A team of leading scholars and journalists from across Canada and internationally have received a $2.5 million research grant for journalism innovation from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to support the development of the Global Journalism Innovation Lab / Lab mondial d’innovation en journalisme, with hubs across Canada and internationally.
The 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.
Led by Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young at the University of British Columbia School of Journalism, the research team includes two of CLTS Faculty members as co-investigators: Dr. Elizabeth Dubois, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Faculty of Arts, and Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau, an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, and director of the Centre. The University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society, as well as the Faculty of Arts and the Common Law Section, are partners that will support the creation of the Lab and the research to be pursued by Dr. Dubois and Martin-Bariteau.
Beyond Dr. Dubois and Martin-Bariteau, the ambitious six-year project brings together 12 other 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 Regina and the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology in Australia – as well as journalists at six journalism organizations and professionals from the innovation sector.
This SSHRC grant for journalism innovation in Canada is awarded at a time of declining commercial news media and job losses, as well as concerns about so-called “fake news.” 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 Partnership Grants from SSHRC are intended to help advance knowledge and understanding on critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance.
Congratulations to Dr. Dubois and Dr. Martin-Bariteau!