Information Ecosystems
& Troubled Democracy
The State of Knowledge on News Media, AI, and Data Governance
Robin Mansell, Flavia Durach, Matthias Kettemann, Théophile Lenoir, Rob Procter, Gyan Prakash Tripathi, and Emily Tucker
A Sociotechnical Crisis
Information ecosystems are not just technical platforms; they are complex socio-technical systems where power relations establish the conditions for how data economies operate. Today, 72% of the world’s population lives in autocracies—a return to 1985 levels—exacerbated by digital tools that prioritize profit over truth.
The "troubled" nature of today's democracy stems from the weaponisation of information—where both domestic and foreign actors exploit algorithmic vulnerabilities to stir conflict and erode public trust.
Opaque Infrastructure
Digital infrastructures are "pervasive, determinative, and invisible," shaping our perceptions outside of deliberative democratic processes.
Digital Extractivism
The large-scale harvesting of data by private companies leads to dependencies that entrench social injustices.
The Digital Deceit
Big Tech business models prioritize profit over corporate responsibility for human rights and safety. This "digital deceit" is built on data extractivism—turning everyday interaction into private assets.
Our research finds that "platform algorithms segregate and personalize... they cannot, on their own, explain entity divisions," yet they amplify existing societal polarizations for engagement.
Financial Precarity
News media organizations face extreme financial instability due to infrastructure capture by platform companies that prioritize engagement over quality journalism.
Journalism is caught in a "dependency cycle," where the loss of advertising revenue to Big Tech compromises journalistic independence and the sustainability of a robust public sphere.
Asymmetric Power
Publishers have little bargaining leverage against an oligopolistic market that controls distribution and monetization.
Stochastic Parrots
LLMs are statistical models that "haphazardly stitch together linguistic forms" without any reference to meaning or truth.
The Cognitive Risk
AI systems, including Generative AI, are lowering the cost of information manipulation. They inherit and amplify algorithmic bias, which can lead to unfair results in law enforcement and employment.
The transition to automated content governance re-obscures the "fundamentally political nature of speech decisions," moving accountability away from human editors to opaque machine systems.
Restoring Agency
Data justice is about more than just privacy; it is a framework for resisting digital colonialism and ensuring that the benefits of datafication are distributed equitably.
This involves building alternative infrastructures that respect human rights and community sovereignty over extractive data practices.
Epistemic Rights
Protecting the right to be informed truthfully and to understand how data systems affect individual and collective life.
The Rural Divide
Connectivity gaps are most acute in rural and remote areas, where the cost of infrastructure remains prohibitively high.
The Connectivity Gap
Global inequalities in the information ecosystem are stark. 2.6 billion people remain offline, excluded from the AI-driven world and data-based economy.
This exclusion further entrench the divide between the Global North and the Global Majority, creating new forms of digital second-class citizenship.
Global Realities
The information ecosystem is experienced differently depending on where you stand. The "Digital Divide" is not just about connectivity—it is about whose interests are protected by global governance.
Toward a Research-Backed Framework for Data Justice
Governance is not providing sufficiently robust human rights protections. We require a radical reimagining of the digital order.
Radical Resistance
Building alternative data governance frameworks requires "radical resistance" to dominant technology designs. This involves promoting the capacities of local communities to question their dependencies on Big Tech infrastructures.
The goal is to redistribute power away from corporate monopolies toward local political and social communities, ensuring that data production represents the needs of marginalized people.
Collective Interests
Addressing exploitative datafication depends on protecting collective interests in democracy. This means treating data governance as a lever for restructuring markets and tackling concentrations of wealth that jeopardize international solidarity.
Meaningful deliberation must support novel approaches that avoid reproducing epistemic injustices and prioritize "the right to know" as a fundamental human right.
Research Corpus
Explore the 3,000+ sources that informed this assessment. This library maps the diverse range of journals and authors who contributed to this work.