2.2: Information Environments, Ecosystems, and Landscapes
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The Information Environment
The physical world is often used as an analogy for the world of information. While climate scientists and other experts study our planet's physical environment, experts in information sciences study information environments.
The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) defines information environment as "the aggregate of the physical, social, and digital surroundings that influence how individuals, organizations, or countries communicate, interact, and process information" (2024, p. 7). Some topics related to the information environment include: "the news, social media, digital platforms, recommendation algorithms, misinformation, hate speech, media or news literacy, fact-checking, etc." (International Panel on the Information Environment, 2024, p. 8).
A 2024 IPIE survey of experts researching elements of the information found that most of them (63%) expect the global information environment to get worse (International Panel, 2024, p.3). While two thirds of the researchers "are hopeful that generative AI will improve content detection, facilitate journalism, improve cross-cultural and cross-modal communication, and increase the personalization and persuasiveness of reliable information," more than half think AI will also negatively impact the information environment. (International Panel, 2024, p.3).
How Can We Create A Healthy Information Environment?
According to the experts who responded to IPIE's survey, important components of a healthy information environment include availability of accurate information, diverse voices, diversity of media ownership, and absence of false and/or hateful content (International Panel, 2024, p. 13).
In addition to measures such as labeling of content that is false, from an untrustworthy source, or created by AI, more than half of the experts surveyed think that improving individuals' media literacy and fact-checking will improve the information environment (International Panel, 2024, p. 14, emphasis added).
Later in this chapter we will cover specific strategies for fact-checking and improving media literacy.
Information Ecosystems
The overall global information environment includes multiple, sometimes overlapping information ecosystems. An information ecosystem is a complex system made up of people, tools, media, practices, and technologies that create, share, and use information. It includes social relationships, communication networks, and shared ideas that allow information to flow and be understood. These ecosystems can be small, like a local community or a college campus, or large, like a national media network. They shape how people access and make sense of information, and are influenced by broader systems like politics, economics, education, and technology. Examining an information ecosystem includes considering information needs, social trust, dynamics of access to information, and the impact of information. (Wanless, Lai, & Hicks, 2025; Mansell et al, 2025; Internews, 2015).
Healthy Information Ecosystems
Healthy information ecosystems are balanced, flexible, and able to adapt to change. They support diverse voices and sources of information. They are able to ensure the accuracy and origin of information, as well as the security of information, because "when information that cannot be verified floods the system, or poor digital security practices enable hacking and impersonation, the integrity of information becomes suspect" (Radsch, 2023). Healthy information ecosystems are characterized by transparency, which builds trust.
"As generative AI promises to exponentially increase the amount of content created, the ability to detect and authenticate provenance will become increasingly important even as it becomes drastically more difficult." (Radsch, 2023).
Information Landscapes
An information landscape is one component of an information ecosystem. It includes "the physical and institutional infrastructure that supports information production and flow (e.g. media outlets, government, private industry, and civil society)" (Internews, 2015). In other words, an information landscape includes the types of information sources available and the structures and systems that allow them to be created, published, shared, and used. In academia, "each discipline has its own information landscape with established journals, publishers, and ways of engaging in scholarly communication" (Information landscapes).
Information Pollution
Information landscapes, ecosystems, and environments can produce both accurate and inaccurate information. Information pollution and truth decay are widespread problems in our current information environment. We'll explore these issues -- and what we can do about them -- in Chapter 3.
In the rest of this chapter, we'll examine how algorithms shape our information world, and different ways of organizing information.
Sources
Information landscapes. (n.d.). Elon University Center for Engaged Learning.
International Panel on the Information Environment. (2024). Trends in the Global Information Environment: 2024 Expert Survey Results.
Internews. (2015). Mapping information ecosystems to support resilience. UNHCR.
Mansell, R., Durach, F., Kettemann, M., Lenoir, T., Procter, R., Tripathi, G., & Tucker, E. (2025, Jan). Information ecosystems and troubled democracy: A global synthesis of the state of knowledge on news media, AI and data governance. Observatory on Information and Democracy.
Radsch, C.C. (2023, June 2). From our fellows: Envisioning a healthy information ecosystem. CDT Center for Democracy & Technology.
Wanless, A., Lai, S., & Hicks, J. (2025, Feb 11). Assessing National Information Ecosystems. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.