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One Year In: Looking Back and Looking Forward Since CNTI’s Launch

One Year In: Looking Back and Looking Forward Since CNTI’s Launch

This September marks one year since the launch of the Center for News, Technology and Innovation (CNTI).

This September marks one year since the launch of the Center for News, Technology and Innovation (CNTI). It’s been a year of tremendous growth for the organization and critical new research to fulfill our core mission: to encourage an independent, sustainable news media, maintain an open internet and foster informed public policy conversations.

For 2024, a year of a record-number elections globally, we focused our efforts on three of CNTI’s priority issues:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Journalism
  • Disinformation
  • Online Safety and Security

Uniting our leadership and the many experts we’ve engaged with, these priority issues are part of an overarching initiative around how news and journalism will be defined for the 21st century and beyond.

Some highlights of the work in these areas include:

AI in Journalism

  • Co-hosted several convening events in multiple locations with global thought leaders in news, technology, policy and research, the first on definitional considerations and the second on ways to communicate various uses of AI to the public. Each resulted in reports of next steps which informed further CNTI work.  
  • Created issue primers on critical areas for the future of journalism in the AI era, laying out the complexities, synthesizing existing data and examining where there are gaps in the research.
  • Guest essays on “Helping the Public Navigate the Role of AI in News” and “The Ticking Clock: Rethinking Journalism’s Core in an AI-Driven World.”
  • Held a series of focus groups in 4 countries which included exploration of how the public thinks about journalistic use of AI.
  • Our work has been cited in policy work around the globe, including input for policymakers in corridors of power in Europe, Asia and on Capitol Hill.

Disinformation

Online Safety and Security

  • Warned of a resurgence in media censorship and journalist harassment, declining back  to levels last seen in 1993.
  • Co-hosted a convening event to consider concrete steps that could be taken to protect journalists and journalism in the face of security threats in Mexico and other areas of Latin America.
  • Laid out existing research and nuanced complexities of journalists and online abuse and cyber threats.

We’ve also aggregated journalism and innovation data for 179 countries from independent global institutions and participated in dozens of insightful and inspiring conversations with journalists, tech experts, academics, policymakers and so many more at conferences, small briefings, podcasts and one-on-meetings.

Simultaneously, developments in journalism, the tech industry and political debates have underscored why CNTI’s work is more important than ever: more newsroom layoffs, closures and mergers along with dozens of policy proposals at the intersections of journalism and technology, millions in licensing deals and billions of eyes and ears on the news.

So What’s Next?

We’re excited about CNTI’s debut global field research project, aimed at understanding how the public defines “news,” “journalism” and “journalists,” views of AI in journalism, and soon-to-come pieces on how these publics obtain their news including the role played by technology. These focus groups helped inform major quantitative surveys in all four countries that are getting underway now. That will be accompanied by a major international survey of journalists to determine how they define these critical terms as well as their experiences with technology and with online safety security.

Survey partners include the Online News Association, Global Forum for Media Development, Centre for Journalism Innovation & Development, FT Strategies, Internews, International Center for Journalists, Society of Freelance Journalists, Frontline Freelance, Global Investigative Journalism Network and Organización Editorial Mexicana. CNTI is thrilled to have such a high-level and wide-reaching group of partner organizations, and we look forward to the valuable survey findings.

Also, please stay tuned for our soon-to-be-released major analysis of 23 policies aimed at creating new revenue streams for journalism, which speaks to a number of other elements that will shape our digital news ecosystem in the decades to come. This fall, CNTI will host our 4th convening in Brussels with the Thomson Foundation and M100 on AI disclosure models for news.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the work we have set out to do, and the nature of CNTI’s mission means that we are continuously discovering new ideas and angles for research and data-gathering. Thank you to everyone who has been part of CNTI’s progress in Year One.

Looking forward, there is so much more to come from CNTI. We are thrilled to be working with our advisors, board members and other friends of the organization in pursuit of a sustainable, independent press and an open internet. Thank you for continuing to encourage others to get involved. 

Sincerely,

Amy Mitchell – Executive Director and Craig Forman – Executive Chairman

Additional CNTI Highlights

Below are additional press, research and collaboration highlights for CNTI this past year. Find our full scope of work across various parts of our website. 

Press Coverage

Issue Primers

Guest Essays

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CNTI is an independent global policy research center, seeks to encourage independent, sustainable media, maintain an open internet and foster informed public policy conversations.

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