Data for Journalism: Between Transparency and Accountability

Considering the interactions between developments in open data and data journalism, Data for Journalism: Between Transparency and Accountability offers  an interdisciplinary account of this complex and uncertain relationship  in a context of tightening the control over data and weighing  transparency against privacy.

As data has brought  both promise and disruptive changes to societies, the relationship  between transparency and accountability has become complicated, and data  journalism is practised alongside the contradictory needs of opening up  and protecting data. In addition to exploring the benefits of data for  journalism, this book addresses the uncertain nature of data and the  obstacles preventing data from being fluently accessed and properly used  for data reporting. Because of these obstacles, it argues individual  data journalists play a decisive role in using data for journalism and  facilitating the circulation of data. Frictions in data access,  newsrooms’ resources and cultures and data journalists’ skill and data  literacy levels determine the degree to which journalism can benefit  from data, and these factors potentially exacerbate digital inequalities  between newsrooms in different countries and with different resources.  As such, the author takes an international perspective, drawing on  empirical research and cases from around the world, including countries  such as the UK, the US, Germany, Sweden, Australia, India, China and  Japan.

Introducing a new dimension to the study of developments in journalism and the role of journalism in society, Data for Journalism will be of interest to academics and researchers in the fields of journalism and the sociology of (big and open) data.