About the study
Project Information Literacy's latest study investigates how young adults interact with and consume news, and gather information. The research, conducted in partnership with faculty at Northeastern University and Wellesley College, focuses on two of the most pressing issues of what has been called our “post-truth” era: currency and authority.
Researchers are looking to break new ground as an empirical and quantitative study of many issues -- such as “fake news” and misinformation -- to help better ground public discourse and potential policy solutions.
Over 12 months, we will conduct a computational data set analysis of 3.2 million unique URLs posted on Twitter since 2016 in order to measure the pace of the news cycle. We will deploy a large-scale survey to over 61,000 U.S. high school and college students to collect quantitative data about their information practices for processing news. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with "thought leaders" as a partial basis of the report's recommendations
In our final report, a set of recommendations will be made for professionals directly implicated in addressing relevant problems, offering insights to three groups in particular working with young adults on the front lines: librarians, journalists, and educators.
The research is supported by funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and a grant from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), the largest division of the American Library Association (ALA). Northeastern University Libraries and College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD), and Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) have also contributed support to the project.
The study, set to be concluded in October 2018, will be one of the largest of its kind, with surveys and interviews on college campuses and other educational settings across the country.
Researchers are looking to break new ground as an empirical and quantitative study of many issues -- such as “fake news” and misinformation -- to help better ground public discourse and potential policy solutions.
Over 12 months, we will conduct a computational data set analysis of 3.2 million unique URLs posted on Twitter since 2016 in order to measure the pace of the news cycle. We will deploy a large-scale survey to over 61,000 U.S. high school and college students to collect quantitative data about their information practices for processing news. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with "thought leaders" as a partial basis of the report's recommendations
In our final report, a set of recommendations will be made for professionals directly implicated in addressing relevant problems, offering insights to three groups in particular working with young adults on the front lines: librarians, journalists, and educators.
The research is supported by funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and a grant from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), the largest division of the American Library Association (ALA). Northeastern University Libraries and College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD), and Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) have also contributed support to the project.
The study, set to be concluded in October 2018, will be one of the largest of its kind, with surveys and interviews on college campuses and other educational settings across the country.
Project Contributors
Principal Investigator
Alison J. Head, Ph.D., Director, Project Information Literacy (PIL), Senior Researcher, metaLAB (at) Harvard
Co-Investigators
John Wihbey, Assistant Professor, Journalism and New Media, Northeastern University
P. Takis Metaxas, Ph.D., Professor, Computer Science, Faculty Director, Albright Institute Wellesley College
Dan Cohen, Ph.D., Dean of Libraries, Vice Provost for Information Collaboration, Northeastern University
PIL Research Team
Elizabeth Berman, Assistant Library Director and Head of Research & Instruction, Tufts University
Erica DeFrain, Assistant Professor, Love Library, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Kirsten Hostetler, Instructor and Outreach Faculty Librarian, Central Oregon Community College
Kenny Joseph, Ph.D., Post Doc, Lazar Lab, Network Science Institute, Northeastern, Fellow, Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science
Neeley Silberman, Adjunct Associate Professor, Communication, St. Mary's College of California
Michele Van Hoeck, Dean of the Library, California State University Maritime Academy
Alison J. Head, Ph.D., Director, Project Information Literacy (PIL), Senior Researcher, metaLAB (at) Harvard
Co-Investigators
John Wihbey, Assistant Professor, Journalism and New Media, Northeastern University
P. Takis Metaxas, Ph.D., Professor, Computer Science, Faculty Director, Albright Institute Wellesley College
Dan Cohen, Ph.D., Dean of Libraries, Vice Provost for Information Collaboration, Northeastern University
PIL Research Team
Elizabeth Berman, Assistant Library Director and Head of Research & Instruction, Tufts University
Erica DeFrain, Assistant Professor, Love Library, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Kirsten Hostetler, Instructor and Outreach Faculty Librarian, Central Oregon Community College
Kenny Joseph, Ph.D., Post Doc, Lazar Lab, Network Science Institute, Northeastern, Fellow, Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science
Neeley Silberman, Adjunct Associate Professor, Communication, St. Mary's College of California
Michele Van Hoeck, Dean of the Library, California State University Maritime Academy
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Research conducted between 2017-2018
Questions? info@projectinfolit.org
Questions? info@projectinfolit.org
