Transnational Cooperation in Journalism

Abstract

The journalism industry has used technology and cooperation to convey information around the world since the mid-1800s when six American newspapers aligned to form the Associated Press. The nonprofit news agency was a business collaboration that allowed members to share content with one another. Cooperation in journalism was not always compatible with the industry’s traditional business model, however, which valued exclusivity. As technology progressed, cooperation grew ever easier and more productive. The ultimate emergence of the internet has consummated this trend, facilitating collaborations among groups of reporters across the globe. These collaborations allow individual groups to retain and capitalize upon their geographical exclusivity while enhancing their collective ability to provide domestic stories with a transnational context or to cover cross-border or even global issues.

Negotiating Roles and Routines in Collaborative Investigative Journalism

“…There remains a dearth of academic insight into this recent restructuring of investigative journalism (cf. Carson & Farhall, 2018;Heft, Alfter, & Pfetsch, 2017;Konieczna, 2018;Konow-Lund, Gearing, & Berglez, 2019;Sambrook, 2018). In the aftermath of the Panama Papers story (2016), however, some academic and practitioner contributions to the field of research have emerged (Alfter, 2019;Graves & Shabbir, 2019;Stonbely, 2017).…”

The potential of investigative data journalism to reshape professional culture and values. A study of bellwether transnational projects

“…The analyses carried out to date both within organizations and at the national level have certainly proved useful for understanding the current meaning of data journalism and the characteristics and public implications of this practice. However, it seems necessary to throw light on the context, experience and implications for audiences of the bellwether international collaborative and investigative data journalism projects carried out so far, considering their growing importance in both theory and practice (Konow-Lund, Gearing & Berglez, 2019).…”

Reconstructing investigative journalism at emerging organisations

“…While researchers have long argued that news-room workers tend towards a deterministic view of technology (Örnebring, 2016, 2010, 2009), times have changed, and new affordances (and a new appreciation of existing affordances) may be impacting the field, leading to, among other things, new forms of interdisciplinary collaboration. Here, collaboration is understood to mean a shared effort towards a common end (Konow-Lund et al, 2019). Astrid Gynnild (2013) emphasises the porous boundaries between various interdisciplinary actors in journalism, such as reporters and programmers.…”

“…Recent studies have indicated that the 'lone wolf' era of investigative journalism is coming to an end, as watchdog journalism is reconstructed across borders with a special focus on collaboration, digital technology and networking (Berglez & Gearing, 2019;Konow-Lund, Gearing, & Berglez, 2019;Sambrook, 2018;Lewis, 2018;Alfter, 2019). In just the past two decades, we have seen an increase in journalistic innovation involving users (Harhoff & Lakhani, 2016), while fewer studies have focused on how traditional and emerging forms of investigative journalism seek to involve participants and users in watchdog journalism aiming to hold power to account.…”

“…Consequently, in this article, investigative journalism will be understood as a practice which brings with it shareable skills (Houston, 2009;Aucoin, 2005). While Larsen (2016) laments the lack of consensus around a working definition of investigative journalism, the network journalism model (Henrich, 2011;Beckett & Mansell, 2008) of the American investigative journalism tradition (Konow-Lund et al, 2019) is in the ascendant, particularly following the launch of the nearly 400-journalist global collaborative Panama Papers investigation.…”