Research
The Knight Institute’s research program aims to foster interdisciplinary scholarship and commentary about the First Amendment, particularly on issues relating to new technology. We host visiting fellows and scholars from multiple disciplines, and we publish essays representing a broad range of perspectives.
The Institute advances its own positions through litigation, as well as through our Policy Papers. Through our research program, we explore a broader array of questions, and we afford scholars and practitioners the opportunity to develop and present positions that are sometimes different from our own. We do this both to enrich public debate and to deepen our own understanding of the First Amendment. We aim to publish pieces that are well-argued, well-informed, and provocative.
Read more about the Institute’s research program here.
Read more about the Institute’s Visiting Research Scholars program here.
Featured
Algorithmic Amplification and Society
A project studying algorithmic amplification and distortion, and exploring ways to minimize harmful amplifying or distorting effects
Research Projects
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Essay Series
Algorithmic Amplification and Society
A project studying algorithmic amplification and distortion, and exploring ways to minimize harmful amplifying or distorting effects
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Essay Series
Policy Papers
A series of papers presenting the Knight Institute’s positions and recommendations on questions regarding technology policy, privacy, and the future of free speech
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Essay Series
Lies and the Law
A series of public conversations and publications exploring what the law can and should do about the problem of lies and deception in the contemporary mass public sphere
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Essay Series
Data and Democracy
A Knight Institute and Law and Political Economy Project essay series considering how big data is changing our system of self-government
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Symposiums and Convenings
Mapping Social Media
A research project aimed at identifying the “logics” of social media
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Essay Series
Occasional Papers
An essay series tackling pressing issues at the intersection of speech, privacy, and technology
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Essay Series
The Tech Giants, Monopoly Power, and Public Discourse
An essay series addressing the tech giants' power to shape public discourse
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Essay Series
Emerging Threats
An essay series exploring new or intensifying threats to the system of free expression
Essays and Scholarship
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Lies and the Law
Weaponized from the Beginning
A century-old specter of propaganda and lies distorting the public sphere is raised as intermediary institutions that manage unregulated speech are undermined
By John Fabian Witt -
Lies and the Law
Presuming Trustworthiness
How the Supreme Court has abandoned once-positive assumptions about press speech, even while embracing the trustworthiness of other speakers, and what it might mean for democracy
By RonNell Andersen Jones & Sonja R. West -
Lies and the Law
Fake News, Lies, and Other Familiar Problems
A guide to thinking about the best way to navigate the contemporary crises of the American public sphere
By Sam Lebovic