Using service to connect journalism's mission to measurement

Date & time: Thursday, Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. EDT / 11 a.m. PDT

Presenters: Madison Karas and Patrick Boehler, Gazzetta

Building on discussions that emerged during the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit and developed within the Lenfest Communities of Practice, Madison Karas and Patrick Boehler will share how embracing a theory of service can guide journalism practitioners in producing work that has value, utility, and ultimately, real impact for their audiences.

Journalism has pieced together and borrowed approaches to strategizing, defining, and measuring how we can have an impact on the communities we cover, and then measuring and explaining it to others. But we’ve still found ourselves coming up short in trying to craft compelling explanations of how we affect change while facing threats from political, financial, and systemic standpoints.

Patrick and Madison will present on how practicing a theory of service offers a solution for the “missing middle” between abstract concepts of impact and genuine, grounded value delivered to communities. Lessons will be shared from a previous working session within the Lenfest Communities of Practice about how service approaches can become tangible within organizations. This session is for anyone working in news and information — reporter, fundraiser, entrepreneur, or technologist — who is interested in providing more valuable information to those they serve.