The T3 Commission seeks solutions to the public information crisis, especially around topical information, news and political communications. It deals with the breakdown in trust between the public and media, and the part technology plays in that relationship. We will identify current trends, policy and strategy opportunities related to the challenges caused by online misinformation, and will produce a report which makes recommendations for social media companies, news organisations, policymakers and the public. Our aim is to combine rigorous academic thinking and evidence with practitioner insight to make meaningful policy interventions.
Our work is urgent and takes place in a complex, fast-moving environment. The Commission has a limited timeframe in which to operate, and some of our initial lines of inquiry may change or be superseded by the time we approach the end of the project. Similarly, we expect new concerns to emerge during the life of the Commission to which we will respond.
The Commission’s work is broken down into four thematic workstreams. These address, in turn, journalism credibility, platform responsibility, media literacy and citizenship and online political communication. The Commission will hold workshops for each stream, at which a wide range of experts and practitioners will be invited to contribute their perspectives and ideas. There will also be an opportunity for the public to submit evidence to the Commission, as part of a wider information and evidence-gathering exercise.
We will conduct a wide-ranging review of research and initiatives by foundations, news organisations, academic institutions, government, regulators, civic groups and other stakeholders.The Commission will also hold public-facing events, and will share and discuss its findings with the wider academic community before publishing a report in November 2018. We will have an active blog and a social media presence, and encourage anyone who is interested in our work to contact us.
The T3 Commission is led by Professor Charlie Beckett and overseen by a group of Commissioners. The chair is Professor Sonia Livingstone and the special advisor is Dr Damian Tambini. Commissioners are acting in a personal capacity and have advisory powers.They are not individually accountable for any element of the process or final report. Individually, they do not necessarily endorse the recommendations. The authorship and responsibility for the report rests with the LSE.
The Commission will be administered by a small team of professional staff based in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE. The LSE will disseminate the report and will stimulate further policy debate after the report’s publication in autumn 2018. It will also look at ways of sustaining LSE’s activities as a centre for debate and innovation in the field of information integrity beyond 2019.