Data-driven reporting: An on-going (r)evolution? An analysis of projects nominated for the Data Journalism Awards 2013–2016

Abstract

Data-driven journalism can be considered as journalism’s response to the datafication of society. To better understand the key components and development of this still young and fast evolving genre, we investigate what the field itself defines as its ‘gold-standard’: projects that were nominated for the Data Journalism Awards from 2013 to 2016 (n = 225). Using a content analysis, we examine, among other aspects, the data sources and types, visualisations, interactive features, topics and producers. Our results demonstrate, for instance, only a few consistent developments over the years and a predominance of political pieces, of projects by newspapers and by investigative journalism organisations, of public data from official institutions as well as a glut of simple visualisations, which in sum echoes a range of general tendencies in data journalism. On the basis of our findings, we evaluate data-driven journalism’s potential for improvement with regard to journalism’s societal functions.

Data Visualization in Scandinavian Newsrooms: Emerging Trends in Journalistic Visualization Practices

“…Data visualization plays an increasingly important role in journalism, as many scholars have noted (e.g., Rinsdorf & Boers 2016;Appelgren 2017;Loosen et al 2017), as data visualizations affect both journalistic content and interactional patterns of news discourse (Engebretsen 2017). 1 These developments parallel the general trend of 'datafication' in society, that is, quantification of aspects of life previously experienced in qualitative, non-numeric forms, which are then tabulated, analyzed and visualized (see, e.g., Mayer-Schoenberger & Cukier 2013;van Dijck 2014;Couldry 2016).…”

“…In contrast, an infographic explains phenomena graphically but may contain either no data or data alongside other illustrations, like photographs. Data visualization is not equivalent to 'data journalism' or 'data-driven journalism', but such forms of journalism often include data visualization as a tool for storytelling (Loosen et al 2017).…”

Encoding the UX: User Interface as a Site of Encounter between Data Journalists and Their Constructed Audiences

“…While some, e.g., Financial Times' Uber Game and Telegraph's Born Equal, Treated Unequally, are experimental one-off pieces, the majority have been designed on top of existing wireframes and content templates, which enables reproduction and points to their stabilisation as data journalism formats. These observations indicate a marked shift from early data journalism stories, which were characterised by lack of sophistication (Knight 2015;Appelgren 2017;Young et al 2018), and rare or non-existent personalisation options or gamified experiences (Loosen et al 2017).…”

“…Earlier, predominantly quantitative, content analyses of data journalism stories produced between 2012 and 2016 found that these projects were either "largely superficial and non-remarkable" (Knight 2015), or "defaulted to deploying interactivity for interactivity's sake" (Young, Hermida, and Fulda 2018). That was because the production tools used by early-day data journalists, which afforded a degree of interactivity, tended to be unsophisticated, third-party software solutions (Young, Hermida, and Fulda 2018;Loosen, Reimer, andSilva-Schmidt 2017, Borges-Rey 2016). While early data journalism was the product of "trial-and-error evolution", Loosen, Reimer and Silva-Schmidt (2017) found a tendency for certain semiotic modes and interactive functions to stabilise "into 'typical combinations' as they reoccurred frequently over the years" (14).…”

3Ws of Data Journalism Education

“…These include studying nominees or winners of various awards and competitions such as the Data Journalism Awards, e.g. (Loosen et al 2017;Ojo & Heravi 2017;Young et al 2017), or studies of specific news organisations data journalism and data visualisation practices, e.g. (Stalph 2017).…”