Media with Impact
During my graduate studies at the University of Michigan, I conducted a qualitative research study on behalf of client Great Lakes Now, a Detroit Public Television program dedicated to covering environmental news stories and amplifying community-driven solutions in the Great Lakes Region. Over the course of 18 months, my five-person consulting team collaborated with grassroots organizations, journalists, and funders to develop a community-driven media model for environmental justice coverage.
My Role
Lead qualitative researcher
Operations manager
Methods
Stakeholder mapping
Snowball sampling
Semi-structured interview
Literature review
Content analysis
Thematic coding
Deliverables
Final report
Toolkit and workbook
Great Lakes Now strategic implementation plan
January 2023-May 2024
Detroit, MI
Context
Process
This project gave me the opportunity to lean into the two types of work that I find most rewarding: Making sense of complexity by finding the method in the madness, and fostering growth through collaborative learning. As the only team member with qualitative research training and experience, I prioritized building operational systems and internal capacity to set our team up for success. To streamline processes and ensure alignment, I created the organizational infrastructure to effectively manage extensive datasets, ongoing communications with stakeholders, and internal collaboration within our team. Using an experiential learning approach, I empowered my co-researchers with the technical skills and confidence to work independently.
Designed a comprehensive 18-month project plan, enabling clear task delegation, timeline accountability, and smooth coordination across a five-person team
Built shared organizational systems within Google Drive, Dedoose, and Otter.ai to effectively manage large datasets, including 45+ hours of interview audio/video recordings, 300+ transcript pages, and 898 analytical memos
Created standardized protocols for community mapping, stakeholder outreach, semi-structured interviews, and data collection and analysis to support methodological rigor and consistency
Implemented a custom outreach strategy and correspondence/interaction tracking system, achieving a 61% participation rate and 60% referral rate from target respondents
Led hands-on training sessions for my team members, including mock interview, thematic coding, and memo writing exercises
Coordinated 2 rounds of content analysis and thematic coding using Dedoose software
Outcome
Impact
Conducted and analyzed data from 42 stakeholder interviews and extensive literature review
Published a comprehensive final report detailing the methods, analysis, findings, and implications of our study
Produced an interactive toolkit and corresponding workbook empowering media organizations to evaluate their current outreach efforts, identify short- and long-term goals, and create an actionable engagement plan aligned with their capacity and resources
Created a strategic implementation plan for Great Lakes Now to enhance and sustain their environmental justice and community-based reporting initiatives, including:
A guide for leveraging research findings to inform grant proposal development and bolster funding applications
A corresponding case study of two example grant proposal concepts tailored towards the Press Forward journalism funding coalition
Recommended best practices and protocols to equitably engage with environmental justice leaders and produce content for Great Lakes Now’s Waves of Change digital series
I’m incredibly proud of the positive reception to our project, which has been covered online, presented at research conferences, and taught in journalism classrooms. By translating research insights into usable products aligned with stakeholder needs, I developed practical tools and strategies with real-world application. In response to industry interest, my team and I partnered with the River Network to deliver a virtual training to over 40 policymakers and community leaders based on our research. Most recently, I co-authored Enhancing Environmental Justice Coverage in the Great Lakes Region through Community-Based Media Models, a research article based on this study and published in Journalism Practice (March 2025).