Computational Journalism in Norwegian Newsrooms

Abstract

This article examines computational journalism as a craft practised in Norwegian newsrooms. Based on in-depth interviews with expert practitioners in six of the largest newsrooms in Norway, we find that computational journalism represents a continuation of traditional (investigative) journalism. While the skills and tools necessary to do this kind of journalism diverge from the typical journalist's, the values and aims align well with tradition. Even though computation enables journalists to cope with the size and scale of journalistically appealing datasets, we find little evidence for computational journalism to increase the efficiency of doing journalism or in any other way rid journalists from low-level technical work.

Waiting for Data Journalism

“…Empirical research has hence been carried out at an individual level, particularly addressing the skills, self-representations or professional trajectories of news workers (Smit, De Haand, and Buijs 2013;Parasie and Dagiral 2013). The question of the skills required to produce data journalism seems particularly crucial, with findings underlining the need to master skills at the intersection between journalism and technology (Karlsen and Stavelin 2014). Trédan even suggests that there is no such thing as a data journalist-i.e., one person with a complete mastery of journalistic and technical skills-but rather a converging set of insights that allows newsworkers to take part in cooperation between professional actors from distinct worlds (2014).…”

“…In his call for a "sociology of computational journalism," Anderson (2012) distinguishes different analytical lenses to approach the phenomenon, among which a focus on economic and organizational logics. Other studies similarly embrace the need to study the organizational level of newsrooms but also insist on understanding the "moving cause" (Karlsen and Stavelin 2014) of data journalism-that is, the people producing it. Empirical research has hence been carried out at an individual level, particularly addressing the skills, self-representations or professional trajectories of news workers (Smit, De Haand, and Buijs 2013;Parasie and Dagiral 2013).…”

“…Beyond these prestigious examples, evidence that data journalism has become widespread across newsrooms is mixed, depending on the country and the context. Some witness a rather modest ascent, with signs that only a few newsrooms produce data journalism in Norway (Karlsen and Stavelin 2014) or that data journalism is still "fairly uncommon" in Sweden (Nygren and Appelgren 2013). Others seem to witness a more sustained trend, such as in the Netherlands, where several "prominent media organizations" produce some sort of data journalism artefacts (Smit, De Haand, and Buijs 2013).…”

Perceptions of Intra-Organizational Collaboration and Media Workers’ Interests in Media Innovations

“…Importantly, other recent studies suggest that technologists seem to increasingly require taking part in the shaping of digital journalism (Parasie & Dagiral, 2012;Gynnild, 2013), thus bringing computational thinking into newsrooms (Lewis & Usher, 2013;Karlsen & Stavelin. 2014).…”

Algorithms for journalism: The future of news work

“…ma, Harada, & Kuniyoshi, 2007;Napoli, 2014b;Van Dalen, 2012), such as the use of algorithms as a way to gain insights about what is engaging the audience (Edge, 2014). The technology in this case consists of newsroom computerisation in the form of software-generated news -a concept somewhat overlapping other terms such as artificial intelligence (AI) news, robot journalism, bot-driven or data-driven journalism, computational journalism or algorithmic journalism -and it is already having an impact on journalism practice (Karlsen & Stavelin, 2014;Stavelin, 2014).…”