New Institute Stats Show “Eyes on Testimony” Nearly Doubled This Year

Almost twice as many people watched testimony across all of USC Shoah Foundation’s platforms and programs this year compared to the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

Each year, USC Shoah Foundation tracks “Eyes on Testimony,” or the number of people who viewed testimony through the Institute website, Visual History Archive, Visual History Archive Online, YouTube, IWitness (educators and students), education outreach, and Facebook. This fiscal year the total “Eyes on Testimony” were 6.2 million, compared to 3.6 million last year.

The statistics are even more impressive when compared to the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 fiscal year.

From July 2013 to June 2015, the Institute added seven full access sites and 12 small collection sites around the world. With the addition of the Armenian Genocide and Nanjing Massacre collections, the Visual History Archive includes testimony from five new countries (from 57 to 62) and six new languages (33 to 39).

There was also a marked increase in the number of searches conducted in the Visual History Archive and Visual History Archive Online this year when compared to the 2012-2103 fiscal year. Visitors conducted 115,194 searches in the VHA this year compared to 62,000 three years ago. In the VHA Online, the number of searches nearly doubled, from 75,278 to 142,910.

Since 2013, the number of visitors to the website has increased from 108,651 to 492,994 with visitors spending an average of one minute longer on the site. The number of views on the Institute’s YouTube channel has increased by nearly 600,000 and viewers spend an average of five more minutes watching testimony on YouTube.

On IWitness, the number of registered educators has jumped from 3,448 to 9,327 and the number of registered students is 37,674, up from 11,441. Over the past two years, teachers from 18 new countries began using IWitness. In total, the Institute’s educational outreach programs, including Echoes and Reflections and IWitness, reached nearly six times more educators and students (37,000 and 3.6 million, respectively) this year compared to the 2012-2013 year.

The numbers are even more remarkable when other unique channels are included. This year’s Eyes on Testimony increases to 15 million when including media exposure, the Comcast Days of Remembrance broadcast, museum exhibits, presentations at conferences and workshops, and Twitter.