Civic Tech Field Guide
Sharing knowledge and productively growing the fieldThe Tech > Media > Narrative tech - (104)
Technology has always had a role in shaping how narratives are created, distributed, tracked and absorbed into society. Today, technology moves the words, pictures and meaning of narrative around the world in seconds. Technology helps us track the movement of narrative and research how narrative shifts behavior.
"Narrative Technology encompasses the tools, platforms, and infrastructure that can be used to assist and accelerate the shifting and/or maintenance of dominant narratives. This includes technologies that can baseline, listen to, test, and respond to media and online discourse at scale." - The Narrative Initiative
Suggested resources:
- Narrative Technology Case Studies, by Narrative Initiative
- Learn how 3 years of Big Listening (and testing) may change your campaigning, by Ted Fickes, MobLab
- Invest in Listening Infastructure, Sabrina Hersi Issa, The Engaged Journalism Lab
- Using “Big Listening” and “Distributed Campaigning,” Upwell Seeks a Sea-Change in Ocean Organizing, by Micah L. Sifry, TechPresident
- Tech Across Your Org: Sharing a Cause and Data Across Multiple Orgs, by Rachel Weidinger, NTEN Change
- Can Democrats Win Back the Internet in the Age of Trump?, by Peter Hamby, Vanity Fair
- Narrative Tech: Categories, needs and what’s next by Ted Fickes
- Why Your Nonprofit Should Be A Big Listener by Rachel Weidinger, featured by Beth Kanter
- Digital Listening: Insights from social media, a critical take on political campaigns’ use of these technologies, from a personal data perspective, by Tactical Tech’s Our Data, Ourselves project
- Shifting the conversation: How the sector is using narrative change to advance social change Books and chapters
- This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, by Peter Pomerantsev
- pp 212-217 in The Big Disconnect, by Micah L. Sifry
- “Your campaign budget is the Internet —Rachel Weidinger” in Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy, by David Karpf
Training
- Storytelling and reach for civil society organizations by Fundación Multitudes
Showing 104 Results
PoliSim
PolisimPoliSim is open-source civic infrastructure that connects official public data — 71 million census observations, open electoral records, verified polling — with transparent AI to help NGOs, civic bodies, and political consultants communicate more effectively. Before investing in a campaign. On publicly auditable data. With declared limitations.
SIMA Academy
Los AngelesA global learning platform for inquiry, leadership, and civic imagination, powered by award-winning short documentaries from around the world.
It maps the dominant narratives that shape how people understand democracy, explains how messaging interacts with deeper mental models, and identifies strategies that can help rebuild support, engagement, and participation.
The Democracy Narratives Alliance (DNA) is a global initiative bringing together 40+ organizations, research institutions, and funders to shift how we talk about democracy.
This systematic literature review examines how narratives about democracy shape democratic engagement and behavior.
Future Narratives Lab
LondonFuture Narratives Lab is a non-profit that works with campaigns, coalitions and other partners tackling complex social issues to help them overcome narrative barriers, and develop and test more effective strategies and messaging.
What Have Unions Done For Us
133 Bethnal Green Road LondonRecent victories and wins by labour unions across various sectors
The Leadership LAB
CaliforniaThe Leadership LAB works to reduce prejudice and change voters’ hearts and minds. We have a national reputation for our success developing practical, positive, non-partisan, non-judgmental ways to connect with voters.
Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing
Stanford Graduate School of Business, Knight Way, Stanford, CADurably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing
The Visibility Brigade
New JerseyProviding physical messaging in the real world to connect with and activate voters to demonstrate that resistance is possible. Check out our toolkits and join our movement! We are 350+ groups across the United States and growing!
España en Libertad
MadridSpain's pro-democracy campaign, leveraging digital, influencers, and gaming, to remind the country of its post-Franco freedoms 50 years later.
Civic Story Lab Fellowship
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)Where student voices shape the narrative of democracy.
Departure Dialogues Project
United States of America 🇺🇸POPVOX Foundation, the Niskanen Center, Civil Service Strong, the Partnership for Public Service and the Foundation for American Innovation invite departing federal employees to share your insights to help inform future Congressional action to strengthen federal programs.
An initiative aimed at boosting Democrats online offers influencers up to $8,000 a month to push the party line. All they have to do is keep it secret—and agree to restrictions on their content.
Demokrasia Bis (the Mobile Citizens Lab)
Timor-Leste (Timór Loro Sa’e) 🇹🇱The Mobile Citizens Lab will travel to various communities across the country, providing young people, who are often excluded from national dialogues, the tools and information they need to engage in democratic processes.
A collection of narrative initiatives, specific campaigns, and resources to promote narrative strategies
HEAT (Harmful Environmental Agendas & Tactics) is a unique cross-border investigation run by Logically and EU DisinfoLab uncovering how harmful climate narratives are deliberately seeded and amplified in Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
Youth Data Lab (Canada)
TorontoYouth Data Lab amplifies the voices of young people through over 7000 youth survey responses, 31,000 minutes of youth interviews, and 35,000 quantitative data points covering 65 Canadian cities.
Listening Vietnam
HanoiChúng tôi cung cấp đánh giá tổng quan, cụ thể, và hiệu quả, sử dụng social listening tools và là đối tác chiến lược của Viettel Reputa.
Surge Africa
KanoWe work at the intersection of policy, media & resilience.
LAB Narrativas Climáticas
BrasíliaO sul global no centro das soluções para o bem viver
The Impact Map
United States of America 🇺🇸The Impact Map provides timely data—as it becomes available—on policy, funding, and workforce changes and their localized effect. This tool is currently in beta and will continue evolving, so you may find areas that need updating.
Storytelling with Data Course
The New School, East 13th Street, New York, NYTaught by Maria Massei-Rosato
TheirStory
Rochester, NYUse TheirStory to capture, transcribe, edit, and preserve oral histories.
We the Builders (alt USDS)
Washington, DCHere, you'll find stories from real government employees: How we save you time and money, how we protect your personal information, and how DOGE's dangerous dismantling of government technology puts you at risk.
Bridging Dictionary
MIT Media Lab, Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA[A] dynamic prototype from MIT’s Center for Constructive Communication that identifies how words common in American political discourse are used differently across the political divide
Better Images of AI
LondonHave you noticed that news stories and marketing material about Artificial Intelligence are typically illustrated with clichéd and misleading images ?
Rhetorical Labs
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧We are a research collective dedicated to providing public communication campaigns with rigorous, state-of-the-art tools for message development. Our methodology combines machine learning, crowdsourcing, and adaptive randomized controlled trials.
The People Say
20 Jay Street, Suite 203 Brooklyn, NY 11201A qualitative research database featuring excerpts from 100+ hours of interviews with older adults talking about the issues most important to them.
StoryMapJS is a free tool to help you tell stories on the web that highlight the locations of a series of events. Tells a story based on a series of singular point locations.
Award-winning video work by UNFPA
Peabody Global Impact Awards
Georgia (US state)The Global Impact Award recognizes media or organizations that have profoundly changed the world for the better.
AnswerThePublic
San Diego, CADiscover search trends across Google Search, Bing, and YouTube
A tool designed to help you collect and compile video messages from a group of people
Voces de una nueva generación
Chile 🇨🇱Mediante el proyecto audiovisual Voces de una nueva generación, hemos recopilado testimonios de jóvenes nacidos a partir de los años 90, que han forjado sus opiniones a través de la memoria colectiva, historias familiares y documentos de la época.
Future Perfect is a live, choose-your-own-adventure game where players join an imagined society called Tomorrowland.
Free Machine awakens civic participation where emerging technology, public policy, and culture meet.
PUNCHUP
No. 1 Building, 6th Floor, Soi Patpong, 1 Surawong Rd, Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500We create meaningful conversation with data + design + story.
Digital Innovation Fund
Washington, DCIn 2020, CIL launched the Digital Innovation Fund (DIF) to support experimental and innovative digital organizing tactics for state-based organizing groups and sharpen organizer skills in digital strategy and data analysis.
Word Force
594 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238Word Force, a project of Narrative Initiative, provides ghostwriting services and robust communication strategy with a narrative lens to grassroots social justice organizations.
Humans of Public Service (HOPS)
United States of America 🇺🇸Our mission is to create content that tells the story of humans in public service, share stories that reflect the diversity in America in an effort to humanize public servants, and create a more positive perception of government.
Video For Change
Melbourne VIC, AustraliaWe help changemakers use video to create more impact by enhancing their knowledge, strategies, technology, networks, and storytelling skills.
Hope-based communications is a pragmatic approach to winning support for policies and advocacy positions by showing how they will work
In this course, you will learn how stories and narratives make disinformation popular and credible and how to counter dangerous beliefs and attitudes.
Decriminalize Poverty
TennesseeThis narrative experience explores how poverty has been criminalized across Tennessee, what this means for people who live in communities in the state, and practical steps to build a better future.
The Public Good Projects
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)We use science and technology to tackle today’s most pressing public health issues.
A report: How can stories help us change systems?
Civic Listening Corps
Washington, DCThe CLC is a volunteer network of individuals trained to monitor for, critically evaluate, and report misinformation on diverse topics central to our civic life: voting, elections, public health, civil rights, and other important issues.
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Civic Tech Field Guide