Public Interest Journalism

Journalism as the “Fourth Estate” is one of the core pillars of a healthy democracy. But as the crises of a shifting business model and declining trust in institutions hit the journalism industry, it has struggled – with dire potential and actual consequences for democracies across the world.  Simultaneously, the ways that people gather information about the world have dramatically expanded with social media, podcasts, film, and other media often filling the roles that were previously dominated by traditional journalism.  The Shorenstein Center considers the media and information ecosystem from all angles, from studying and bolstering exceptional journalism to researching how new media channels serve the public interest and/or threaten the public good.