Presentation at the University of Sheffield symposium on Data Journalism

I had a wonderful time presenting data on audience engagement practices in data journalism at the symposium Data journalism organized by the University of Sheffield. The presentation is part of the multi country project on data journalism in collaboration with my awesome friends Jason Martin and Gerry Lanosga. 

You can access the Youtube video of the conference presentation.

Presentation Title: Data Journalism and Audience Engagement in 34 Countries: Instrumental or Substantive?

Abstract: Digital innovation in data journalism is driving new ways of thinking about audience, necessitating the need for more research attention to how data journalists incorporate engagement in their work and whether news organisations conceive of their data journalism audience as active users or reactive consumers (De-Lima-Santos & Mesquita, 2021; Lopezosa et al., 2021). Previous studies suggest that audience engagement practices in journalism are conditioned by a range of external factors that tend to diverge into instrumental or substantive forms of audience engagement (Lawrence et al., 2018). Yet, we need more scholarly attention to cross-national differences in data journalism practice with focus on journalistic culture, media market structures, and political context (Appelgren et al., 2019).

This study attempts to address those problems through analysis of data gathered from in-depth interviews with data journalists from 34 unique countries during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were asked how they define their professional roles in relation to their audience, how they value data transparency in their reporting methods, how they integrate citizens into their professional routines via crowdsourcing, and how they conceptualize audience engagement via visual interactivity in data driven stories. Results contribute to a better cross-national understanding of how data journalists think about audience engagement with attention to the contextual factors that influence their work, including public data transparency environment, organisational structure and goals, and epistemology about journalism’s role in their local communities. Results echo sentiments in recent debates that emphasize the need for audience-focused news that empowers the public.