CBC is testing new tools for online conversations as part of the Public Spaces Incubator, an international partnership among six public service media organizations and New_ Public, to develop digital conversation spaces that offer a healthy forum for connection and increase engagement in civic discourse.
This includes new ways for the audience to engage with each other and with CBC journalists beyond the usual comments section (which is still available on some stories).
Stories open for this type of commenting will include an image like this one:
We have an ongoing commitment to fostering a space where dialogue is respectful, meaningful, and inclusive. These new conversational spaces are designed for more constructive responses than you might see elsewhere on the internet.
Part of this includes using AI to help reduce the amount of work it takes to moderate online conversations. We know that AI isn’t perfect, so we also have human moderators overseeing things. Here’s how it works: If AI detects a comment that violates the community guidelines, it may be rejected. Users have the option to click “send to moderator for review” to highlight their comment to a human moderator to decide.
If a comment is very short, unclear, or unlikely to move the discussion forward, the AI review may suggest a rewrite before you post. You’ll always have the choice to edit or continue, but the goal is to encourage richer, more engaging exchanges.
We’re in the testing phase. This means experimenting at a small scale, learning what works and what doesn’t, gathering feedback from audiences, and making changes based on what we learn.
For more information:
- Public Spaces Incubator website with examples of prototypes
- Public Spaces Incubator announces two-year partnership extension and addition of Australian and German public broadcasters ABC and ARD (Oct 9, 2024)
- Public broadcasters collaborate to reclaim online public spaces with creation of “Public Spaces Incubator” (Feb 8, 2023)
- Read more about the CBC News approach to AI