Katie Kim

This week’s Field Notes reveal that the greatest threat posed by online disinformation is not simply the spread of false information, it is the gradual erosion of the trust that allows democracy to function. Across reports from the World Economic Forum, International IDEA, the OECD, and the Reuters Institute, one message consistently emerges: democracy depends not only on free expression, but also on a shared foundation of credible information. The World Economic Forum explains why...

The Reuters Institute’s Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions 2026 suggests that the future of democracy will depend not only on access to information, but on access to information that people can trust. The report shows that news organizations are adapting to a digital environment increasingly shaped by AI, creators, and platform algorithms. Many publishers expect search traffic to continue declining as more people rely on AI-generated summaries and social media feeds...

The OECD report Facts Not Fakes reframes disinformation as a structural threat to democracy, not just a problem of false content. In democratic societies, public debate depends on access to diverse, independent, and reliable information. When disinformation spreads, it blurs shared facts, deepens polarization, and weakens the social trust needed for citizens to make collective decisions. What stands out is the OECD’s focus on information integrity. The report argues that democracies...