information futures lab
where ideas and evidence meet policy and practice
Our lab is where technology, innovation, policy and community meet, one pilot at a time.
The latest from the IFL
Brown University’s Information Futures Lab Introduces 2024 Visiting Fellows
The Information Futures Lab welcomes leaders in community-based journalism, tech entrepreneurship, communication, and infodemics research to its 2024 Visiting Fellows cohort, aiming to address urgent information challenges with innovative projects.
What we do
We transform information spaces.
Bad information harms people, economies and democracies. Quick fixes won’t solve the problem. We envision a different future for our information spaces, habits, institutions and culture.
We empower those who prevent misinformation and build trust.
We provide resources, skills and knowledge to help organizations, communities and leaders build trust and mitigate misinformation.
We drive collaboration.
Complex challenges need collaborative problem- solving. We connect researchers across disciplines and thinkers with doers. We connect funders with innovators and change-agents with peers.
We think globally.
Up to this point, most of what we know about the way trust and information work is based on research done in the United States. IFL’s worldwide network of collaborators ensures that different cultural, historical, political and religious contexts are taken into account.
We examine more than just the social networks.
Platforms are only one part of the crisis. IFL acknowledges that information travels through many channels, and that all information touchpoints matter, online or offline.
We are multidisciplinary.
IFL works with those in academia, public health, newsrooms, community-based organizations, libraries, schools, government agencies and technology companies.
We think in years, not months.
IFL is dedicated to constant testing to measure the impact of confusing, low-quality or absent information, and discover what provides long-term protection and healthy information spaces.
innovative leadership
The Information Futures Lab is co-founded and co-directed by two communication experts who have deep experience of working in and with newsrooms, non-profits, startups, government agencies and Universities around the world. They have both developed programs and led innovative change across a number of different institutions.
Claire Wardle Ph.D.
Claire Wardle designed and implemented the earliest organization-wide training programs in verification and misinformation in 2009 with the BBC. She also co-founded First Draft, a non-profit that worked globally, inventing new terminology, methods and resources for mitigating misinformation.
Stefanie Friedhoff
Stefanie Friedhoff covered major news stories on three continents and led newsrooms before bringing innovations such as the Trauma Journalism Program and Global Health Reporting Fellowship to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Throughout the pandemic, she built diverse coalitions and led COVID-19 initiatives and rapid research translation projects that have reached millions of people around the world.
hear our story
Listen to an interview with Dr. Claire Wardle
Professor Wardle talks to Megan Hall, host of the Humans in Public Health podcast, about plans for collaborative work at Brown that aims not only to understand mis- and disinformation, but to create tools for more effective public health communication.
WE FIGURE OUT WHAT WORKS AND BRING IT TO THOSE WHO CAN ACT ON IT
Figuring out what works — designing, implementing and testing interventions — is only the first part of the process. Getting what works into conversations and communities is what makes change. And we can’t do that alone. We work alongside leaders in different parts of the world and different work and life experiences to understand how information needs vary and create opportunities to share solutions. Ready to learn more? Learn more about our priorities, our fellowship program, and the information communities we support around the world.
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