Social impact entertainment (SIE) is "all storytelling that is self-aware of its potential impact on its audiences and incorporates that knowledge to effect positive change at the individual, local, or global scale on one or more social issues"'','' as defined by the SIE Society. The practitioners in this field are predominately producers and directors who want to add a "social surplus" to their entertainment, as contrasted to the field of Entertainment-Education which often starts out with a social change directive and then creates the entertainment around it. The topic is explored in the book,
The Power of Storytelling: Social Impact Entertainmen
'' written by Robert Rippberger.

Overview

A focus in the field is the study of actual effects (impact measurement), while the predominant interest is still to create entertaining, profitable content and work within the ecosystem of commercial film production and distribution. A common theme in the field of SIE is that mainstream film production companies employ so-called " Impact Producers" who specialize in impact-oriented distribution campaigns which can often include community screenings, screenings for legislators as well as impact measurement and evidence-building. Unlike many other aspects of the mainstream entertainment industry, SIE tries to be scientific at times in its decision-making and frameworks; most notably building upon the work of

Albert Bandura Albert Bandura (4 December 1925 – 26 July 2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist and professor of social science in psychology at Stanford University, who contributed to the fields of education and to the fields of psychology, e.g. social ...

by utilizing

social cognitive theory Social cognitive theory (SCT), used in psychology, education, and communication, holds that portions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, an ...

, and the work of TV producer Miguel Sabido, a contemporary of Bandura's, who pioneered large-scale television shows that used role modeling as "entertainment with a proven social benefit". SIE usually works with a " Theory of Change" on how the entertainment property will generate social impact and how said impact should be evaluated; this is usually preceded by extensive research on the issue, the stakeholders and past approaches for solving the issue at hand.

Current Landscape

The most comprehensive overview over the field of Social Impact Entertainment, a report titled
The State of SIE
, was published in March 2019 by the Skoll Center for SIE; it features sections such as "What is SIE", applications in narrative film, documentary film, theater, television, and "emerging forms". Similar to the
Cinema of Change Ecosystem
, the State of SIE report features a
SIE Map
, a mindmap-like structure that gives an overview of the field and its pioneers, participants and products. The report purposefully does not define the field of SIE. Cinema of Change, a magazine and podcast dedicated to the field, reports on progress in the Social Impact Entertainment world since 2014. Currently, there are approximately 130 organizations, companies and film festivals operating in the Ecosystem, the most notable being

Participant Media Participant Media, LLC was an American independent Film industry, film and television production company founded in 2004 by Jeffrey Skoll, dedicated to entertainment intended to spur social change. The company financed and co-produced film and te ...

due to its $100 million+ funding and explicit mission in SIE. In 2020, Cinema of Change created a joint venture with the Social Impact Entertainment Task Force of the

Producers Guild of America The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing the interests Television producer, television producers, Film producer, film producers and emerging media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership inclu ...

and launched SIE Society to bring together stakeholders in the otherwise largely silo-ed and fragmented space. Social impact entertainment is taught at a few universities and has taken foot with a handful of institutes, most notably

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

's Norman Lear Center and UCLA TFT's Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment. The idea of this center came to Teri Schwartz in 2003, then a university dean; in 2007 she shared the idea with

Jeffrey Skoll Jeffrey Stuart Skoll (born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly thr ...

who was starting Participant Media at the time, and in 2014, once Schwartz had become the Dean of UCLA's film school, he donated $10 Million to create the center. The

launched its own initiative in the summer of 2018 - th
PGA SIETF
(Producers Guild of America Social Impact Entertainment Task Force). The task force concentrates on educating the PGA membership in impact matters as well as organizing interdisciplinary events for producers working with impact-oriented projects in the fields of film, television, gaming and interactive media. During the PGA's flagship Produced By conference in 2019, the SIETF hosted a sold-out panel featuring Michael B. Jordan and impact producers, focusing exclusively on Social Impact Entertainment. SIE has a different approach to generating impact when compared to

Social and behavior change communication Social and behavior change communication (SBCC), often also only "BCC" or "Communication for Development (C4D)" is an interactive process of any intervention with individuals, group or community (as integrated with an overall program) to develop ...

(SBCC), namely putting story and characters first, and shaping the impact around an existing intellectual property - rather than creating it from scratch for the sole purpose of impact.

References

{{Reflist Communication design Entertainment Film industry Influence of mass media Social impact Social impact of advertising

Overview

Current Landscape

See also

References