Video and Social Change

Around the world, video is being used as a powerful tool for providing community voice and social change. The cost of a camera has plummeted from $100,000 US ten years ago to less than $500 today. Suddenly, changemakers around the world can shoot high-quality video, and distribute it globally via the Internet. By offering NGOs cost-effective training and models of video production, Video Volunteers aims to make video a ubiquitous tool in the work of social change.

The Power of Media

Community-based communications is key to empowering communities to participate and to lead social change in their communities. It is also critical for giving the disadvantaged a voice in the global decisions that affect their lives.

Video is a particularly powerful tool in social change because:

  • It communicates in the medium most appealing to people today
  • It breaks the literacy barrier
  • It is the most cost-effective way to reach large numbers of people if distributed strategically
  • It expands an NGOs’ reach and scale
  • It promotes behavior change
  • TVs and films are present in nearly every village on the planet
  • It is a powerful tool in education, fundraising, networking and advocacy
  • It gives a voice to the poor to communicate their needs and knowledge to the outside world
  • It provides a platform to demand accountability and transparency from those in power
  • It acts as a forum for communities to discuss critical but unspoken social issues
  • It encourages ‘people’s led development’, where the call for change is coming from within the community
  • It develops grassroots leaders and communicators
  • It provides livelihoods

Performance Measurement

Our long term goal is to be leaders in performance measurement of participatory media work. To reach this goal, we work to understand the various program “inputs”, “outputs” and finally, “Impact”, of the CVU model.

Inputs: The systems developed by Video Volunteers enable significant capacity and leadership building for grassroots voice and communication. There are many inputs to this program, including training, technology, productions, distribution strategies, partnerships, and support. We measure these inputs on an ongoing basis to understand how to maximize our programs and the inputs required to provide the best combination of successful elements and support.

Outputs: Video Volunteers has focused significantly on our ability to measure our partners’ programmatic ‘outputs’. These outputs are the core of our information feedback to allow us to more effectively and efficiently manage and improve our partners’ programs, training, service to communities, organizational management and partner feedback. Examples of our regular output measurements include:

  • Number of Producers trained and working
  • Number of films completed
  • Number of community screenings
  • Number of people reached
  • Number of responses

Impact: This is an oft-confused term that Video Volunteers is working hard to develop beyond standard metric schemas and introduce a visual element to our quantified and qualified examples of impact over time. Beginning with our management of output measurement, we collate data on the results that our Community Media has had on the communities in which we work, including how it has augmented our partners ability to scale the reach of their programs and effectiveness.