At this moment of division and distrust, our broken news environment poses a threat to the public good. Every pressing public policy concern is affected by the flows and flaws in information. The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center dedicated to addressing this challenge at its root by examining how essential information is created, conveyed and consumed. We believe that improving the quality of public information and expanding access to it will bring about healthier, stronger, more peaceful societies.
The center was founded in 1986 to allow journalists to engage with public policy students and faculty at Harvard Kennedy School. In the past two decades it has expanded its mission to advance research across multiple disciplines into the forces and factors that shape our broader media environment.
Today, the Shorenstein Center pursues its core mission through original research, convening leaders in practice and scholarship, providing trainings and educational opportunities for students and media practitioners, and highlighting best practices across the fields of media and content production.
A Research Center for the Information Age
The Shorenstein Center pursues its core mission through original research, convening leaders in practice and scholarship, providing trainings and educational opportunities for students and media practitioners, and highlighting best practices. The center is home to a group of multidisciplinary faculty-led research programs focusing on the broad spectrum of information creation, distribution, and consumption. Our research, education, and public engagement work falls into three broad categories:
Media Demand
There has never been a deeper well of information for people to draw from to make sense of the world, but our understanding of how people navigate these streams has never been less clear. The Shorenstein Center is working to better understand how people find and seek out critical information in today’s media landscape.
News Distribution
New technologies have blown open the distribution channels for news information, and fundamentally changed the institutional structure of news-making. The Shorenstein Center looks at the broad landscape of the news media, from journalists to online content creators to filmmakers, and the forces that shape how they do their work.
Information Trust and Decision-making
With the increased depth, breadth, and volatility of the information landscape has come a fracturing of what information people trust, and how they decide on actions to take based on the information they are exposed to. The Shorenstein Center’s multidisciplinary community investigates these questions of trust and behavior through qualitative and quantitative research and programming.
Advisory Board
The Center’s Advisory Board include prominent leaders in journalism, academia, and policy. Find the full list of our Advisory Board here.
Faculty and Staff
The Center’s affiliated and resident faculty members, along with research staff, lead and execute the core of the Center’s research mission, supported by the administrative and programmatic staff. Learn more about the people at the Shorenstein Center here.
History
The Shorenstein Center’s roots can be traced back to the early days of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. The Kennedy School has been singular in declaring its mission to be teaching and research plus engagement with the real world, something that sets it apart. Early on, leaders at the School recognized that engagement with the press should be part of the School’s focus, and the Shorenstein Center has grown from there to increase understanding and engagement with the entire ecosystem of media and information that is essential for healthy societies.
Read a full history of the Center’s creation and early years.
