Pew Research Center and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation have announced the launch of a multiyear research partnership focused on media, trust, and technology.

The Pew-Knight Initiative will expand on research about media and technology and provide insights to news providers working to serve citizens more effectively. Both the Pew Research Center and Knight Foundation have independently studied how Americans interact with the media, including research determining which news sources audiences trust, which platforms they turn to, and which stories they share with their communities. 

“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.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Tero Vesalainen)