMATION VS. WISDOM: In the video above, Maria Popova, founder and editor of Brain Pickings, says that storytellers interpret information and shape it into wisdom. It’s one of last year’s Future of Storytelling videos.

VICTORY BY THE HARRY POTTER ALLIANCE: The Washington Post reports that all official Harry Potter-branded chocolate will, by the end of 2015, be fair-trade certified. That’s a victory for members of the Harry Potter Alliance, a group of fans who are dedicated to promoting the causes that a real-life Harry might support. The group had waged a 4-year battle to have Warner Brothers, the company that owns the merchandising rights to Harry Potter products, use only fair-trade chocolate.

MEDIA FUNDERS MEASURING IMPACT: A new report (PDF) from Media Impact Funders summarizes a survey of media funders on how they evaluate the impact of their grants. The report complements the organization’s online resources on media impact. One bit from the report I found interesting: “Ten percent of the survey respondents indicated that they ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ evaluate media grants. When they do, at the very least, they’re curious to discover if the work they support is connecting with audiences — respondents most commonly track reach (75%) and engagement (64%). Notably, however, we found that due to a variety of constraints, many funders are not measuring the indicator that they identify as the most impactful: long-term social change. Identifying and addressing those constraints will be an ongoing challenge for this evolving field.”