We found that being able to quantify impact with numbers and statistics increased media interest in our work. Our cumulative analysis of spending cuts gained widespread media coverage.
However, some people can be put off by pages of charts showing statistical information or find it hard to focus on the key message of a report. WBG has used a number of tactics to bring the numbers to life:
Focusing on a key fact that symbolises a larger problem.
Presenting information in graph form.
Infographics developed for the 2017 general election highlight the main losers from cuts to social security benefits
Graph example shows that poorer people lose more than richer people from cuts to taxes and benefits, men lose more than women, and black and minority ethnic women lose most of all
Individual stories can have more impact than pages of statistics. Print and broadcast media are also more likely to run stories about reports if they can focus on one or two individual case studies. Personal stories can humanize the issue and highlight how a change of policy can have many, often unintended consequences. A good example of this is the story of a young woman who had to move schools when the local authority would no longer fund her bus pass:
So, I got a bus pass in year 7, year 8, year 9, then all of a sudden, the law changed, I can’t get one anymore. They [the council] said I should move to a different school, a closer school. I am going to a school, its let’s say, outstanding…. So therefore, because I can’t get a bus pass I should not move to a different school, buy a new uniform, make new friends, by all new equipment, get new lessons, new teachers, all because I can’t get a bus pass.
