Miami – (Feb. 21, 2024) – To understand how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities, Pew Research Center and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced an innovative partnership: The Pew-Knight Initiative.
The Pew-Knight Initiative will expand on research in the field of media, trust and technology; empower Americans seeking to navigate the current media and technology landscape; and provide critical insights to news providers seeking to serve citizens more effectively. Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Knight Foundation is a social investor committed to supporting informed and engaged communities. Together, they aim to go beyond measuring the information people receive to understand which information people choose to trust, act upon and share with others.
The Pew-Knight Initiative will expand on research in the field of media, trust and technology; empower Americans seeking to navigate the current media and technology landscape; and provide critical insights to news providers seeking to serve citizens more effectively.
Both the Pew Research Center and Knight Foundation have independently studied how Americans interact with the media. This research includes determining which news sources audiences trust, which platforms they turn to and which stories they share with their communities. Trust in media, particularly national media, has been on the decline. In addition, more Americans are getting their news from online sources instead of traditional ones, such as print or broadcast. The Pew-Knight Initiative will develop a new set of insights around these complex topics and trends.
“High-quality news and information are essential to an effective and stable democracy, helping people make informed decisions about their lives, communities and government. As massive disruption and fragmentation are changing the ways we get information, our partnership with the Knight Foundation allows us to explain this new landscape with rigorous and innovative methods and a long-range focus,” said Pew Research Center president Michael Dimock. “This period of change is not over, and Pew-Knight Initiative research seeks to help media leaders better serve their audiences and the public as they try to make sense of possibilities and perils.”
“Our aim is to understand how disruptions in today’s news environment are fundamentally changing the way people consume information, and what implications these disruptions hold for American society and politics,” said Knight Foundation president and CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth. “We believe the answers we find will arm news providers with critical insights they need to serve their communities more effectively — and news consumers to find better ways of navigating today’s tech-driven media landscape.”
By fostering a deeper comprehension of how individuals interact with media and technology, the Pew-Knight Initiative will pave the way for informed decision-making, strengthened civic engagement and a more resilient media ecosystem that better serves the needs of our communities.
To learn more about this partnership, visit: https://www.pewresearch.org/pew-knight.
ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. pewresearch.org
ABOUT KNIGHT FOUNDATION
We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and in the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. KF.org