Getting Started

MediaWell is organized by a system of research topics. Currently we have twelve, and you can see them all here. For content updates on each topic, follow us on Twitter @SSRC_mtp.

If you’re new to the field of disinformation studies, we recommend starting with our live research reviews Defining “Disinformation” and Producers of Disinformation. These give an overview of some of the current issues. 

For a deeper dive into a particular topic, go to that research topic’s landing page. Each landing page can be accessed from the Research Topics drop-down menu, or from this page here. At the Election Interference page, for example, you’ll find its live research review, associated expert reflections, and a variety of other types of content. 

Expert Reflections, Events, and our Citation Library are also directly accessible through MediaWell’s main navigation bar.

In all, MediaWell contains six kinds of content: 

  • Live Research Reviews are original articles that summarize the latest research and ongoing debates within a particular research topic. Eventually each research topic will have its own Living Research Review. 
  • Expert Reflections are essays written for MediaWell by prominent researchers. They offer high-level analysis and make recommendations for policy changes and new research directions. 
  • News content is aggregated from around the web. In addition to news articles, we aggregate reports, whitepapers and other non-scholarly content. 
  • Scholars Database entries contain information about researchers and their active projects. 
  • Events in our calendar are sortable by month, and searchable by keyword. 
  • Our Citations Library, which is hosted by a free service called Zotero, contains academic articles, reports, and some journalism articles sorted into one or more research topics. For help using Zotero, see our FAQ, or the Zotero site.