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Centers and Institutes

Medill is home to several centers and institutes that research and create new knowledge in the areas of journalism and integrated marketing communications. Faculty members lead these initiatives, many of which also have components of student involvement.

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Intent Lab

Intent Lab is a research unit created by Medill IMC and Performics. Its purpose is to find new ways to strengthen brands through understanding how consumer decisions are made and how brand engagement can be improved.

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Knight lab

Northwestern University Knight Lab is a community of designers, developers, students and educators working on experiments designed to push journalism into new spaces.

Medill Investigative Lab logo.

Medill Investigative Lab

Through the Medill Investigative Lab, students develop critical, in-demand investigative skills by working with top professional journalists on social justice-focused stories.

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Medill Local News Initiative

The Medill Local News Initiative is an innovative research and development project aimed at providing greater understanding of how digital audiences engage with local news and finding new approaches to bolster local news business models.

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Medill Spiegel Research Center

Medill Spiegel Research Center conducts evidence-based, data-driven analysis to prove the relationship between customer engagement and purchase behavior in social media, mobile devices, customer reviews and more