Platforms and Publishers

Platforms and Publishers is a multi-year project researching the relationship between journalism and social platforms in order to promote mutual understanding and best practices for conducting journalism on the social web.

In the rush to capture audiences and establish new commercial businesses the impact on the citizen rather than consumer is often overlooked. Non-commercial functions of the free press, such as defending free speech, protecting vulnerable sources, resisting government pressure for censorship, practicing commercial transparency, are new requirements for technology companies.

This project will provide news publishers and journalists with a more granular understanding of how journalism and independent publishing is affected by integration with social media, and how platform companies are also having to adapt to a new role. It will engage software and social platform companies in understanding best practices for supporting ethical journalism in a new environment.

We’d love to hear from you if you are grappling with the issues of publishing and monetizing distributed content. Please get in touch with Meritxell Roca: m.roca [at] columbia [dot] edu.

To learn more about the project, read our latest white paper “The Platform Press: How Silicon Valley Reengineered Journalism” and explore our interactive Platforms and Publishers: A Definitive Timeline which identifies key developments on tech platforms used by journalism publishers.

If you are interested in learning more or working with us, email Nushin Rashidian, research lead on the Platforms and Publishers project.

Project lead: Emily Bell

Team members: Pete Brown, Elizabeth Hansen, Nushin Rashidian, Nausicaa Renner, Claire Wardle, Kathy Zhang