The Pop Culture Collaborative supports the uncovering of data, development of analysis and sharing of insights with and among entertainment, social justice and philanthropic sectors in order to inform narrative design, advance cultural strategy, and activate more collaborators in the pop culture for social change field. Areas of interest include: audience research and analysis; the scientific study of the effects of pop culture stories on people’s cognitive, emotional and behavioral experience; past and current pop culture change campaigns or experiments; evaluation and longitudinal impact methodologies; and trend tracking and analysis of future patterns in pop culture content creation, consumption and engagement.
13Exp is a new experiential social impact entertainment studio, one of the first in a growing field focused on interlocking scaleable, digital and physical content with social impact as a driving force. Experiential narratives tell stories that reflect the reality of what it is to be human in the modern world: many of us now experience and engage with the world indiscriminately on media platforms, content sources, social channels, and live moments.
Exploring the relationship people in the United States have to our nation’s history.
BoomGen Studios has led over the past ten years within the entertainment industry to combat tired of the stereotypical, racist, and outright offensive caricatures of their culture and community in popular media.
Organizing the #EmpathyTech field to understand how to advance a pluralist culture
Building the tools, strategy, and technology for the next stage of human existence
Identifying the global distribution pipelines that are implicated in the spread of disinformation.
futurePerfect lab is a culture change lab founded in 2012 as the research and design home of Heidi Boisvert, PhD, a creative technologist (both artist and scientist) who has conceptualized, designed, developed, and disseminated a wide range of groundbreaking interactive, augmented reality and transmedia games and storytelling experiences for social change.
Researching toxic digital narrative ecosystems and their cultural impact on society.
The Midwest Culture Lab is a project of the Alliance for Youth Organizing, a national network of grassroots organizing groups. The Midwest Culture Lab is anchored by two of the Alliance’s affiliates in the Midwest (Chicago Votes, Ohio Student Association) and a narrative-based statewide organization in Michigan (We The People). For more information, visit the website.
Developing a field-wide impact learning system for the pop culture for social change field
People’s Action is one of the largest multiracial, people’s organizations in the country made up of 48 member organizations with 600 local staff in 30 states representing a million grassroots leaders in communities and online. People’s Action builds powerful state and local community organizations led by working class people around racial, economic, climate and gender justice. From family farms to big cities, from coast to coast, they are fighting for community over greed, justice over racism, and people and planet over big corporations.
Pass the Mic aims to dramatically change the landscape of pop culture, to render it radically inclusive. They are founded on the belief that diversity is not a goal or a mandate. It is a reality. Pass the Mic focuses on inclusion and equity—making sure that the stories that form the basis of our pop culture reflect the voices of those people who are traditionally underrepresented or completely erased. To achieve this, Pass the Mic supports projects through research, development, and production that adhere to these principles.
Studying pop culture fandoms to understand how pluralistic behaviors show up in society
Developing a research and analysis program that integrates audience insights and trend forecasting into social justice work.
Creating a culture of equity and inclusion in tv writers rooms
Wise Entertainment is an independent studio that develops, creates, and produces content that lives at the intersection of entertainment, social justice, and civic imagination. We tell stories for/by women and other underserved audiences in the U.S. and Brazil. The proof of concept of Wise’s innovative approach is the 6-time Emmy-nominated Hulu drama East Los High, the first high school drama in U.S. television history with an all English-speaking Latino cast.
People in the real world draw inspiration from pop culture characters and narratives. It is up to leaders in the entertainment industry like Wise Entertainment to understand how to ensure we are inspiring positivity in the complex audiences we reach.