Information Infrastructure
Information infrastructure is the foundational network of institutions, like journalists and public media, that reduces asymmetric information gaps between producers and consumers to ensure communities maintain the information flow needed for democracy.
Information infrastructure refers to the foundational systems, institutions, and networks—such as journalists, auditors, and public media—that systematically reduce asymmetric information gaps between producers and consumers. These entities serve a critical role in local markets by filling information voids left by disappearing private players, ensuring communities maintain the information flow necessary for a robust democracy. Their primary purpose is to provide transparency and reduce the knowledge disparity that buyers inherently face.
What this means in real life
When you send an email, it travels through routers and servers (physical infrastructure) running email protocols (digital infrastructure) maintained by your provider—that entire invisible backbone is information infrastructure.
What it isn’t
It is not simply 'the internet.' Information infrastructure is broader and includes private corporate networks, government systems, telecommunications hardware, and legacy databases that may never touch the public internet.
Commonly misused online
People often use it as a synonym for 'internet' or 'cloud computing,' but it actually encompasses all the pipes, servers, and systems—public and private—that move and store data, not just consumer-facing web services.