The development of data journalism, and technology paternalism as a challenge

Abstract

“Is data journalism? 1. Who cares? 2. I hope my opponents waste their time discussing this as long as possible” (Holovaty, 2009). All of Man’s big achievements through history started with a smart and challenging question and data journalism is not an exception in this process.
We as human beings usually resist big changes and the reason is that uncertainty brings stress. When big changes are inevitable in working environments stress is at its highest, especially in environments such as newsrooms, where a mistake can even lead to wars. Therefore, Holovaty’s competitors’ resistance towards data journalism is understandable but we are lucky to have people like him who push us toward progress at crucial times.

Full text

The development of data journalism, and technology
paternalism as a challenge
Javad Maleki
Research on data journalism
MIJ 2022, JU2602
Responsible teacher: Salma Bouchafra
February 2023

Introduction
“Is data journalism? 1. Who cares? 2. I hope my opponents waste their time discussing this as
long as possible” (Holovaty, 2009). All of Man’s big achievements through history started with a
smart and challenging question and data journalism is not an exception in this process.
We as human beings usually resist big changes and the reason is that uncertainty brings stress.
When big changes are inevitable in working environments stress is at its highest, especially in
environments such as newsrooms, where a mistake can even lead to wars. Therefore, Holovaty’s
competitors’ resistance towards data journalism is understandable but we are lucky to have
people like him who push us toward progress at crucial times.
Although data journalism provides many advantages such as interactivity and transparency but it
has its challenges and paternalism is one of them. There is arguably an assumption of activity
and there is a danger that paternalistic technique with a lack of interactivity leads readers to
acknowledge data journalism as controlling (Appelgren 2017).
The development of data journalism in the past, current state, and possible future, and
paternalism as a challenge
a) The development of data journalism in the past, present, and future
Data journalism encloses gathering, cleaning, organizing, analyzing, visualizing, and printing
data to help the production of acts of journalism (Howard, 2014). Data helped journalism to
progress by providing tangible facts to readers. By signaling the changes brought about by data,
the writers suggested the need to reconsider the news-media business model and offered a shift
of emphasis from the information market to the trust market (Stalph, & Borges-Rey, 2018).
Providing facts through data bring public trust to journalistic production. A data story contains a
set of elements that are backed up with precise facts and are usually visualized to support
messages (Lee et al. 2015). Furthermore, data is at the heart of data storytelling (Ojo, & Heravi,
2018).

Data skills are essential for today’s journalistic production. Emily Bell an academic expert in
data journalism thinks that at present, data journalism stays marginal to the core of journalism,
but we should see a move from the margin to the core (Stalph, & Borges-Rey, 2018).
Like other sciences that developed over time, data journalism is in a progressed phase. Today
almost every news analysis and articles in core media use data for their stories. At the academic
level, we need more investment in data journalism courses although it has been included in some
universities’ programs like the MIJ program at the University of Gothenburg and as mentioned
by Wright and Doyle (2019) Australian universities teach subjects in data journalism. Alberto
Cairo, another academic expert in data journalism said, the fact that numeracy is not part of
journalism education in many places indicates how misguided we have been for years (Stalph, &
Borges-Rey, 2018).
In the meantime, journalists and academics have different perspectives about the future of data
journalism. Cairo, Brigitte Alfter, Christina Elmer, and Schmidli agree that at least data
awareness should be apodictic in the journalism of the future. Others, like Herzog and Elmer, are
skeptical about this and believe that data journalism will remain a professional area (Stalph, &
Borges-Rey, 2018).
b) Technology paternalism as a challenge for data journalism
Technology paternalism means that pre-programmed rules go into action without the audience’s
active approval. (Appelgren, 2018). Journalism is one of the few professions whose role is
significant in technology paternalism because it can both protect and harm the public.
Dworkin general definition of paternalism clearly explains how and why Man’s liberties have
been disregarded. “The interference with a person’s liberty of action justified by reasons
referring exclusively to the welfare, good, happiness, needs, interests, or values of the person
being coerced” (Dworkin, 1972, 65).
From another perspective, data journalism can also reduce the effects of technology paternalism,
and as Bradshaw said, it reduces journalistic control. In data journalism, as components of a
more technological culture are combined with the journalistic culture, the impact in terms of
publications in which data journalistic methods have been used contains elements of interactivity
that reduce journalistic control (Bradshaw, 2014).

To name an example that demonstrates a journalistic effort to reduce technology paternalism by
using data is the New York Times' investigative report in January 2020 on facial recognition
systems. To prove that this technology is not so reliable, the New York Times did not only rely
on the US police data but referred to different data and studies including (Patrick, Mei, & Kayee,
2019). The report underlined how facial recognition technology immensely misidentifies people
of color and women. The investigation was based on a study conducted by the National Institute
of Standards and Technology. The greatest argument in facial recognition has been its uneven
conduct with people of different races (The New York Times, 2020).
On the other hand, to name an example that demonstrates the problem of journalistic
paternalism, an article by China Daily on sixth of July 2013 presented the details of
investigations of Xinjiang terror attack. The newspaper only relay on Chinese Government
interpretation of instabilities in Urumqi. The focus on violent actions and their effects on Chinese
Muslims are portrayed in (China Daily, 2013) strongly show paternalistic approaches (Ye, &
Thomas, 2020).
The evolution of data journalism in Australian newsrooms
The structure of Australian data journalists has changed greatly in a short period of time. The
predominant structure of Australian data journalism during the early years was large-scale
interactive dashboards that let readers explore the data themselves (Wright, & Doyle, 2019).
A case study (Wright, & Doyle, 2019) in Australian newsrooms has shown that there was a
strong sense of conflict over the meaning of data journalism there. Being doubtful about how to
define data journalism can be a sign of lack of data skills among journalists. Since data has long
been important, numerous Australian journalists lacked basic data skills. The contemporary
insight of data journalism in Australia began in around 2011 (Wright, & Doyle, 2019).
It seems there have been important gaps between the analysis and practice of data journalism in
Australian newsrooms. There has not been an organized analysis of either the practice or the
structure of data journalism in Australia (Wright, & Doyle, 2019). The case study (Wright, &
Doyle, 2019) summarized the evolution of data journalism in Australian newsrooms into two
arguments. First, there is a movement toward data normalization in some Australian newsrooms.
Second, there is a movement toward data simplification (Wright, & Doyle, 2019).

Conclusion
From the straightforward representation of information to complex data-driven investigations
and newsroom tool expansion, we have seen a growing use of data, and computational tools in
newsrooms in recent years (Ojo, & Heravi, 2018).
There are still a lot of discussions between academics and journalists about the future of data
journalism but for sure, it will become stronger and stronger over time. The discussion remains:
Will data journalism continue to be a professional skillset or will it become a primary knowledge
base for all journalists? Bell thinks that at present, data journalism remains marginal to the core
of journalism, but that we should see a move from the margin to the core. Schmidli regards data
journalism as a unique area of expertise that is gradually flowing in general journalistic
techniques” (Stalph, & Borges-Rey, 2018).
Although there are differences of opinions about the future of data journalism in newsrooms but
it has been proven through history that a change happens when it is inevitable.
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