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The University has become a member of The Conversation, an independent source of news and views, sourced from leading academics and the research community and delivered direct to the public. It is also a key source of material for other publications and broadcasters - all articles appear on The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence and can be republished (unchanged, with proper attribution) by other mainstream media, reaching a far wider readership.
This will provide us with many more opportunities to get the news out about research and expertise within the University, but a key factor to success is a very quick response to developing news stories.
Opportunities
The Conversation membership includes:
- A daily request for experts on current news topics, which will be received via the press office
- An on-line profile for our academics which is used by journalists as a source of experts
- Opportunities to write articles for The Conversation, supported by a professional journalist
- Tools to measure the impact of these articles: a metrics dashboard measures the article's reach, how many people have read it, the geographic spread of readership and where has the article been re-published, tweeted or shared. The information is available permanently, so you will always be able to go back and retrieve it for funding applications etc
- A guide for authors and training on their systems and in writing for a public audience
- Ongoing support from trained journalists
How to contribute
There are two main routes to contributing to the Conversation:
- We respond to daily Expert Contributors requests for a range of subjects
- Academics can also pitch their own article ideas at any time either direct via e-mail to the relevant editor (a full list of contact details is here) or using the pitch function on the Conversation site
All authors would write with the support of a professional Conversation journalist to bring their work and expertise to a wider, non-academic audience in short, timely, informative articles. Uniquely authors retain editorial control, and must approve pieces before publication. The Conversation offers them greater exposure to the media, a wider audience for research and an opportunity to home communication skills and to connect and work with academic collaborators.
Contributing authors also receive a google-friendly public profile and a dashboard which compiles readership metrics for their articles.
Contributions can involve innovative, original work or may specifically reflect or inform topics featured in the news. In short anything which is interesting, relevant or newsworthy. If you think you might have something suitable to contribute then give it a go.
Further details and information can be found in the Conversation's Author's Guide or contact c.m.l.dempster@hw.ac.uk