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Focus Areas

Media Standards & Practices

Bridging public interest media traditions by exploring and connecting standards and practices across journalism, documentary, and digital creators.

The Shorenstein Center’s work on media standards and practices explores how a diverse array of content creators—including documentary filmmakers, social media creators, podcasters, and others—have developed their own unique guidelines, ethical norms, and production standards, often distinct from those traditionally established in journalism. Our research examines how these emerging standards intersect with, diverge from, or influence long-standing journalistic principles related to accuracy, transparency, accountability, and public responsibility. By connecting practitioners across these media traditions, the Center facilitates dialogue and collaborative learning, encouraging the exchange of best practices and fostering a more robust, ethical, and innovative media ecosystem that responds to the evolving ways people create and consume public interest information.

Publications & Resources

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Featured Event

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Regulating Social Media: America’s Global Communications Dilemma

Regulating Social Media: America’s Global Communications Dilemma

Professor John Wihbey will present his argument for the U.S to establish a duty of care for social media platforms to take reasonable action when harms present themselves. Attendees will discuss ideas from his forthcoming book “Governing Babel: The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech – and What Comes Next” (MIT Press). This event is part of the Speaker Series on Misinformation, co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.

Hybrid

Rubenstein Building - R-414-AB David Ellwood Democracy Lab & Zoom
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Building Knowledge

The Shorenstein Center researches media, audience, and influence through a range of lenses and disciplines.

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