The Conversation (website)
 | |
| Type of business | Not-for-profit |
|---|---|
Type of site | Analysis, commentary, research, news |
| Available in | English, French, Spanish, Indonesian |
| Founded | April 2010 |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
| Employees | 150+ |
| URL | theconversation |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 24 March 2011 |
| Current status | Active |
Content license | CC Attribution / No derivatives 4.0 |
| ISSN | 2201-5639 |
The Conversation is a network of not-for-profit media outlets that publish news stories on the Internet that are written by academic experts and researchers, under a free Creative Commons licence, allowing reuse but only without modification. It has been described as an explanatory journalism website.[1][2][3]
It first launched in Australia in March 2011.[4][5] It has since expanded into a global network of local editions.[6][7] In September 2019, The Conversation reported a monthly online audience of 10.7 million users onsite, and a combined reach of 40 million people including republication.[8] It employs over 150 full-time staff.[9]
Each edition of The Conversation is an independent not-for-profit or charity funded by various sources such as partnered universities or university systems, government and other grant awarding bodies, corporate partners, and reader donations.[9][10][11]
History[edit]
Launch[edit]
The Conversation was co-founded by Andrew Jaspan and Jack Rejtman,[12] and first launched in Australia in March 2011.[4][5]
Jaspan first discussed the concept of The Conversation in 2009 with Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor at The University of Melbourne. Jaspan wrote a report for the university's communications department on the university's engagement with the public, envisioning the university as "a giant newsroom", with the academics and researchers collectively providing authoritative and informed content that engaged with the news cycle and major current affairs issues.[13] That became the blueprint for The Conversation.
Jaspan and Rejtman were provided with office and support from Melbourne University's VP Marketing & Communications Pat Freeland-Small from mid 2009, to work up their business model. By February 2010 they had developed the model, their branding and business identity which they launched to potential support partners by way of an Information Memorandum in February 2010.[14]
Jaspan secured $10m launch funding over three years from four universities (Melbourne, Monash, Australian National University, University of Western Australia) and CSIRO, the Victorian State Government, the Australian Federal Government, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The Conversation Media Group opened its Carlton office in November 2010 with Jaspan as editor and a small team of professional editors and developers. The service launched to the public in March 2011.
Departure of Andrew Jaspan[edit]
In March 2017, Andrew Jaspan resigned as executive director and editor, six months after being placed on enforced leave after complaints from senior staff in Melbourne about his management style and the global direction of the group.[15][16] Management of the UK, U.S., and Africa offices also wrote a letter of no confidence to the Conversation Media Group asking that Jaspan not have an active role in the future.[17]
Content[edit]
The Conversation articles are written by academics, based on their area of research.[18][19][20] They either pitch articles or are commissioned to write on a matter for which they are a subject-matter expert.[9][21][22] This includes articles about current news subjects.[11][21] The Conversation's staff edits these articles, with the intent of delivering academic analysis in a manner which is understandable to a general audience.[5][9][19] The original authors then review the edited version.[5][23] Topics include politics, society, health, science, and the environment.[11][24] Authors are required to disclose conflicts of interest.[23][25] All articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution/No derivatives licence.[23][26] The site operates as a not-for-profit.[19][27]
Fact checking[edit]
The site publishes fact checks that are produced by academics from major universities and then blind peer reviewed by another academic, who comments on the accuracy of the fact check.[28][29]
In 2016, the FactCheck unit of The Conversation became the first fact-checking team in Australia and one of only two worldwide units accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network, which is an alliance of fact-checkers hosted at the Poynter Institute in the U.S.[30] The assessment criteria require non-partisanship, fairness, transparency of funding, sources, and methods, and a commitment to open and honest corrections.[31]
Technology[edit]
The Conversation uses a custom publishing and content management system built in Ruby on Rails. The system enables authors and editors to collaborate on articles in real time.[21] Articles link to author profiles—including disclosure statements—and personal dashboards show authors' engagement with the public.[32][23]
International editions[edit]
From its first Melbourne-headquartered Australian edition, The Conversation has expanded to a global network of eight editions, operating in multiple languages.
This has included expansions into the United Kingdom in 2013,[33] United States in 2014,[34] Africa and France in 2015,[35][36] Canada in 2017,[24] Indonesia in 2017,[37] and Spain in 2018.[38] The website also has an international staff.[7]
| Edition | Year of Launch | Editor | Management | Number of Editors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 2011 | Misha Ketchell | Lisa Watts (CEO) | 24[39] |
| United Kingdom | 2013 | Jo Adetunji | Chris Waiting (CEO) | 23[39] |
| United States | 2014 | Beth Daley | Bruce Wilson (Chief Innovation and Development Officer) | 17[39] |
| Africa | 2015 | Caroline Southey | Alexandra Storey (General Manager) | 13[39] |
| France | 2015 | Fabrice Rousselot | Caroline Nourry (Directrice générale) | 12[39] |
| Canada | 2017 | Scott White | 9[39] | |
| Indonesia | 2017 | Prodita Sabarini | 7[39] | |
| Spain | 2018 | Rafael Sarralde | Miguel Castro (Secretario general) | 8[39] |
Across the whole network, stories commissioned by The Conversation are now republished in 90 countries, in 23 languages, and read more than 40m times a month.[40]
The Conversation Africa[edit]
The Conversation launched an African edition in May 2015. It has offices in Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana. As of 2021, most of the authors that published content in The Conversation Africa were affiliated with South African universities, and the website's content initially focused on South Africa.[41] The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided $3m funding.[42]
The Conversation Canada[edit]
The Canadian edition of The Conversation was co-founded on June 26, 2017 by Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young, associate professors in the field of journalism at the University of British Columbia. Launch funding was partly provided in the form of a $200,000 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The project was joined by Universities Canada as a strategic sponsor, and it partnered with a number of Canadian universities such as the University of Toronto.[10] The founding editor of The Conversation Canada is Scott White, the former editor-in-chief of The Canadian Press.[10][43] A French-language Canadian edition, La Conversation Canada, launched in 2018.[43]
The Conversation UK[edit]
Andrew Jaspan secured seed funding to develop the case to launch The Conversation into the UK in 2012.[44] It launched in the UK on 16 May 2013 with Jonathan Hyams as chief executive, Stephen Khan as editor and Max Landry as chief operating officer, alongside co-founder, Andrew Jaspan. It had 13 founder members, including City, University of London. City's president, Professor Sir Paul Curran chaired its board of trustees. Landry took over from Hyams as chief executive shortly after launch.
Membership grew to more than 80 universities in the UK and Europe, including Cambridge, Oxford, and Trinity College Dublin. By 2019 it had published 24,000 articles written by 14,000 academics.[40] In April 2018, it appointed former BBC and AP executive Chris Waiting as its new CEO.[45] The Conversation UK is 90 percent funded by partnered universities,[21] with other funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Wellcome Trust.[21][27]
The Conversation U.S.[edit]
Andrew Jaspan was invited in 2012 to bring The Conversation to the United States. Thomas Fiedler, then dean of the School of Communications at Boston University, offered to host The Conversation U.S. and provide space for the first newsroom. With a university base established, he was able to raise the $2.3m launch funding. The U.S. edition of The Conversation was first published on 21 October 2014,[46] initially led by Jaspan as U.S. CEO, Margaret Drain as editor, and Bruce Wilson leading development and university relations. The U.S. pilot was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and four other foundations. Beth Daley was appointed editor and general manager in March 2019, when Maria Balinska moved to the US-UK Fulbright Commission.[47][48] The U.S. edition of The Conversation was originally based at Boston University, and that was its first partnered university.[48][20][25] It later opened offices in Atlanta and New York.[23] Other partnered institutions include Harvard University and MIT.[48]
Reception[edit]
Articles originally published in The Conversation have received republication on a regular basis by major news outlets. These have included The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and CNN.[19][2][1]
The Conversation has been described in Public Understanding of Science as "a blend of scientific communication, public science communication and science journalism, and a convergence of the professional worlds of science and journalism".[41]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Sherwin, Adam (22 March 2015). "The Media Column: The Conversation is capitalising on 'explanatory journalism'". The Independent. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b Riedlinger, Michelle; Fleerackers, Alice; Bruns, Axel; Burgess, Jean; Guenther, Lars; Joubert, Marina; Osman, Kim (15 September 2021). "The Conversation, Ten Years On: Assessing The Impact of a Unique Scholarly Publishing Initiative". AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. Association of Internet Researchers. doi:10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12130. ISSN 2162-3317.
- ^ Wihbey, John (12 December 2014). "Journalism-school reform in the context of wider media trends". Journalist's Resource. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b Greenslade, Roy (25 March 2011). "Jaspan is an editor for the eighth time with his new Aussie start-up". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- ^ a b c d Ketchell, Misha (21 March 2021). "How an Australian newsman's clever idea grew into a powerful global Conversation". The Australian. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ "UBC journalism profs receive SSHRC funding for new Canadian media startup". School of Journalism, Writing, and Media. University of British Columbia. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b Llano, Sara Malagón (21 May 2017). ""Los académicos son nuestros reporteros"". Semana (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Dickinson, Debbie. "Behind the scenes: creative commons publishing". The Conversation. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
- ^ a b c d Schiffrin, Anya (12 June 2020). "The Conversation thrives during the pandemic". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ a b c Peters, Diane (10 July 2017). "The Conversation website, written by academics, comes to Canada". University Affairs. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ a b c Usher, Nikki (19 May 2011). "The Conversation, the startup Australian news site, wants to bring academic expertise to breaking news". Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Carney, Shaun (26 March 2011). "Look who's contributing to the conversation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
- ^ "Who We Are". The Conversation Australia. The Conversation Media Group. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
- ^ "The Conversation Launch". The Conversation. Jaspan and Rejtman. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
- ^ Meade, Amanda (31 March 2017). "Andrew Jaspan quits the Conversation after months of turmoil". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ Bowden, Daniel Flitton, Ebony (31 March 2017). "Andrew Jaspan resigns as editor of The Conversation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Meade, Amanda (21 December 2016). "The Conversation's chairman resigns amid standoff over future of Andrew Jaspan". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ Samios, Zoe (22 September 2021). "Facebook snubs SBS, The Conversation on media deals". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d "The Conversation". University of Oxford. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ a b Hobson, Jeremy; Folkenflik, David (5 November 2014). "'The Conversation' Hopes To Bring 'Academic Rigor' To News". WBUR-FM. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Mayhew, Freddy (14 June 2018). "The Conversation's UK editor on five years of producing a 'new kind of journalism' as academics take the bylines". Press Gazette. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Wang, Shan (15 September 2015). "With writing by academics and underwriting from universities, The Conversation finds its place". Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "The Conversation: Writing for the General Public and How to Keep on Top of New Research". The Digitally Agile Researcher. Natalia Kucirkova, Oliver Quinlan. London, England. 2017. ISBN 0-335-26152-3. OCLC 1004065829.CS1 maint: others (link)
- ^ a b Wallace, Catherine (21 May 2017). "Academics and journalists are in on The Conversation". The Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b Laskowski, Amy (22 October 2014). "The Conversation Comes to the United States, via BU". BU Today. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Halperin, Jennie Rose Halperin (22 December 2016). "A Conversation with the Conversation: transforming journalism with a CC license". Creative Commons Blog. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b "Andrew Jaspan's The Conversation is making news without a profit". Evening Standard. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Cherubini, Federica; Graves, Lucas (2016). "The Rise of Fact-Checking Sites in Europe". Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. University of Oxford. p. 17. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Brookes, Stephanie; Rodger, Nicola (April 2018). "Checking the Facts: Campaign coverage, online journalism and fact-checking in the 2016 Australian federal and US presidential election campaigns". Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia. p. 13. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Creagh, Sunanda. "The Conversation's FactCheck granted accreditation by International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter". The Conversation. Retrieved 26 June 2017.[better source needed]
- ^ "IFCN Code of Principles". International Fact-Checking Network. Poynter Institute.
- ^ Trounson, Andrew (28 March 2011). "Getting the message out". The Australian. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
- ^ "Creating journalism from academia: a pilot project". BBC. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ Day, Mark (9 November 2014). "Sun never sets on Andrew Jaspan's global academic conversation". The Australian. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Hayes, Alex (1 April 2015). "The Conversation to launch in Africa with funding from Bill Gates foundation". Mumbrella. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ Delcambre, Alexis (19 September 2015). "The Conversation se lance en français". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ Sapiie, Marguerite Afra (7 September 2017). "The Conversation launches Indonesian edition". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ "La Usal renueva su acuerdo con 'The Conversation' para fomentar la divulgación de la ciencia". El Español (in Spanish). 6 October 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Our Team: The Conversation". theconversation.com. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ a b Waiting, Chris. "A new home for The Conversation". The Conversation. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ a b Guenther, Lars; Joubert, Marina (16 June 2021). "Novel interfaces in science communication: Comparing journalistic and social media uptake of articles published by The Conversation Africa". Public Understanding of Science. doi:10.1177/09636625211019312. ISSN 0963-6625.
- ^ Féraud, Jean-Christophe. "Journalistes et universitaires font «Conversation»". Libération (in French). Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b Young, Mary-Lynn; Hermida, Alfred (7 June 2020). Dubois, Elizabeth; Martin-Bariteau, Florian (eds.). "The Conversation Canada: A Case Study of a Not for Profit Journalism in a Time of Commercial Media Decline". Citizenship in a Connected Canada: A Research and Policy Agenda. Ottawa, Ontario: University of Ottawa Press – via Social Science Research Network.
- ^ "Andrew Jaspan's The Conversation is making news without a profit". Evening Standard. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
- ^ Hall, Georgina. "Chris Waiting appointed as Chief Executive of The Conversation Trust (UK)". The Conversation. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ Jaspan, Andrew. "The Conversation US joins global network". The Conversation. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ Daley, Beth. "A letter from Beth Daley". The Conversation. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ a b c Sullivan, James (17 April 2015). "Journalism site The Conversation taps knowledge of academia". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 11 October 2021.