GRF · Information Integrity and Public Trust
Platforms and media systems
Most people now meet news through platforms whose ranking and advertising systems decide what is seen. News organisations depend on those platforms for audience and have lost much of the advertising that funded reporting. This page sets out how platform design and media economics shape information quality, the records that show it, and the regulators, platforms and media organisations that decide.
Platforms and media systems in seven parts.
- 01The questionPlatforms and media systems: how the risk develops
- 02IndicatorsWhat is measured, and how well
- 03SourcesWhere the evidence comes from
- 04DecisionsWho decides, and what the evidence serves
- 05Core questionsWhat experts ask
- 06Mechanisms and driversIncentives built into the system
- 07Methods and dataHow the evidence is built, and where it stops
Platforms and media systems: how the risk develops.
Digital media incentives and accountability. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Ranking decides visibility
Recommender systems choose what each user sees. Changes to ranking signals can cut news exposure or amplify low-quality sources without public notice.
Advertising moved away from news
Digital advertising concentrated on large platforms. News outlets lost revenue, cut newsrooms and became dependent on platform traffic and deals.
Opacity limits oversight
Without access to platform data, researchers and regulators cannot assess systemic risks. Transparency and data access duties are new and contested.
Concentration reduces plurality
Ownership concentration in media and dominance of a few platforms reduce the diversity of sources and increase the influence of a few decisions.
Narrative monitor.
The screen a team would use to follow this subject: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Narrative monitor
Platforms and media systems · Crisis information cell · Week 40
Narratives
| Tap water poisoned after flood | 89 | High | False | Correction out |
| Shelters charging fees | 33 | Medium | False | Drafting |
| Dam about to fail | 73 | High | Checking | Holding line |
| Aid only for registered voters | 46 | Medium | False | Prebunked |
Spread
Response protocol
- Detectmonitor
- Verifyprovenance
- Assess harmthreshold
- Respondcorrect · prebunk
- Reporttransparency
What is measured, and how well.
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of people using social media as main news source | share of respondents | annual | Digital News Report | ESTIMATED |
| Journalists employed | count | annual | Labour statistics | Published statistics |
| Media ownership concentration | risk level | annual | Media Pluralism Monitor | ESTIMATED |
| Very large platform risk assessments and audits published | count | annual | DSA transparency records | Published statistics |
| Researcher data access requests granted | count | annual | Regulator and platform records | REPORTED |
| Statements of reasons for content moderation | count by platform and ground | continuous | DSA Transparency Database | Published statistics |
How platforms and media systems is governed: instruments, mandates and commitments.
The instruments, mandates, actors and accountability arrangements a policymaker, diplomat or development agency works with, citing the agreements that set them. Structures follow the frameworks named. Any state or progress drawn is illustrative, not a record.
Accountability cycle
How commitments on platforms and media systems are held to account, from commitment to correction.
- CommitGovernmentA commitment with a mandate and a legal basis.
- PlanLead agencyA national plan with owners and milestones.
- ResourceMinistry of financeA budget line or financing on record.
- ImplementAgencies and local governmentDelivery against the plan.
- ReportStatistics officeIndicators reported in agreed definitions.
- ReviewLegislature, audit, civil societyIndependent review of results and gaps.
- CorrectGovernmentChanges to the plan, published with reasons.
Where the evidence comes from.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| DSA Transparency Database | Statements of reasons for content moderation decisions | Public, EU reuse terms |
| Media Pluralism Monitor | Risks to media pluralism in European countries | Free to read, terms to check |
| Reuters Institute Digital News Report | News use by platform and country | Free to read, terms to check |
| Media Ownership Monitor | Ownership of major outlets by country | Free to read, terms to check |
| Competition authority market studies on digital advertising | Analysis of advertising markets and platform power | Public records, terms per authority |
Who decides, and what the evidence serves.
Information Integrity and Public Trust prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Digital services regulators | Whether platforms meet risk, transparency and data access duties | Risk assessments, audits and researcher evidence |
| Competition authorities | Whether platform conduct harms competition in advertising and news | Market studies and complaints |
| Platform executives | How ranking systems treat news and what transparency to give | Research evidence and regulatory requirements |
| Media regulators and legislatures | What plurality and public service media rules apply | Plurality monitoring and comparative law |
Outputs this topic produces
- Guide to systemic risk assessment duties for platforms
- Comparative notes on platform and news bargaining arrangements
- Dialogue briefs on researcher data access
- Questions for regulators on media plurality
What experts ask.
Media systems researchers ask how incentives and design shape information quality.
- How do recommendation systems and engagement-based business models affect what content spreads?
- What has the decline of local news meant for information quality and civic life?
- How transparent are platforms about their systems, and how can researchers access data?
- Which accountability arrangements, such as audits, risk assessments and transparency reports, are effective?
- How do differences between jurisdictions affect global platforms and local media?
Incentives built into the system.
Many platforms earn revenue from attention, and their systems rank content partly by predicted engagement. Content that provokes strong emotion can attract engagement, which may advantage sensational or divisive material. Platforms also make choices about friction, labelling and amplification that significantly affect what spreads. These effects vary by platform, design and user behaviour, and research findings are contested.
Meanwhile, the advertising revenue that once funded journalism has shifted to platforms, and many local news outlets have closed or shrunk. Research links the loss of local news to lower civic engagement and less scrutiny of local government. Accountability frameworks increasingly require large platforms to assess systemic risks and provide data access to researchers.
Why now: platform rules, media funding and news access have changed sharply in several countries since 2024. The platform is designed to compare how these changes affect the reach of reliable risk information, and to convene media, platforms and public bodies on their respective duties.
How the evidence is built, and where it stops.
- 01
Algorithmic audits
Testing how systems rank and recommend content, using machine learning expertise. Access is limited and systems change often.
- 02
Media economics research
Analysing revenue, ownership and market structure. Data on private firms is limited.
- 03
Network analysis
Studying information flows across platforms with network science. Cross-platform data is scarce.
- 04
Policy comparison
Comparing accountability frameworks across jurisdictions. Many are recent and untested.
How it is studied, and what the methods cannot say.
- 01Network science and contagionDetecting coordinated behaviour · Tracing narrative spread · Mapping media ecosystemsApplied here
- 02Social and behavioural scienceMeasuring trust and exposure · Testing interventions · Qualitative study of information needsApplied here
- 03Artificial intelligence and machine learningClassifier error in moderation · Synthetic media detection limits · Recommender auditsApplied here
Questions and answers.
What is a systemic risk under the Digital Services Act?
Why does researcher data access matter?
What is media plurality?
Do algorithms create filter bubbles?
Why does local news matter for risk?
Does GRF regulate platforms?
Contribute evidence from this page.
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Legal documents.
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