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A digital collage merging an ornate historical painting of a pioneer scene with images of data and wires. The painting is partially glitched, with sections of digital circuitry and matrix-like grids overtaking the classical imagery. In the scene, pioneers on horseback and on foot appear to be embarking on a journey, but the technological distortion dominates the background, blending history with a sci-fi aesthetic.

Information and Democracy at the Algorithmic Frontier: MediaWell’s Fall Syllabus

By Kimberly Tower on August 26, 2026
Infrastructures and Methodologies

MediaWell curates the most recent and innovative scholarship on technology and information integrity. Our fall syllabus highlights some of the questions and conversations taking place against a backdrop of large-scale technological change, from democracy in the age of AI and the human costs of rapid expansion to the future of the digital sphere – what alternatives could look like, and what it would take to build them.

Full citations can be found in our Zotero Library. 

State of the Field
Infrastructures & Impacts
Digital Authoritarianism
Digital (Dis)connection
Climate & Environment
Youth & Social Media
AI & Information Integrity
A black-and-white surrealist collage of a classroom lecture. The center features an oversized computer keyboard with the two keys “A” and “I” highlighted in red. In the foreground, a vintage illustration of a woman in historical attire kneels as she interacts with the keyboard. Behind her, an audience of Cambridge students are seated in rows observing the lecture.

State of the Field

Information integrity research is at a crossroads. A decade has passed since the surge of attention to mis- and disinformation in the mid-2010s – and now, as funding priorities shift, data access dissipates, and generative AI reshapes the information ecosystem as we know it, scholars are reassessing What has the field learned? And where should it go next? Ophir et al. (2025) offer a large-scale retrospective of how misinformation research has evolved in communication studies; Ecker et al. (2025), Altay & Mercier (2026), and Tay et al. (2026) engage in a multi-part debate on how psychology should approach misinformation – as a symptom of deeper issues like mistrust and polarization, a driver of them, or somewhere in a more complex web between belief and behavior. Ong & Jackson (2026) critique the frameworks that counter-disinformation funders have relied on over the last decade as fundamentally disconnected from the Global South, emphasizing instead the need for community-driven and hyperlocal interventions. Milzner et al. (2025) note the need for cross-platform, multilingual analysis to better understand the coordinated disinformation campaigns that take place across social media – de Vreese & Tromble (2026) and Ohme & Seiling (2026) evaluate scholars’ ability to do so, examining the state of public-interest access to data and platform resistance to regulation. 

* More from these authors: “The Global Majority Has its Own Counter-Disinformation Agenda.”

Cooling pipes hug data servers, extracting water from a shared reservoir while people collect water from the same source, set against a background of eroded soil textures.

Infrastructures & Impacts

What are the physical impacts of our digital world? As emerging technologies require greater resources — from the spaces they occupy to the water and energy used to power them — these pieces unpack the human, social, and environmental trade-offs of the race to move fast and break things. Bridges (2024) and Vildivia (2025) take on big-picture concepts around exponential digital growth, offering new frameworks for scholars and policymakers alike. Fardi (2026) examines how the material and spatial realities of cloud computing are reshaping cities, while Murphy & Brodie (2026) provide an on-the-ground look at data center activism through the case of Ireland. Lambert & Luccioni (2026) and Domingo & Shomar (2026) take stock of how research understands the environmental and public health impacts of AI. Paris (2026) encourages readers to imagine a fundamentally different Internet where infrastructures are built to meet public needs.

* More from this author: MediaWell’s book interview with Britt Paris. 

A large man smoking a cigar (as depicted in the 1925 cartoon 'The Subsidised Mine Owner - Poor Beggar!'), is partially obscured by a pixelated white-and-grey cloud. In the background, part of the Wheel of Fortune can also be seen. The goddess who usually turns the wheel is hidden by the man in the foreground. Four characters (perhaps depicting the same person at different points in time) sit on the wheel. The character with a crown on top is holding two globes/trophy and has treasure on his lap. To his right, one character extends his hand towards him, while another looks on from the left. The fourth character is already falling. Two black, dotted, squares outline the large man and the wheel. To the left of the wheel, in the background, there is a pixelated yellow-orange sun. To the right, are some sparkling, pixelated yellow stars.

Digital Authoritarianism & Democratic Backsliding

The GenAI era has redrawn the lines connecting data and democracy, accelerating the spread of authoritarian tactics through the digital sphere (Beacken et al. 2026; Biancalana & Montigny 2026; G’sell 2026). Expert voices face both real and artificially amplified threats (Hameleers & van der Meer 2025); major social media platforms have become vehicles for mainstreaming illiberal ideologies (Magalhães et al. 2026); and, as technology evolves, anti-democratic actors have gained a new toolkit for censorship, information control, and mass surveillance – with a “chilling effect” on citizens’ rights and freedoms around the world (Penney 2025; Coeckelbergh 2026). But this trend is neither inevitable, nor irreversible. Fuchs et al. (2026) and Noveck (2026) explore the safeguards that can help push digital technologies towards strengthening democracy rather than undermining it. 

* More from this author: “The Informal Future of Transnational Digital Governance.”

Digital (Dis)connection

What does connection look like in today’s digital world? If social media hasn’t held up to its promise of acting as a “global town square” (Robinson 2026) — or, indeed, of being a social technology at all (boyd 2026) — what have we arrived at instead? Marwick (2026) remembers the Internet of the early 2000s, arguing that the current generation of algorithmically optimized platforms stifles the kind of meaningful social ties that legacy websites used to foster — and calling for the next generation not to replicate those sites, but reimagine how to make small-scale, authentic communities possible again. Hall (2025) grapples with pathways to increase feelings of belonging in the present social media environment, challenging the idea that platforms cause loneliness. In the GenAI era, however, platforms are only part of the equation (Sloane 2026). Muldoon & Parke (2025) explore the commodification of intimacy through AI companions, which are further complicated by sycophantic models (Cheng et al. 2026) and addictive design (Al-Obaydi et al. 2025). 

* More from this author: “Like & Subscribe: Influencers and the Shift to Parasocial Authority.”

Bird's eye view photo of a small hut and a concrete path through a lush green forest. However, the image is slightly distorted by digital artefacts.

Climate & Environmental Information

Out of all the issues in the information integrity space, climate disinformation may be one of the most challenging: a combination of global corporate lobbies, attacks on science, and urgent, accelerating stakes (Bruni & Lefsrud 2026). It’s also changing. Beyond the climate denial narratives of the last few decades, “strategic skepticism” has become the main way for disinformation actors to sow doubt in meaningful solutions, often by targeting policymakers directly (IPIE 2025) — with especially acute impacts in parts of the Global South, where high climate vulnerability intersects with already-stressed information environments (Locatelli et al. 2026). As extreme weather events become more frequent, how does this “new denial” affect disaster responses (Daume 2024; Armstrong & VanDyke 2026)? And how can governments, local leaders, and civil society effectively respond (Roberts et al. 2025; C40 2025; SCIICC 2026)? 

A historical-style painting of a young woman stands before the Colossus computer. She holds an abstract basket filled with vibrant, pastel circles representing data points. The basket is attached to the computer through a network of connecting wires, symbolizing the flow and processing of information.

Social Media Bans & Child Online Safety

Youth social media bans have been passed in almost a dozen countries since late 2025, and they’re under debate in dozens more (Vigil et al. 2026). What do these restrictions look like in practice? What are the harms they are trying to mitigate (Mutu & Pătraș 2026; Lee et al. 2026; Chen et al. 2026), and what does their enforcement mean for data and privacy online (Rescorla et al. 2026)? Gerrard (2025), Chhabra et al. (2025) and Abidin (2026) take stock of how children navigate the digital sphere, from mental health and body image to going viral; Ma et al. (2026) examine the unique impacts of misinformation on younger users. Barnes et al. (2026) examine early data from Australia to ask whether social media bans are succeeding at creating a safer digital space. 

Three human silhouettes are depicted mid-stride, each comprising of a collage of hardware used to develop AI including circuit boards and CPU chips. In the background there is a black and grey gradient with smoke. Beneath the runners from the left, there are two rectangle panels which run across the image, one is red and the other is blue.

AI & Information Integrity

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global information environment in ways that research is just beginning to understand — and as new models, tools, and technologies emerge on a near-daily basis, so do questions about their impact. When do audiences trust AI-generated content (Toff & Simon 2025; Cools et al. 2026; Ou et al. 2026; Ptaszek & Metzger 2026)? What do we actually know about its effect on political beliefs and behavior (Nyhan et al. 2026), and where are the evidence gaps in current research (IPIE 2026)? How can AI help improve access to reliable information (DeVerna et al. 2026; Larraz et al. 2025; Leippold et al. 2025; Park et al. 2026), and how do those opportunities stack up against the risks of existing designs (Alber et al. 2025; Alyukov et al. 2025; Bontcheva 2024; Jang et al. 2026; Gondwe 2025; Mattis & de Vreese 2025)? 

Image credits

Banner image: Hanna Barakat & Archival Images of AI + AIxDESIGN / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

State of the Field: Hanna Barakat & Cambridge Diversity Fund / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Infrastructures & Impacts: Gloria Mendoza / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Digital Authoritarianism & Democratic Backsliding: Marcin Wilkowski / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Digital (Dis)connection: Emily Rand & LOTI / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Climate & Environmental Information: Lone Thomasky & Bits&Bäume / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Social Media Bans & Child Online Safety: Deborah Lupton / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

AI & Information Integrity: Gloria Mendoza / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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