Impact case study database

Building on their research, Mihelj and Reid advised on and curated three exhibitions in five countries and a BBC Four documentary. Details of four impact pathways are as follows:

• *They Never Had it Better: Everyday Life in Yugoslavia was a traveling exhibition developed by the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, Serbia (2014-2015), which then travelled to the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo (2015-2016) and to the Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana, Slovenia (2016-2017). The exhibition was curated by Ana Panić, with Mihelj as External Advisor [S1, S2]. It attracted positive reviews in three countries [S3] and awards for the best curator and best exhibition in Serbia in 2014-15 by the Association of Art Historians in Serbia [S1].

• *Currency of Communism (2017-2018) was the first ever exhibition dedicated to communism at the British Museum. It was curated by Thomas Hockenhull, with Mihelj and Reid as External Advisors [S4] and received a large amount of favourable coverage in the UK and abroad [S5, p. 9].

• *Watching Socialism: The Television Revolution in Eastern Europe (2019) was dedicated specifically to television and everyday life and opened at the Wende Museum in Los Angeles, the only specialist Cold War museum in the USA. Mihelj and Reid were lead curators, and Mihelj’s research also informed tour guide training [S7].

• *The Fall of the Berlin Wall with John Simpson (2019) was a TV documentary produced by Alleycats TV for BBC Four, to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mihelj acted as expert interviewee and advisor [S9].

Through these impact pathways, Mihelj and Reid helped transform the public understanding of media and everyday life under communism, contributed to professional development of cultural industry professionals, as well as facilitated the enrichment of cultural heritage and diversification and enlargement of audiences, thus achieving impact in three key areas.

1. Transformed understanding among cultural industry professionals

Through their interventions, Mihelj and Reid contributed to professional development of museum and media professionals in five major museums and a TV production company in five countries, through transforming their understanding of the role of the media and everyday life in communist Europe. The initial plan for They Never Had It Better exhibition made little reference to the media, and this angle was added as a result of Mihelj’s contribution. As noted by the Director of Museum of Yugoslavia, Mihelj provided “ invaluable advice and assistance to the exhibition curator” and as a result, “ the exhibition was enhanced considerably and paid more attention to television than it otherwise would” [S1]. For the Wende Museum, the Watching Socialism exhibition was the first exhibition dedicated entirely to media history, and as the Chief Curator Dr Joes Segal explained, Mihelj and Reid’s contribution “ was absolutely essential for making this exhibition happen” and “ presented an opportunity to venture into an aspect of Cold War history that has so far remained neglected in our collection and activities” [S7]. As a result of the collaboration, several curators and visitor engagement staff at Wende “ developed an in-depth understanding of communist television and media more generally, and their place in everyday life” [S7]. Tour guides also appreciated “ being able to talk about research” and thereby “ communicate that the exhibition is also about how people experience television, not just what was on view on television” [S7].

Mihelj and Reid’s knowledge about the role of consumption and currency in everyday life had a similarly transformative impact on the Currency of Communism exhibition, and contributed to the curator’s professional development, as highlighted in his report [S5, p.4]. As noted by the Head of Department of Coins and Medals, Mihelj and Reid “ impacted on the conceptualization of the exhibition and on the exhibits and texts through which the concept was represented”. Their intervention “ enhanced [the curator’s] understanding of alternative exchange mechanisms”, “ led to a restructuring of the treatment of gender” in the exhibition, and stimulated “ a more rounded approach which highlighted the ways in which currency was used in the context of everyday life, consumption and leisure” [S4]. In the case of the Berlin Wall documentary, Mihelj revealed crucial aspects of historical information that neither the director, Des Henderson, nor the key protagonist of the documentary, BBC Foreign Affairs Editor John Simpson, were aware of. Specifically, Mihelj was able to point out the critical role of Western reporting, live TV coverage, and cross-border audience reception in the fall of the Berlin Wall. The moment when Mihelj explains this dynamic to John Simpson formed, as the director of the documentary explained, “ the heart and soul of the film”, and “ no-one else […] could have really told him that with as much authority as Professor Mihelj did” [S9]. Mihelj’s intervention thus transformed the narrative arc of the documentary and constituted a key moment of surprise for both the documentary’s narrator Simpson and for the audience.

Mihelj and Reid’s contributions left a legacy in partner institutions, inspiring professionals to produce further work that engages media history and everyday life. The collaboration led the Museum of Yugoslavia “ to pay more attention to media as an integral part of the cultural heritage we collect and exhibit” [S1]. The Wende Museum emphasized the importance of the “ accumulated knowledge and expertise in media history among our staff” as a result of the collaboration with Mihelj and Reid, and is planning “ another exhibition on another aspect of media and communication history, in the near future” [ S7].

2. Improved understanding among museum visitors and TV viewers

Mihelj and Reid’s impact reached a combined total of over 864,000 museum visitors and TV viewers in five countries. The BBC documentary reached 585,000 viewers in the during its first broadcast on 7^th November 2019 and attracted 104,947 iPlayer requests within four weeks [S9], the travelling exhibition attracted close to 30,000 visitors in three countries [S1, S2], the British Museum exhibition was attended by 141,000 visitors [S5], and the Wende Museum exhibition attracted over 3,300 visitors [S7].

Audience research conducted among museum visitors at the British Museum [S6] and the Wende Museum [S8] confirmed that the exhibitions, and specifically the aspects influenced by Mihelj and Reid’s research, improved visitors’ understanding of media and everyday life in communist Europe. Qualitative interviews with 84 visitors of the British museum exhibition [S6] demonstrated that aspects of the exhibition influenced by Mihelj and Reid’s research led to new knowledge and greater enjoyment. A significant number of interviewees brought up alternative exchange and reward systems as something they were not aware of prior to attending the exhibition, with one visitor noting that “ it hadn’t really occurred to me that money is less important in a society that is less capitalist” [S6, p. 6]. Several visitors also commented on similarities with the West or noted the diversity of countries [S6, p. 6-7]. The inclusion of everyday objects also proved effective, with several visitors mentioning such items as key points of entry for their engagement with the exhibition, and a source of pleasure [ S6, p. 7-8, 10]. Several visitors also noted the prominence of female heroines on banknotes, thus confirming the effectiveness of Mihelj and Reid’s suggestion to restructure the treatment of gender [S6, p. 8].

A similar study was conducted among visitors at the Wende Museum, based on thematic analysis of 78 visitor interviews [S8]. Prior to visiting the exhibition, 36 (46%) interviewees associated communist TV with propaganda or state control, and 16 (21%) expected it to compare unfavourably with Western television in terms of quality, content, or form. Most interviewees thought their perceptions changed considerably thanks to the exhibition. 22 (37%) reported being surprised at the range of genres, with one interviewee noting that “ it never dawned on me that they would have game shows going on” [S8, p. 5] while another highlighted the surprisingly large amount of entertainment and cultural imports [S8, p. 6]. Another common conclusion was that communist television programming and audience interests were less distant from their own experiences, with one interviewee commenting: “ You can tell that it was a lot more open than I thought it was before. It was really pretty similar to American television at the time,” [S8, p. 6]. Several respondents (18%) also commented on children’s programming in this context, with one noting that it “ helped complicate the narrative of Soviet bloc countries … there was also television programming for kids, and cartoons, and regular homelife going on throughout this period” [S8, p. 7].

Visitors also expressed interest in the presence of socialist advertising, western imports, and access to Western television signals. For instance, one interviewee noted that he “ wasn’t aware of how easily people had access to Western television”, while another noted that he was “ surprised to see that there were many American TV shows” [S8, p. 8[. When asked to discuss similarities and differences with Western television, interviewees focused heavily on similarities, primarily in terms of aesthetics (28%) but also genres (19%). A notable proportion of participants (14%) highlighted similarities with regards to propaganda. According to one participant, both communist and Western television “ tried to show from one point of view how great their systems were”, while another concluded “ It’s all kind of the same in the sense that we’re all trying to, you know, promote our ideals.” [S8, p. 11]. A significant proportion of participants (19%) also argued that the exhibition led to a change in their attitudes to Western media, in the sense that they became more critical of contemporary Western media, for instance because they became more aware of ideological messages [S8, pp. 13-14].

To ascertain the impact of the TV documentary, the market research agency Opinium was commissioned to conduct a study comprising of a two-wave survey (before and after viewing) and qualitative follow-up interviews [S10]. The first survey wave was conducted among 536 viewers selected from a nationally representative sample of BBC Four viewers who regularly watch history documentaries. The second wave was conducted among 257 viewers (of the initial 536) who watched the Berlin Wall documentary. Results showed that the documentary was well received, with 86% stating that it made them more aware of the role of television in the Cold War, and 74% agreeing that the discussion of the role of television was one of the highlights of the programme [S10, p. 7]. The comparison of the two waves confirmed that the documentary increased understanding of Cold War television and its impact on politics. In the first wave, only 22% of respondents knew that East German citizens were able to watch West Germany TV, and only 21% were able to correctly identify Schabowski as the politician announcing border regime changes during a TV press conference. After viewing, the proportions increased to 59% and 68% [S10, p. 4-5]. The documentary also inspired viewers to learn more about the subject: 60% of participants stated they intend to find out more about the media in the Cold War as a result of watching the documentary [S10, p. 7].

3. Enriched cultural heritage and larger and more diverse audiences

Thanks to Mihelj and Reid’s interventions, exhibitions in five museums in five different countries included several objects relevant to the history of media and everyday life during communism, and most of these were new acquisitions that will remain in museum collections and enable the three institutions to re-use them in future exhibitions. This also means that Mihelj and Reid’s work has contributed to enriching the cultural heritage of the Cold War. For instance, the They Never Had It Better exhibition included several TV-related objects which since remained in the collections of the three participating museums in three countries [S1, S2, S3]. The exhibition also included an extensive public engagement component, which involved the acquisition of everyday objects via donations from the public [S1, S2]. These donations included several TV sets, which were added to collections in the three countries [S1, S2]. For the Currency of Communism exhibition, Mihelj and Reid’s assistance with the selection and sourcing of exhibits led the British Museum to acquire archival photos and medals from the period, and materials from Reid’s private collection [S4], thus enriching national collections of communist material culture [S5, p.1].

Mihelj and Reid’s impact on cultural heritage was particularly notable in the case of the Watching Socialism exhibition. Their advice and existing links with heritage institutions in Eastern Europe was instrumental in expanding Wende’s collection, both by adding objects relevant to media history (TV sets and antennas, everyday domestic objects, archival photos and video) and by expanding the regional scope of the collection (while most of Wende’s original collection was sourced from East Germany, it now includes several objects originating from the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, Romania and socialist Yugoslavia). As Wende’s Chief Curator explained, this expansion of the collection “enables us to tell a more complex story about everyday life through comparing these items with those from East Germany that we already had. As these new objects are now in our collection, we are likely to use them in later exhibitions” [S7].

Through generating richer and more diverse collections and narratives of the past, Mihelj and Reid’s work also helped partners reach larger, new, or more diverse audiences. In south-eastern Europe, the travelling exhibition enabled the museums, which are traditionally attracting primarily foreign visitors, to strengthen their connection with local audiences: the Historical Museum in Sarajevo noticed a surge in the proportion of domestic audiences [S3], and the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade noted a considerably higher proportion of families, with parents using the exhibition to introduce children to their personal experiences of life under communism [S1]. The BBC documentary had an audience share of 2.6%, which is considerably higher than the slot average of 2.1% [S9]. Finally, the British Museum exhibition attracted the largest share of all free exhibitions held that year, a higher than average proportion of younger visitors, and visitors from central and Eastern Europe, suggesting that “ it enabled the museum to attract new audiences” [S5, p. 9].

According to most recent Ofcom data the BBC remains ‘ the most-used news provider across all platforms’ in the UK, with ‘ 73% of UK adults’ saying, ‘ they use any BBC source for news’ (Ofcom, 2020). In 2018-19 alone, the BBC produced 22,643 hours of news and current affairs output (Ofcom, 2019), spending £315m TV news and current affairs programming. The reach of the BBC is even greater for rural areas, where 96% of adults rely on BBC outputs (Ofcom, 2019). The BBC is required by Royal Charter to deliver duly accurate and impartial news and current affairs, including on rural matters. To ensure this obligation was being fulfilled the BBC Trust, as the BBC’s governing body at the time, commissioned the CRCC to conduct an analysis of BBC coverage. The findings of this research [R5] were central to the recommendations of the Trust’s Impartiality Review of June 2014 [S1]. The recommendations were then implemented by the BBC Executive (the committee with responsibility ‘ for delivering the BBC's services in accordance with the strategy agreed by the Board, and for all aspects of operational management’ (BBC.com). The changes that occurred in response to our research were highlighted in a 2015 follow-up report [S2]. Further, interviews with senior BBC journalists in 2019 confirmed the continuity of this impact [S3, S4].

Together, these reports [S1, S2, S6] and interviews [S3, S4] demonstrate the reach and significance of our impact. Heather Hancock, the author of the 2014 review, noted that she drew ‘ heavily’ on our findings when making her proposals [S1, p.7]. The BBC Trust noted, in their end of charter report, that these reviews ‘ proved fundamental in maintaining and improving standards in BBC content’ [S6, p.22]. Based on our research, the accuracy and impartiality of BBC’s rural reporting was improved in the following ways.

Impact 1: Improved promotion of rural issues across the BBC network via the appointment of a Rural Affairs Champion and other posts

Based on our research showing the varied visibility of rural issues across the BBC, the Trust identified the need for ‘ a senior figure to take an editorial oversight role, championing rural affairs across network output, devolved, regional and local programmes’ [S1, pp.11-12]. The BBC Executive appointed the BBC Environment, Food, Rural Affairs & Natural History Executive Editor, Dimitri Houtart, as Rural Affairs Champion in 2015, a role he continues to hold in 2020 [S2, p.7; S3]. The Rural Affairs Champion noted that this was ‘ a significant intervention that led to a series of changes designed to improve the reporting of rural matters which are still in place’ [S3]. The Champion had success in working both across the network in providing briefing notes on rural stories, and with ‘ individual news programme teams to encourage the coverage of rural affairs and the inclusion of rural views’ [S2, p. 2; S3]. For example, since 2014, the editors and network news teams have been briefed on a range of topics, including for example, ‘ milk prices, organic production, the badger cull, and problems with the Rural Payment Agency’ [S2, p.7]. The outcome, the Executive noted, has been that these subjects have been ‘ covered by our flagship programmes’ [S2, p.7]. These briefings have continued [S3]. For example, during UK General Election campaigns, the Champion has circulated briefing notes on important rural matters. In the 2015 campaign:

‘This led to issues such as rural broadband, solar farms and wind turbines, and access to services and transport featuring on the One and Six O’clock news, and Radio 4’s Today’ [S2, p.9].

The Executive extended the remit of two BBC journalists, and BBC Northern Ireland made two journalistic appointments to improve rural affairs coverage [S2, p. 8]. The responsibilities of Claire Marshall and Tom Heap, in the Science and Environment news team, were expanded to include rural affairs, a remit they still hold [S2]. The Executive noted that the Science and Environment team had success in gaining coverage of a broader variety of rural issues on the main network news outlets [S2, p.9; S4]. For example, in 2015, a range rural issues were covered that might have been missed, according to the Executive, these included the following:

• Changes in legislation and regulation affecting rural communities

Pesticides: Commercial farmers’ efforts to safeguard wildlife and improve yields (One O’clock News; Six O’clock News; 1800 News 24); EU pesticide legislation (Today; Radio bulletins; BBC Breakfast; One O’clock News; BBC Online); Pesticide ban affecting crops (Six O’clock News; 1800 News 24); Closure of animal health testing laboratories (on Today; Six O’clock News; PM; 1800); Milk prices (Six O’clock News; Ten O’clock News 1800); End of milk quotas (One O’clock News; Six O’clock News; Ten O’clock News);

• Concerns affecting those living in rural areas

Rural Crime Figures (BBC Breakfast; One O’clock News; Six O’clock News; PM; 1800 News 24); Planning changes threaten affordable rural housing (Six O’clock News; Ten O’clock News; World at One); Concerns of rural voters (Six O’clock News). Rural manifestoes (Today);

• Environmental and wildlife conservation developments relevant to rural communities

Farmland bird decline (One O’clock News; Six O’clock News; Ten O’clock News 1800); Beaver colony can stay in the wild (Six O’clock News; 1800); Putting a value on nature reserves and parks (Six O’clock News); Tree disease (Six O’clock News; Ten O’clock News; PM; 1800);

• Technological advances and more efficient and sustainable farming

New design of pylons (One O’clock News; Six O’clock News); ‘Cutting edge farming technology’ (on Breakfast News and Today; Radio 4).

Impact 2: Improved use of existing BBC expertise on rural affairs from the regions and specialist programmes

Based on our findings showing the limited in-depth understanding of rural issues, the Trust recommend the main network news outlets better use expertise currently based in the regions and specialist programmes [S1, pp.11-12]. In response, the BBC Executive extended the briefs of three regional correspondents so that they would have a special responsibility to provide rural affairs stories to network news [S2, p.6]. The three correspondents were: ‘ *West Midlands - David Gregory Kumar (Rural Affairs Correspondent, Birmingham); East - Richard Daniel (Correspondent, Look East / Radio Suffolk); East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire - Paul Murphy (Environment and Rural Affairs Correspondent, BBC Hull)*’ [S2, p.6]. In 2020, these correspondents remain in these roles and are widely used [S3]. They have had success in getting a range of stories on rural matters on network news bulletins and have raised awareness of rural matters on BBC network news [S2, p.2., S4].

Links were also established and developed between BBC network news and specialist programmes such as Countryfile and Farming Today [S2, p.7, S3]. The Executive determined that an Environment and Rural Affairs Correspondent would be based in Bristol to improve links between network news output and Farming Today [S2, p.7]. The Executive report notes that Farming Today team have provided packages for network radio news on a range of rural issues. Links were also developed between Countryfile and BBC News so that Countryfile reporters could contribute to network news programmes [S2, p.7]. These links have enabled reporters from these programmes to regularly ‘ contribute reports on rural issues to TV bulletins and offer expertise on radio news programmes’ and provide ‘ explanation and clarification of stories’ [S2, pp.7-8, S3].

Impact 3: Increased diversity of rural voices in the news

Based on our research finding highlighting the limited diversity of rural voices in coverage, the Trust emphasized the need to improve contacts for journalists. In response there was ‘ a concerted effort to revitalise the BBC’s rural contacts list across a wide range of expertise’ [S1, pp.11-12]. In 2015, the BBC Executive noted that the rural affairs Champion and Carol Rubra (Health, Science and Environment Assignment Editor, BBC News) at the Rural Affairs Unit 'compiled a pan-BBC rural affairs contacts list and a news contacts list of planning teams ' [S2, p.7]. They also noted regular meetings between the Countryfile team and the Rural Affairs Champion to ensure ‘ that radio and television share contacts and information’ [S2, p.7]. The Executive note that network news programmes ‘ regularly call the Farming Today team for explanation or clarification of stories, to help source contributors, or for experts’ comments’ [S2, p.8]. An interview with our research team in 2019 confirmed that network news was still making use of the contacts of the Rural Affairs Unit in Bristol [S3]. The Unit’s ‘ expertise is regularly called upon, and they supply packages for network radio and television news on a range of rural issues and provide all important clarification and explanation of a range of rural matters’ [S3].

Impact 4: Provided new opportunities for journalists to exchange ideas and experiences and to develop knowledge of rural issues

Finally, to overcome a lack of in-depth understanding on rural issues and devolved policy matters identified in our research, the Trust recommended instigating opportunities for journalists and programme makers to discuss rural issues and policy ‘ with a wider mix of institutional and local voices’ [S1, pp.11-12]. The change implemented by the BBC Executive involved a thrice yearly Rural Affairs Committee meeting for BBC and non-BBC stakeholders. After this, there is a further follow-up meeting ‘ so that BBC staff from News, the regions, radio and television, have a chance to discuss stories and collaborate face-to- face’ [S2, p.8, S3]. The report, and interviewees, acknowledge that these meetings provide a ‘ very valuable’ opportunity for editorial staff ‘ *scattered across the UK to meet and discuss this area of output.*’ [S2, p.5, S3]. A BBC journalist who attends these meetings noted they are a ‘ great opportunity to discuss developments and key issues for staff across the UK’ [S4]. In addition, there have been one-off special events such as a Rural Affairs Awayday and the College of Journalism’s ‘ expert day’ designed to bring together experts and BBC journalists [S2, p.17]. These special events provide additional ‘ opportunities to discuss stories and collaborate face-to-face’ [S2, p.17].

The four campaigns occurred in a context of tumultuous political change, with each framed by controversy over the UK’s future relations with Europe. Three of the four campaigns also produced unanticipated outcomes. It is especially challenging to make rapid and prominent interventions in these highly charged and competitive environments. Deacon, Wring, Stanyer, Downey, Harmer and Smith developed five impact pathways to ensure immediate and sustained high visibility for their research throughout each campaign:

(1) Weekly news audit reports and commentaries: during the five weeks of campaigning before each polling day (seven weeks in the EU Referendum case), the team produced weekly commentaries and statistical reports. Every instalment identified and measured trends in news coverage and was published on a bespoke University website. During the 2015 campaign, the site received 8.2K visitors and 6.7K unique users. These figures increased exponentially over time, with our 2016 Referendum analysis achieving 26.8K views and 21.3K unique users and our analysis of the 2019 election reaching 36.7K visitors and 30.7K unique users. We wrote additional analytical pieces to promote every instalment published during each campaign for a range of influential blog sites and online journals. These included the ESRC sponsored UK in a Changing Europe, the Press Gazette and Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. We published fourteen articles in The Conversation (the highly respected independent on-line site for academic expert opinion) across the four campaigns. These received a total of 97K readers, with an average of 6930 readers per item [ S1].

(2) Social media: key findings from every report were distributed via Twitter, Facebook and other channels. Our tweets aggregated 2.64 million Twitter impressions and 172k engagements across the four campaigns. These figures only capture Loughborough account-linked tweets and social media activity prior to polling day. They do not include the wider, more substantial circulation of our findings by external users nor their post-vote distribution. During every campaign, leading politicians, opinion-forming journalists, and influential public figures retweeted and commented on our findings, thereby significantly enhancing the public reach of the research. These included, Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, Conservative Cabinet Minister, Esther McVey, Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, former Downing Street strategist Alastair Campbell, ex-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, singer Lily Allen, musician Mick Hucknall, senior SNP politician Angus MacNeil, actor Rob Delaney, and prominent journalistic commentators such as Owen Jones ( The Guardian), George Monbiot ( The Guardian), Stephen Smith ( Financial Times) and Jim Waterson ( The Guardian) [S2, pp. 40-53].

(3) Media relations: Advanced copies of CRCC reports were released to selected contacts at the Press Association, Guardian, Independent, BBC and Huffington Post; additional data analysis was requested and provided to various journalists including the flagship ITV political programme Peston, the Guardian, Independent and Huffington Post. Weekly news and video releases were also distributed and in 2019 we produced our own podcasts. Together these activities generated considerable news interest in the research. Nationally, these included items in The Observer, Peston, Huffington Post, BBC Radio 4, The Financial Times, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail. Internationally, the research was reported by numerous outlets including the New York Times, China Today, Al Jazeera and CNBC [S1],[S2],[S3],[S4],[S5]

(4) Post-mortem events : after each campaign, the team hosted a collaborative event, at which journalists, political strategists, pollsters and other external stakeholders reflected on the campaigns and the key takeaways [S1].

(5) High level briefings for senior policy makers: team members received numerous invitations invited to present findings in person to numerous high-status external stakeholders, including public bodies such as the Welsh Assembly, Ofcom and the French Embassy [S1].

A major factor in securing high levels of public and media reach was gaining recognition for the significance and authoritativeness of our research evidence. In 2015, Ivor Gaber, a

former political journalist with BBC, ITN and C4 and now Professor of Journalism at the University of Sussex, observed of the research: ‘It’s the gold standard if you like…People recognise it as the definitive statement of media agendas, media bias and so forth and also in particular compared to other surveys, it covers both press and broadcasting and that is very useful’ [S9]. In 2017, Gaby Hinsliff, former political editor of the Observer, stated the Loughborough studies were ‘the British equivalent’ of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy (‘Is Labour fighting shocking media bias or does it need to get its act together?’, The Observer, 20/5/2017).

This research improved the quality of media coverage and public debate during elections and referenda. This was achieved through three impacts which depended on close and continuous engagement with media sources. It is important to emphasise that Journalists and news editors were significant external stakeholders in their own right, as the research addressed directly their professional practices.

1. Helping politicians and journalists raise public awareness of inequality of media access

This impact derived from the monitoring of ‘stopwatch balance’ [R2], [R3], [R4]. Loughborough’s analysis extended beyond checking party political imbalances (such as the dominance of Conservative sources in the Referendum coverage) to consider wider issues concerning media diversity. For example, the CRCC identified major gender inequalities in the reporting of all four campaigns covered by this impact case study. During the Referendum, former Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman wrote to Ofcom, complaining that broadcast coverage had been dominated by men and it was “ time for women’s voices to be heard” (24/5/2016) [S3, pp. 2-3]. Ms Harman cited Loughborough’s data at the public launch of her complaint - which also involved three Shadow Secretaries of State and received blanket national press coverage– and in her formal submission to Ofcom [S3, pp. 7-16]. Loughborough’s research showed there was a marked shift in TV news coverage following the MP’s intervention. In the 12 weekdays before Harman’s Ofcom complaint, women accounted for 20 percent of the political sources appearing on primetime TV news coverage of the Referendum. For the same period after the intervention, this figure increased to 31 percent - a statistically significant difference [S3, p.17]. This change was partly the result of a shift in the dynamics of the campaign that followed directly from the complaint. According to the Financial Times, both the official Remain and Leave campaigns nominated women politicians to represent them in the ITV Referendum debate held on 9 June in direct response to these criticisms, with Boris Johnson the only male among the six campaigners onstage [S3, pp. 4-6]. Our evidence in 2016 was also used to support public interventions by the Fawcett Society and Operation Black Vote raising concerns about the lack of diversity witnessed in the Referendum campaign [S3, pp. 18-21]. In the 2019 General Election, our findings were cited by Dr Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, to highlight enduring gender inequalities in media reporting [S3. pp.22]. In February 2019 Conservative Cabinet minister Esther McVey, quoted CRCC statistics on the gender imbalance of Referendum news coverage in launching her ‘Ladies for Leave’ pressure group. The video on Twitter had more than 872k views and 10k tweet engagements.

2. Enabling campaigners and journalists to identify and challenge media partisanship

This impact links to Loughborough’s research on trends in the ‘directional balance’ of campaign coverage [R2], [R5]. UK national newspapers routinely endorse parties (and positions) during campaigns, and typically most press opinion has nominally supported the Conservatives. But political partisanship is not an ‘either’/‘or’ matter: there are several gradations in the strength of these endorsements. Most significantly this is expressed in the degree of routine positive/negative editorial treatment of candidates and policies. In recognition of this, the CRCC developed a methodology for calculating the aggregated strength of individual news outlets’ support/opposition for competing positions. By linking these calculations to circulation, the team were able to show that pro-Leave coverage had a significantly wider public distribution than pro-Remain coverage in the 2016 EU Referendum, despite equal numbers of daily titles supporting either campaign [R3]. This methodology also demonstrated that anti-Labour coverage intensified significantly in the 2019 General Election. Both these findings received considerable public and media exposure and the latter findings were cited by senior politicians. For example, on 19 December 2019, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn retweeted a link to our analysis of press partisanship with the comment ‘ *What was it about our plans to make the super-rich pay their fair share that the billionaire press barons didn't like?*’ [S2, p.51]. This tweet generated more than 45K additional engagements within three days. Other senior Labour politicians also drew attention to Loughborough’s data, including the Shadow Chancellor and Shadow Transport Secretary [S1, pp.30-32]. On occasion, the interpretation (but not the integrity) of our evidence was the subject of public debate and this further expanded its reach. For example, following a complaint from a Daily Mirror political correspondent, the BBC Radio 4 statistics programme More or Less ran a segment assessing contrasting interpretations of Loughborough’s figures relating to the prominence (or not) of Jeremy Corbyn in the reporting of the 2016 EU Referendum [S7].

Loughborough’s methodology has been adopted by opinion-forming media outlets. In December 2019, when researching the role of mobile news apps in alerting voters to political content, The Guardian acknowledged it was: ‘Following a methodology applied by Loughborough University to analyse print news’. It has since reused the method to conduct further investigations into the partisan treatment of the Royal family and celebrities [S6].

3. Improving the balance of media agendas

This impact relates to the findings on ‘agenda balance’ [R2], [R3], [R6] and has been achieved in three ways. First, the research promoted reflexivity about the nature of the news and its significance during campaigns. As Richard Hooper, Producer of BBC R4’s The Media Show, commented after his show’s review of the 2019 election ‘The inclusion of Loughborough’s research enhanced the quality of the debate, making it more informed and increasing the awareness and understanding of the role of the media among the participants’ [S4]. Second, leading journalists and editors approached us on many occasions for data to assist them in developing new lines of editorial enquiry about media-campaign dynamics. For example, we frequently furnished data and analysis to ITV’s flagship current affairs show Peston to expose important aspects of the mediation of the campaigns [S5, pp.3-8]. In October 2018, following intense political debate over the implications Brexit held for custom arrangements for Northern Ireland, on our own initiative we provided the programme with findings demonstrating how little coverage there had been of Northern Ireland and border issues during the Referendum campaign itself. The results were prominently reported in the programme and afterwards Kishan Koria, producer of ITV’s Peston show stated:

‘We are always on the lookout for the best research and data to help tell the story of what is happening in politics and we've come to find the Loughborough University CRCC an incredible resource to help us do this’ [ S5, p.2].

Third, our research also influenced wider editorial strategies in campaign reporting. For example, the BBC consciously increased the substantive policy focus of its news coverage in the 2017 General Election after our research helped to highlight the inordinately high percentage of coverage that focused on the political drama rather than the policy substance of the preceding 2015 campaign [ S8].

Building on research findings about effective communication practice, Stokoe and colleagues developed three impact pathways:

• The first pathway was the ‘Conversation Analytic Role-play Method’ ( CARM), a communication training method developed at Loughborough University with ESRC funding. CARM takes research findings about effective communication practice and presents anonymized audio extracts in real time to training participants. CARM guides people through actual instances of professional practice to see what works. CARM won a prestigious Wired Innovation Fellowship in 2015, enabling international visibility [S1].

• The second pathway, which enhanced the international visibility of CARM, comprised numerous prestigious invitations to science communication events, starting with an episode of BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific dedicated to Prof Stokoe’s research and biography (2013) which led, in turn, to an invited TED talk in 2014 (currently 870K views), three lectures at The Royal Institution between 2015-16 (currently 50K views) and other public science events around the world (e.g., at Google, Microsoft, New Scientist) .

• The third pathway was direct integration of research insights into organizations’ written communications via CARM consultancy work.

The international visibility of Loughborough’s conversation analytic research changed public understanding of communication sufficiently to create demand for CARM’s evidence-based training. As a result, CARM generated enough income between 2014-2020 to employ four PDRAs for between three months to five years each, and Prof Stokoe was invited to join the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) behavioural science sub-group, as well as Independent SAGE’s behaviour group . Taken together, the three pathways led to the following impacts.

1. Improved communication outcomes in suicide crisis negotiation

Research findings [R3, R4] led to changes to the language used by crisis negotiators, “challenging the training status quo” and improving communication with people in suicidal crisis [S2]. In 2015, Commander Duncan Jarrett OBE and Superintendent Chula Rupasinha from the Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit of the Metropolitan Police invited Stokoe and colleagues to work with them. The Head of UK National Training “took the rare step of releasing negotiation tapes” [S5] and we worked with their training lead to co-produce the training. In March 2017, we trained every single Metropolitan Police negotiator at their UK National Hostage course, as well as visiting attendees from regional police forces, international guests from the FBI, and from other areas of policing (e.g., Operational Communications in Policing). Following the training, negotiators reported better outcomes “as a direct result of the language used”, and noted that the training

“has had a specific impact on our negotiations from the opening gambit and throughout the dialogue … and help[ed] bring incidents to a swift conclusion” [S2].

On hearing about the work with the Metropolitan Police, in 2018 the Head of Border Policing Command at the Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit invited Stokoe and colleagues to roll-out the training to every Police Scotland negotiator. Following the training in 2019, the heads of training and operations reported that “the research is fully embedded within negotiator training courses and materials.” [S2]. The reach of the training has since extended beyond negotiators to every new officer in Police Scotland via the hostage and crisis unit’s input into tactical communication [S2].

2. Improved engagement of potential clients of dispute resolution services

Our research enabled dispute resolution services – that provide alternatives to expensive court-based interventions – to better engage potential clients to participate in them. People in disputes often resist alternative dispute resolution services and overcoming this resistance is thus crucial to the success of dispute resolution [R1, R3]. Starting with mediation services, Stokoe and colleagues changed the way practitioners in mediation services dealt with initial telephone inquiries from callers to convert them into clients. By training over 4000 mediators (2014-2018) from community, family and other types of mediation , across 200 services in UK, USA and Australia, mediators adopted practices that were more likely to get clients to agree to become clients [S3]. For example, from the Board of the UK College of Mediators, Laura Kirkpatrick and Julie Farrell (who also founded in 2016 their own mediation service, Solution Talk) reported that CARM training enabled them to

“make changes when we pick up the phone [and] get people in conflict and stress to the table to negotiate or mediate” [S3].

The Chair of the UK College of Mediators and a CEO of Relate, the national marriage guidance organization (which also provides mediation), said that CARM is “acknowledged widely in the mediation world as ground-breaking” [S3] and, because many mediators work across numerous organizations, including government task forces, the reach of this impact was extended via a UK Government campaign in 2014 to engage people in family mediation. The then Minister of Justice, Simon Hughes MP, invited Stokoe to join the Family Mediation Task Force to change how mediation is promoted and write the text for a national video, poster, and leaflet campaign [S4]. Deputy Director of Family Justice, John Hall, reported that as a “direct consequence” of Stokoe’s input” [R1, R3], the Ministry of Justice redesigned their “promotional video and related leaflets/posters” [S4]. The Ministry of Justice described this campaign as having “the best return on investment, reaching large volumes of people over the duration of the campaign.” The reach of the work was also extended internationally, as the Superior Court for Washington DC, USA (which serves 5.3M citizens), who had previously invited Stokoe to deliver CARM training, adopted the campaign using Stokoe’s text, creating versions for community and family mediation in English and Spanish [S4].

Furthermore, because some mediators also work with or for Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS),** Stokoe was invited to run eight regional CARM training events between 2014-2018 and was then contracted to train every senior advisor and all internal trainers across the organization (2019-2020) – 250 conciliators across England, Wales, and Scotland [S5]. The aim was to support conciliators who “have a tough time trying to persuade people that conciliation is a worthwhile process … we tend to find that conciliators have to repeat conversations which adds to time on the phone. And because government funding is becoming more limited over time, we must work as efficiently as possible” [S5]. ACAS’s Chief Operations Officer, working with a conciliation manager who organized all the training sessions, reported that, following the training, conciliators changed the language they used to describe services, and changed the timing of their explanations of services in initial conversations with clients, producing more “efficient and seamless” calls [S5].

3. Improved patient satisfaction with telephone inquiries to UK GP receptions

Even though all UK GP surgeries experience similar resourcing challenges, they vary greatly with regards to reported patient satisfaction. In 2015, Dr Graham Todd, responsible for Quality Improvement Science at Health Education England, commissioned Stokoe and colleagues to conduct research to identify best practice in patient calls to GP practices. Dr Todd supplied recordings of patient calls to four surgeries. Dr Todd reported that

“findings showed that very simple phrases and words are associated with increased patient satisfaction on the GP Patient Survey. As a practice, how our receptionists speak to patients has changed significantly.” [S6].

Based on research findings [R6] about how to meet the requests made in incoming calls to surgeries, eight CARM events took place across England, training ~80 receptionists from ~20 practices and therefore reaching ~200,000 patients. Following the training in 2017, indicators from the quarterly GP National Survey on key aspects of GP receptionist provision improved. The proportion of patients describing the “experience of booking an appointment” as ‘good’ increased from 76% to 95%, compared to no change across the UK during the same period. And the proportion of patients reporting that the “GP receptionist was helpful” increased from 66% to 77% in those surgeries trained, while the national picture remained constant [S6].

4. Improved client experience and economic success of digital technology products and services in global organizations

Our research on client engagement [R1, R5] was sought in 2018-19 by Typeform, a global ‘software as a service’ company (and iconic Silicon Valley start-up) with three million subscribers who use Typeform’s templates to create online surveys. Typeform wanted to increase the ‘conversationality’ of their product because “conversational forms are better than regular forms” and “because conversation creates a better user experience and thereby more results” [S8]. Typeform funded Stokoe to work with them for four months to integrate research findings about effective question design [R1-R6] into the product to “address business metrics such as completion rates and new customer registrations” [S7]. As a result of redesigning the questions in Typeform’s survey templates, and creating assets for marketing, design, machine learning, and customer experience teams [S7] their CEO reported in 2019 that “customers are now enabled to increase the effectiveness of the forms in terms of completion rate” [S7]. The CEO further reported that

“the immediate beneficiary is Typeform itself, but the end user is the real beneficiary – our customers who are actually now creating typeforms with different templates and different guidance. Their forms are a critical part of their business process, we want to maximize their changes for as good a completion rate as possible, so that they can convert a potential new lead into a customer and then into revenue” [S7].

The same underpinning research was sought by *Toshiba Tec Imaging Systems who identified the need for research-based rather than anecdotally driven communication training [S8]. Many businesses ‘cold call’ other businesses “as a large part of the way the technology industry generates sales” but these achieve “low percentage appointment rates” (National Sales Director, Toshiba Tec) [S8]. Toshiba commissioned us to identify the communication practices that led to more sales appointments [R3, R5]. Research findings underpinned subsequent CARM training for its authorised Business Partners across the UK and Ireland in 2016-17. Toshiba’s National Sales Director reported that, because of the training, salespersons were enabled to

“reduce call time, making calls more successful, but also enabled businesses to make more calls [and] our dealers report up to a 30% increase in appointment-making” [S8].

One of Toshiba’s sales franchises who attended the training, Print Copy Scan, reported that appointments “we have made over the phone have doubled, and as a result, sales have increased” [S8]. Toshiba reported economic benefit having “seen a 100% increase in unit sales over the last five years and Liz and her team have been a major contributor to that success” [S8].