About
Our Mission
The Documentary and Visual Storytelling Initiative advances research and innovation at the intersection of documentary, nonfiction media, and a rapidly evolving information environment.
About DFPI
The Documentary and Visual Storytelling Initiative is housed within the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, led by Nancy Gibbs. The Shorenstein Center studies the forces shaping the contemporary information environment and their effects on public life, with the goal of strengthening media systems in support of more informed and resilient societies.
Through interdisciplinary research, fellowships, and convenings, the initiative brings together filmmakers, journalists, researchers, creators, funders, and institutional leaders to examine changes in nonfiction practice and the systems that support it.
DFPI’s current research agenda is organized around two interconnected areas: the future of public media and civic infrastructure, and the evolving role of documentary within online media ecosystems. Together, these areas consider both the institutions needed to sustain public-interest storytelling and the digital environments through which that work now reaches and engages audiences.
DFPI is a non-partisan, research-informed initiative.
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School
At this moment of division and distrust, our broken news environment poses a threat to the public good. Every pressing public policy concern is affected by the flows and flaws in information. The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center dedicated to addressing this challenge at its root by examining how essential information is created, conveyed and consumed. We believe that improving the quality of public information and expanding access to it will bring about healthier, stronger, more peaceful societies.
The center was founded in 1986 to allow journalists to engage with public policy students and faculty at Harvard Kennedy School. In the past two decades it has expanded its mission to advance research across multiple disciplines into the forces and factors that shape our broader media environment.
Today, the Shorenstein Center pursues its core mission through original research, convening leaders in practice and scholarship, providing trainings and educational opportunities for students and media practitioners, and highlighting best practices across the fields of media and content production.
For more information, contact us at docfilm@hks.harvard.edu.