Together with my UBC School of Journalism colleague, Mary Lynn Young, I am leading a multi-million dollar research project on journalism innovation, working with a team of leading scholars and journalists from across Canada and internationally.
The $2.5m Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) will support the development of the Global Journalism Innovation Lab/Lab Mondial d’Innovation en Journalisme, with hubs across Canada and internationally.
The six-year project focuses on explanatory journalism that seeks to provide evidence-based information and perspectives to inform public dialogue and policy action. It investigates how experimental digital journalism forms can impact civic engagement and policy uptake in partnership with The Conversation Canada and the network of affiliates in Australia, France, the U.K. and the U.S.
The SSHRC reviewers called the Global Journalism Innovation Lab “highly original in its approach,” adding that “it promises to be influential at a time of critical need.”
The ambitious project brings together scholars at five universities, journalists at six journalism organizations and professionals from the innovation sector.
As well as the partnership with the national digital journalism non-profit, The Conversation Canada and four of the global network of eight Conversation outlets. Other industry partners include The Canadian Press, and NEXT Canada, a national non-profit focused on innovation and entrepreneurship.
The team includes leading scholars from the School of Journalism, the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, and the History Department at the University of British Columbia, the Faculty of Communication & Design at Ryerson University, the University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society, the University of Regina and the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.