Dallas philanthropist Lyda Hill has spent a large portion of its donations addressing social problems through science. Her Lyda Hill Philanthropies supports museums, basic research and programs such as National Geographic Explorers.
In recent years, the grant provider has also ventured into media production, financing and helping to develop a TV series, “Mission Unstoppable,” aimed at girls ages 13 to 17, featuring women achieving success in science, technology, engineering and math. or STEM, careers.
The CBS series — which is part entertainment, part feminist career inspiration — has averaged a million viewers in its first two seasons and has been nominated for multiple Emmy awards. It’s also part of a growing recognition in the philanthropic community that TV shows, feature films, podcasts and other media projects are powerful tools for reaching new audiences and changing entrenched stories, what insiders call “narrative change.” Since 2009, grantmakers have donated at least $2.1 billion to television-related projects, according to data from Candid and Media Impact Funders, a network of grantmakers.
Narrative change uses disciplines such as communication and movement organizing to help people rethink the stories that shape their worldview. Over the past decade, writers, filmmakers, marketing executives, nonprofits and philanthropies, scientists, and advocates have increasingly collaborated on storytelling strategies that shape attitudes or beliefs and motivate people to take action. This includes projects to strengthen grassroots news outlets, help advocates and organizers identify the most effective ways to frame their messages, and increase representation both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
“It was completely new territory for us,” says Nicole Small, CEO and president of Lyda Hill Philanthropies, about making “Mission Unstoppable.”
The show, which premiered in 2019, presents scientists working in fields such as coding, biology and veterinary medicine as relatable role models. The fifth season premiered in October with an episode featuring a chemical engineer who makes fuel from soybean oil, a mathematician whose work became the basis of GPS technology, and a biomedical engineer who uses shells to grow human bones.
“We want to create a culture change in the way girls see themselves in the world,” Small said. “Whether or not viewers pursue a career in STEM, we hope they see themselves as meaningful contributors to change in the world and understand how important science is to the world around them.”
Changing a culture is a long-term process, and measuring progress can be difficult. But early signs point to “Mission Unstoppable” succeeding, according to survey data from girls ages 10 to 15 and parents of girls the same age who watched the show. A white paper produced by the Raben Group last year found that viewer interest in STEM increased by 17% and interest in STEM courses in high school or college increased by 16%. After watching the show, 20% more viewers described STEM careers as “appealing,” while 19% more said they perceived STEM careers as “creative.”
“Mission Unstoppable” is an outgrowth of a Lyda Hill Philanthropies initiative called IF/THEN, which is committed to advancing women in STEM and inspiring the next generation to pursue these career paths. The name of the initiative is inspired by the idea “if you can see it, you can be it,” says Small.
According to the American Association of University Women, women make up only 34% of STEM workers, and their college educations mean that men far outnumber women across all engineering and computing disciplines.
In collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Hill has supported a group of more than 120 scientists, or “ambassadors,” working in a wide range of fields. The women receive media and communication training to increase awareness of their work. About 40 of the IF/THEN ‘ambassadors’ have been featured in ‘Mission Unstoppable’.
Lyda Hill Philanthropies was the show’s primary funder, although Small declined to share how much the grantmaker contributed.
It can cost “millions of dollars to produce shows,” she said, adding that the foundation’s significant investment has delivered a big return on investment. A 2021 report produced by Lyda Hill Philanthropies and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found that representation in film and television plays a “profound role” in the way young girls think about their future career paths.
But production and entertainment value are important.
“When you immerse a viewer in a story with humor, suspense and all kinds of emotional elements, it tends to be a lot more sticky than if they feel like they’re reading a textbook on that subject,” says Bryan Curb, senior vice president and general manager of educational and informational programming at Hearst Media Production Group, which partnered with Lyda Hill Philanthropies to produce the series.
“Missions, even though they may be well-intentioned, won’t really be fulfilled if you don’t let people watch,” he added. “Our goal is to get eyeballs on the screen.”
Unlike a documentary or feature film that a viewer can only watch once, television series provide opportunities for repeated exposure to messages. That repetition can add up and be extremely powerful.
The footprint of ‘Mission Unstoppable’ extends beyond the half-hour weekend TV show. Clips are being repurposed into bite-sized segments on TikTok and Instagram, where the show has nearly a million followers combined. An additional web series, the STEM Loft, is shared on the show’s YouTube channel, which has more than 38,000 subscribers.
Other grantmakers, such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, have supported documentaries, books, television and theater to help increase public understanding of scientists.
“The more people think that scientists are people like them, living lives they can relate to, with motivations they can relate to, the more progress we can make in bridging the gap between science and the rest of society,” says Adam Falk. chairman of the foundation. “One way you do that is through the arts, not just by hitting people over the head and telling them what you think they need to know.”
These lessons can apply to almost any problem or cause.
“Individual stories can move audiences in very profound ways,” says Erica Lynn Rosenthal, research director at the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center, who has been studying the power of entertainment to change mindsets and culture for more than two decades.
In recent years, Rosenthal and her colleagues have tracked how TV shows and movies influence public attitudes toward transgender people, immigrants and health care equity, among other things.
“We know it works,” says Rosenthal. “It’s a definitive ‘yes’ if we take it broadly. Stories are always being amplified, changed, shifted and influenced.”
It can be difficult to attribute long-term changes to certain shows. Sometimes researchers look at incremental indicators, using proxies such as language changes appearing on social media to track how public attitudes are changing.
Small hopes to work with Lyda Hill Philanthropies to collect more data on the show’s impact as viewers age and progress in their education and careers. For now, she hopes other donors with a passion for STEM will support the project and influence more young women.
“The truth is, the needle on women and STEM careers hasn’t moved as much as we would like,” she says. “We’ll have to be creative.”
_____
This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Eden Stiffman is editor-in-chief at the Chronicle. Email: eden.stiffman@philanthropy.com. The AP and Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP and the Chronicle are solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.