Help support The Conversation US at SXSW

At The Conversation, we may not have millions of dollars to publicize our mission, but we do have loyal readers like you, who value our infusion of knowledge and expertise into the public dialogue. We have had remarkable success so far in reaching millions of readers, on our site and through Creative Commons republication in newspapers ranging in size from the Washington Post to the Kokomo Tribune, and on websites ranging from Quartz to Relatively Interesting.

When people hear about The Conversation, they love the idea. So we keep an eye out for ways to bring The Conversation’s model of research-based journalism to the attention of more people.

One way we plan to do that is by putting together panel discussions at the SXSW conferences in Austin, where we can reach a large audience of journalists, educators and technologists. We’ve proposed two panels for next year’s conference and we’re asking for your vote in support of them.

One is a panel on the role of academics in fighting fake news, bringing together Maria with Ernie Wilson (Dean of USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and a member of The Conversation US board), Lisa Gibbs (Director of News Partnerships for the AP, which distributes our stories broadly), and Rachel Gross (Online Science Editor for Smithsonian Magazine, which republishes our articles).

You can help us by voting in support of the panel. It will take a just a minute of your time and public votes account for 30% of the selection process. The deadline for voting is this Friday, August 25.

The other panel would be at the SXSW conference devoted to innovation in education. We hope to participate there with a panel on academics as journalists.

Bruce would be joined by two of our authors - Prof. Daina Ramey Berry of the University of Texas at Austin and Prof. Amy Schalet, of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst - and Greg Boustead (Program Director of Science Sandbox in the Education and Outreach Division, Simons Foundation, one of our funders). You can vote for that as well.

The Conversation is truly a collaboration between academics, journalists, and readers. Thank you very much for your help in this effort – and your vote at SXSW.com by August 25!