Social Impact Entertainment (SIE) is entertainment content — spanning narrative film, documentary, television, theatre and emerging digital forms — that is intentionally designed to raise awareness of social issues and catalyse real-world change while remaining compelling as storytelling. The term was codified by the Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, whose 2019 report The State of Social Impact Entertainment, produced with Participant Media, was the first attempt to map the field. The allied SIE Society frames it as “all storytelling that is self-aware of its potential impact on its audiences” and channels that awareness toward positive change on one or more social issues, at individual, local or global scale.
In practice, SIE pairs quality storytelling with strategic campaigns and partnerships — shifting attitudes, generating empathy, and moving audiences from awareness toward action. Its practitioners insist there is no one-size-fits-all formula; impact is designed for, then measured and learned from.
Five key considerations
The State of SIE report distils the practice into five prompts: focus on story (quality narrative comes first); know your issue (define intended impact early); find partners already working on the cause; think about distribution differently, activating stakeholders across channels; and evaluate and learn, measuring impact and sharing findings.
Also see Narrative Power and Storytelling Commons