Our Mission
The Center for Media Innovation & Social Impact (MISI) investigates how media systems and algorithms shape democratic participation and public trust. We examine communication in a fragmented information environment where credibility is contested and power is unevenly distributed. Our work is grounded in collaboration with communities most affected by today’s social challenges, combining research, teaching, and experimentation to advance more just, trustworthy, and accountable forms of communication.
Our History
MISI opened its doors in 2025 to address a persistent failure in the communication field: too much scholarship remains disconnected from practice, and too much practice proceeds without the benefit of rigorous, critical research. The Center was founded to close that gap—bringing theory, evidence, and experimentation into direct engagement with the institutions and communities shaping democratic life.
Building on Boston University’s long history of leadership in civic media and public interest communication, MISI is intentionally designed as a hybrid space. We do not treat communities as research subjects or innovation as a branding exercise. Instead, we work through sustained partnerships that allow scholarship and practice to inform one another in real time. MISI is building a lasting institutional home within the College of Communication, within Boston University, and within the city of Boston—one focused on accountability, public trust, and durable social impact rather than short-term interventions.
Unlike think tanks, MISI does not exist to produce position papers or policy recommendations detached from implementation. Unlike innovation hubs, we are not driven by rapid prototyping or technological solutionism. Our work is deliberately slower, relational, and accountable—grounded in long-term partnerships, critical inquiry, and public-facing experimentation. MISI measures success not by scale or novelty alone, but by whether new forms of communication actually earn trust, redistribute voice, and endure within the institutions and communities they are meant to serve.