Information ecosystems and troubled democracy: a global synthesis of the state of knowledge on news media, AI and data governance

This inaugural meta-analysis provides a critical assessment of the role of information ecosystems in the Global North and Global Majority World, focusing on their relationship with information integrity (the quality of public discourse), the fairness of political processes, the protection of media freedoms, and the resilience of public institutions. The report addresses three thematic areas with a cross-cutting theme of mis- and disinformation: Media, Politics and Trust; Artificial Intelligence, Information Ecosystems and Democracy; and Data Governance and Democracy. The analysis is based mainly on academic publications supplemented by reports and other materials from different disciplines and regions (1,664 citations selected among a total corpus of over +2700 resources aggregated). The report showcases what we can learn from landmark research on often intractable challenges posed by rapid changes in information and communication spaces.