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The terms 'indices' and 'indicators' may immediately cause eyelids to droop. How, then, might they serve to impassion publics and, ultimately, promote social change? This paper examines the extent to which indices and indicators can be considered communication tools for social movements and social change. The analysis is based on a 2018 evaluation of one index based in the United States – the Ranking Digital Rights Index, which assesses privacy and freedom of expression in the ICT space – and incorporates interviews with civil society stakeholders. Bringing theory from the fields of journalism and social movements together with the data from the evaluation, the findings suggest indices can serve as useful communication resources for social movements under certain circumstances. In particular, the analysis suggests three communication resources – legitimate information, newsworthy information, and flexible information – that human rights indices are most likely to provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, on qualitative thematic analysis (QTA) in social change research, falls somewhere between a reflective piece and a how-to guide. Using two examples from my own previous research, I discuss why QTA in the field of social change or social justice, which often analyzes the words of vulnerable, marginalized, or underserved populations, is so fraught, so contested, and so often dismissed. Qualitative thematic analysis of interviews or focus groups is a common research tool used in the field, but the guidelines, scope, and practices of this tool are varied and ill-defined. I have witnessed in my students' papers and in peer reviewing for journals that there are a handful of assumptions and misconceptions that appear repeatedly, for example around intercoder reliability and frequency counting, that reduce the quality of analysis. This paper focuses on how to conduct QTAs that address social change: complex social problems faced by underserved populations, such as those dealing with poverty and inequality. By discussing the methods used in two of my own social change research projects, this paper offers a balanced method for both promoting rigor and understanding the limits and strengths of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication for social change (CSC) research often addresses 'empowerment.' This paper argues that CSC must better incorporate trauma healing into the concept of empowerment, and thus into a revised model of social change. Data from a U.S. intimate partner violence intervention are used to provide evidence for the validity of, and usefulness of, such a revised model. Three broad theoretical arguments are offered regarding trauma within CSC: (1) trauma is rarely addressed outside peacebuilding interventions, but is relevant to other marginalized populations; (2) storytelling work has mostly focused on its politically empowering effects, and insufficiently on its healing effects related to trauma as a precursor to political empowerment; and (3) storytelling work almost always assumes an audience, but there is also value in internal communication – e.g. telling a story to oneself or journaling – when trauma has limited one's opportunities for communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]