About KGI
Vision
An information future for the common good
Mission
To connect independent research with technology policy and design
Pillars
- Translating research for policy and industry audiences
- Connecting and convening academics with policy and industry stakeholders
- Building and institutionalizing the interdisciplinary research field that is focused on the nexus of information technology and democratic society
Scope
- Information-bearing systems: social media, search, advertising, news, messaging, and content generation
- Policy issues at the federal, state, and international levels
Values
- Nonpartisanship
- Academic rigor
- Open collaboration
- Optimization for impact
- Service for the common good
Imperative
The internet and digital technologies have enabled the dramatic expansion of access to information and ideas, helped amplify millions of marginalized voices, and bolstered movements for justice around the world. But the technologies that once promised to usher in a new era of democracy are now also being used to spread disinformation, undermine social and institutional trust, and disenfranchise participants in the democratic process. Underlying this shift is the growing concentration of power over information production and distribution systems in the hands of a few corporate giants.
The Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI) channels the insights, evidence, and brainpower from the research and public interest communities to form a collective response to these trends. Spanning social science, data science, computer science, journalism, economics, and law, KGI produces and synthesizes research results from across institutions and puts those results in the hands of policymakers and industry leaders in real time as they make critical decisions. KGI also acts as a convener, building relationships between leading academics and key decision-makers in policy and industry.
Through research production, translation, synthesis, and convening, KGI creates a necessary defense against the increasingly closed and privatized systems mediating access to information today.