Researching and reshaping our relationship with media.
We are a media research lab, using science, data, and creativity to research and reshape our relationship with media. For more than a decade, our work has helped storytellers and strategists, decision makers and dreamers, harness the immense power of media to shape a positive, pluralistic future.
Exciting new opportunities at Harmony Labs! We're seeking two talented individuals to join our mission to research and reshape society's relationship with media through science, data, and creativity. Open positions include:
• Editorial Communications Lead
• Research Assistant
Learn more and apply here:
Different perspectives, skills, and disciplines simultaneously, always make our work go. Explore our open positions.
New Research: Exploring the audience-narrative landscape for education in the U.S.
Most people don’t always draw the connection between “my school” and how the government, and their role as voters, helps shape education policy. We recently teamed up with Murmuration to establish a narrative foundation that can connect these “big” and “little” stories about education and schools and point us toward a future where the public education system in the U.S. works for every student.
Highlights include:
• Education is a “daylight” issue, one that separates substantially from partisanship, likely because education affects so many of us every day as students and as parents. Values define audiences, not policies.
• Voters who say that education is their top “political issue” are also the least likely to turn out to vote.
• “Culture war” narratives around education and schools appeal mostly to politically engaged audiences.
• The stories less political audiences seek out about education are about its characters: teachers and students.
• Audiences have specific narratives of education, and bring their personal school stories to “education” messaging.
Curious to learn more? Check out the full report here:
We are a media research lab, using science, data, and creativity to research and reshape our relationship with media.
🔎🌐 Reimagining civic life online: a new interactive web report 🌐🔎
In collaboration with our longtime partner Equis Research, we explored the search behavior of U.S.-based Latinos to support Equis’ goal of understanding what engagement and curiosity looks like online, and how we might convert that curiosity into civic participation.
In the new report, you can:
🌌 Immerse yourself in the search queries that form "constellations," revealing the entire shape of the internet
💬 Learn how to capture audiences’ everyday search curiosity and turn it into lasting civic participation
🎯 Explore opportunities for civic engagement across top issues like health care, immigration, or climate change
Mapping the Latino digital landscape to build a culture of civic engagement online
⚡️🔌🔋 New Research Report 🔋🔌 ⚡️
Electrification is critical for swift, comprehensive decarbonization. But policy incentives alone cannot establish this conversion to electrics.
In a new partnership with Rewiring America, we explored how people encounter “electrics” online, and used media behavior to learn how to reach and move people toward a narrative for a pro-electric future.
Discover our key findings: https://harmonylabs.org/news/audiences-for-electrics
Read the full report: https://harmonylabs.org/project/audiences-for-electrics
Winning Decarbonization By Making Stuff Cooler—Then the Planet
The narrative that underlies events like January 6 isn’t just about protests turned violent. It follows a specific pattern that connects to historical precedent. Dubbed “palingenetic ultranationalism” by political theorist Roger Griffin in the 1990s, this narrative is one of national rebirth or, as we refer to it, “ultranationalism.”
In collaboration with Story Strategy Group, we examined the question—to what extent are young men engaging with content that carries the ultranationalist narrative? In short, the answer is complicated.
Read a summary of key findings from the research in our blogpost →→
Exploring one narrative associated with political violence in the United States, its audiences, and resilience building opportunities among young men
Alex Garland’s new film Civil War begs the question: how can creators responsibly present powerful imagery to the public?
We polled people on political violence, democracy, and civil war after they watched the film’s trailer. In a new piece from Aditi Juneja and Brian Waniewski, read more about what we learned, and how we can keep testing the actual impact of films like these. ⤵️
We polled people on political violence, democracy, and civil war after they watched the film’s trailer.
It’s time to bring climate to culture. 🌎
Join hosts Riki Conrey, Brian Waniewski, Samantha Wright, and Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg as they share findings from a first-of-its kind look at audiences to understand who climate communications are currently reaching, who they may be leaving out, and how to integrate more climate content into media.
These 60-min learning sessions are designed for climate practitioners, and anyone interested in culture or narrative change work.
Register now to learn more about the next frontier in climate communications!
https://harmonylabs.org/news/learning-sessions-how-to-reach-new-climate-audiences
It’s time to bring climate to culture. 🌎
Join us as we share the findings of our latest research to understand how we might reach audiences on climate with stories that inspire.
These 60-min learning sessions are designed for climate practitioners, and anyone interested in culture or narrative change work. Expect some a-ha moments, actionable insights, and new tools and maps to navigate the next frontier of climate comms.
Register now to learn more about the next frontier in climate communications!
Register now to learn more about the next frontier in climate communications
Media consumption doesn't respect political boundaries, so a lot of strategic comms tools don't work to support organic media production.
In a new piece from Science Director Frederica Conrey, learn how to create an alternative organizing strategy that moves from making "messages" to telling real stories.
https://harmonylabs.org/news/earning-audience-attention
With organic media that supports democratic values
There is a big opportunity for engaging people with climate change-related content outside of news and politics, which is where most climate change-related communication currently occurs. 📰🗣️
In a new blog, we share more about how we know this, both our findings and our methods. This opportunity formed the foundation of our new interactive, public report, "How to Reach New Climate Audiences." 🌎🌍🌏
Learn more here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g-h2DQf2
💥 We’re thrilled to share our latest interactive, groundbreaking report, “How to Reach New Climate Audiences.”
👀 Explore distinct profiles of 8 different audience zones, learn more about their broad media diets, what specific climate content they are currently consuming, and how to best reach them with future strategies.
🌎 Discover why current climate communications fall short and learn a culture-first approach to engage wider audiences effectively.
🔎 Dive into the future of climate storytelling at the Narrative Observatory Labs.
A culture-first approach for the next era of climate storytelling.
Save the date for 11/1 @ 3pm ET! In a public webinar, we’ll share our findings from a project with Gutsy Media where we helped PlayWildcard develop an immersive video game by exploring how people’s values shape the media they consume & create. RSVP now! ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/mw7zy4hd
We're thrilled to share some new work with our partners at Liberation Ventures, who came to us to explore audiences' current media consumption about race and reparations in the U.S. They were looking to create a vision for a shared narrative of reparations, and used our research as part of their new Reparations Narrative Lab, their first narrative change program. Read more about our work together. ⤵
Stories for racial repair in U.S. media
Wildcard Alliance, Gutsy Media, and Harmony Labs have joined forces to revolutionize interactive storytelling. Discover how we're crafting a transmedia universe for all gamers to belong. Join our panel as we delve into a culture-first, research-driven approach that fuels an inclusive community and sparks participatory cultures across the board. Don't miss out!
To vote for "A Home for Every Hero" at SXSW PanelPicker:
1. Visit: panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/143958
2. Sign up.
3. Upvote our panel!
Let's champion the future of gaming and storytelling! Your vote matters. Spread the word and light up SXSW 2024!
PanelPicker® is the official SXSW user-generated session proposal platform. Enter ideas and vote to help shape Conference programming for SXSW and SXSW EDU.
From Sem Devillart, Harmony Labs Executive Director Brian Waniewski, and Andres Leon-Geyer is a new piece about the multiverse -- specifically, the multiverse as a new organizing principle for understanding reality, and what it might mean for the future of culture and media.
"The dominances and supremacies that once organized identity and the politics that derive from it have fragmented and resolved into multiverses, too. Different identity groups may undertake the hard, ongoing work of mutual recognition, cooperation, or power building, but each remains essentially unknowable to the other. You have to belong to the group, to live inside of it to truly understand."
We are a media research lab, using science, data, and creativity to research and reshape our relationship with media.
We’re hiring a Managing Director who will join our Leadership Team and be responsible for the effective functioning of all internal processes, people, and resources at Harmony Labs, in support of our mission, vision, and growth.
We offer a fully remote workplace, a generous benefits package, meeting free Flex Fridays, and the ability to steward and support a culture of exploration, innovation, collaboration, creativity, and service. Find the full position description here:
We are a media research lab, using science, data, and creativity to research and reshape our relationship with media.
ATTN: storytellers and change-makers! 📣👀
Looking to create stories that engage audiences but also have the power to shape the future?
Our model of narrative change puts audiences at the center, guiding advocates and practitioners toward the types of stories that will engage and transport audiences into reimagined futures.
Our recommendations often look like living documents, continuously updated: story beats, characters, worlds, tones, aesthetics, platforms, and current places in media that are already resonating with audiences—and are likely to bring about some evolution in reality.
Explore this interactive research here, at the latest update of the Narrative Observatory: https://narrativeobservatory.org/
Just launched 🎉🎉 The latest update to the Narrative Observatory featuring an interactive tool to understand people’s media habits, the values they hold, and how to engage them. ⤵️⤵️
We’ve been helping storytellers for over a decade, and in the last 4 years, the Narrative Observatory has become an essential resource for artists and activists looking to better understand their audiences and the media narratives they consume.
Now, you can immerse yourself in the cultural worlds of 4 U.S. audiences through the lens of real media they engage with, and the bridging opportunities that unite them.
The Narrative Observatory was made possible with support from Gates Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. See it in action now: https://narrativeobservatory.org/audiences
Over the last 2 years, we’ve been helping Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and its partners find narrative strategies that can activate people in the U.S. to dismantle structural racism in America’s healthcare systems.
The updated Narrative Observatory is part of that effort, now a public resource and tool for strategists, storytellers, and advocates.
You can read the full report here → https://narrativeobservatory.org/strategy-validation
🎉 We’re thrilled to share the latest from the Narrative Observatory, the culmination of 4 years of research and prototyping with support from Gates Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
→ The Narrative Observatory has been instrumental in guiding our work, providing audience-based insights, narrative and network analysis, and empirical validation of cultural strategy and content.
→ We’ve been able to share this research with dozens of partners working on a range of social issues across health equity, economic mobility, firearm injury, immigration, artificial intelligence, climate change, and more.
🔍 Explore the latest developments from the Narrative Observatory and see how this work can enhance your audience, narrative, and cultural strategy. narrativeobservatory.org
We’re hiring for a Software Engineer - Data role who will join our Engineering Team in building a data ingestion, processing, and analysis platform for media research. We offer a fully remote workplace, a generous benefits package, meeting free Flex Fridays, and the ability to build great software in support of our mission and research partners.
Learn more and apply!
See our open positions and join our team on it’s mission to understand how media influence works at scale and to experiment with using media to support an open, resilient democratic society.
We’re hiring! We have open roles for Software Engineers, Data Scientists, and a Communications Specialist. If you’re excited about leveraging the power of media to serve the public good, check out our career page and get in touch. https://harmonylabs.org/careers
We recently launched an all-new Narrative Observatory @ Harmony Labs, a first-of-its-kind public interest data tool for anyone using narrative or cultural strategy. Read more about how storytellers, strategists, & more can use it to reach the public on issues that matter: https://medium.com/harmony-labs/narrative-observatory-harmony-labs-7dbe32db6c65
Exploring the terrain of deeply held narratives about how the world works, what matters, and what’s possible.
We’re hiring an Engineering Director! If you’re interested in developing best-in-class data infrastructure purpose-built to understand the impact of media on society, we’d like to talk. To learn more and apply: https://harmonylabs.org/careers
Harmony’s data science team is thrilled to be presenting recent research on popular, like-minded fandoms at The Harry Potter Alliance's event this weekend (7/17). This is a can’t-miss event for creators, organizers, academics, and fans of all ages interested in imagining fandoms as a powerful force for good. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gXnvb5z
Tomorrow at the Festival de Cannes our Executive Director, Brian Waniewski, and Science Director, Riki Conrey, will be joining the panel: Measuring Film Impact: What Kind of Change-Makers Do We Want to Be. Tune-in at 12:30 pm ET to hear how our research is helping culture makers increase their impact. https://youtu.be/cjBEzMOfNis
New research on fandoms, the latest insights from the Narrative Observatory, and other updates from the lab: check out our May newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/harmonylabs/may-2021-newsletter
We recently worked some data wizardry with our friends at the Harry Potter Alliance, looking at the cultural consumption of nearly two dozen different fandoms. The goal: identify Harry Potter-adjacent fans interested in social change. Read more.
We’re hiring a Senior Data Scientist! If you’re eager to put big data to work improving media systems, have a strong background in a quantitative or social science field, and programming skills, we’d like to talk! To learn more and apply: https://harmonylabs.org/careers
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