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Knight Foundation funding studies on media and democracy

By: Dan Shaw, [email protected]//July 22, 2019//

Knight Foundation funding studies on media and democracy

By: Dan Shaw, [email protected]//July 22, 2019//

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NEW YORK (AP) — A foundation that specializes in journalism is pledging nearly $50 million for research into how social media and technology affect democracy.

The grants announced Monday by the Knight Foundation partly come in response to the way in which various outside groups made manipulative use of services provided by tech giants like Facebook and Twitter during the 2016 election. The money is going to 11 universities and research institutions.

Besides trying to get a bead on social media’s effects on election campaigns, the grants are paying for projects on the spread of disinformation and how newsrooms can respond to polarization in society. The foundation says it is time for people to use data, rather than emotion, to try to gain a better understanding of these issues.

The grants will go to New York University, Carnegie Mellon, George Washington, North Carolina, the University of Washington, Indiana, Stanford, Texas, Wisconsin, Yale and the Data & Society Research Institute.

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