To make the right decisions you need the right information to hand. That’s no different for us as individuals, for companies large and small, or for governments making policy that will affect the lives of millions. Being reliably informed is key.

But recently we’ve seen yet more evidence that the typical routes through which we are informed are fragile. The UK’s venerable Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazine are up for sale to a firm owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, raising questions about editorial independence. Reach, the largest regional newspaper group in the UK, has laid off hundreds of journalists. And the BBC has announced it will cut 1,000 hours of content from its production schedules, shedding jobs and programmes. In the US, National Geographic magazine laid off all its staff writers, and Popular Science magazine ended its 150-year print run.

These announcements remind us that traditional print and broadcast outlets are suffering under growing financial, technological and political pressures. And with a proliferation of partisan media paying not even lip service to impartiality, this is why The Conversation’s offer of independent, informed and expert information is so important.

The Conversation’s editors seek out experts who help our readers understand the world and its challenges, to bring you insight, analysis and research-based information you won’t find elsewhere. In 2023 we’ve published more than 3,100 articles which have been read more than 100 million times.

The Conversation is proud to be independent and free to read. You can help us continue through a donation, supporting our public service mission to share research with the world. Research such as how conspiracy theories affect those they target, and why Uber’s overtures to what appears to be its arch enemy – the London black cab – actually make business sense, and why COP28 president and oil executive Ahmed Al Jaber’s comments on fossil fuels are wrong.

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Marko Aliaksandr/Shutterstock

How conspiracy theories can affect the communities they attack – new research

Daniel Jolley, University of Nottingham; Andrew McNeill, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Jenny Paterson, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Study on antisemitic conspiracy theories shows they can make groups turn inwards for support and more fearful of others.

John Hanson Pye/Shutterstock

COP28 president is wrong – science clearly shows fossil fuels must go (and fast)

Steve Pye, UCL

To avert climate breakdown, most of the world’s coal, oil and gas must stay underground.

Fare enough? Ink Drop

Uber’s U-turn over listing black cabs isn’t difficult to understand when you look at its finances

John Colley, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

After a decade of brutal competition, hackney drivers are being invited in from the cold.

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