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Data journalism

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Accepted manuscript, to be published in:
Fürst, S. (2025). Data Journalism. In A. Nai, M. Grömping, & D. Wirz (Eds.), Elgar
Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Data journalism
Silke Fürst

University of Zurich, Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ), Switzerland

[email protected]
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1978-4277

Abstract
Data journalism has grown significantly in importance since the 2010s, driven by the increased
availability of big data and the growing impact of data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI)
across all sectors of society. Data journalists develop and tell data stories by analysing and
visualising large sets of data, guided by an ethos of openness, transparency, and investigative work.
That ethos is reflected in the role conceptions of data journalists and the potential societal impact
of their coverage. Data journalism is said to improve investigative reporting, to strengthen jour-
nalism’s role as watchdog, to hold those in power accountable, and to empower citizens. However,
data journalism’s potential impact depends largely on the political context, newsroom resources
and journalistic skills, and the interests and knowledge of audiences. Its potential impact has yet
to be fully realised. AI-based tools offer opportunities but also present challenges to the production
and use of data journalism.

Keywords
data-driven journalism; data literacy; investigative journalism; artificial intelligence (AI); citizen
participation; accountability

Data journalism, sometimes called “data-driven journalism”, has grown significantly in impor-
tance since the 2010s and become a buzzword in the media sector all over the world (Arrese, 2022;
Fink & Anderson, 2015; Graßl et al., 2024; Hermida & Young, 2019; Mutsvairo, 2019). Since
then, more than 100 studies on data journalism have been published in international journals
(Erkmen, 2024). Data journalism’s rise in importance is linked to digitalisation and datafication,
including the increased availability of big data and the growing impact of data, algorithms, and
artificial intelligence (AI) across all sectors of society. Large legacy media outlets, including The
Guardian, BBC, The New York Times, and Financial Times, are renowned for innovations in data
journalism and award-winning stories (Ausserhofer et al., 2020; Hermida & Young, 2019; Tong,
2023). Prominent examples of data journalism projects have also originated from international

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collaborations, as was the case with the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, and Pandora Papers
(Lück & Schultz, 2019; Stalph et al., 2023). In those investigations of the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists, the “leaks of data in huge quantities revealed the secrets that powerful
political and economic elites, including politicians, public officials and business leaders, want to
hide from the public eye” (Tong, 2023, p. 2). Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has amplified the
importance and prevalence of data journalism, with many newsrooms using official data to create
daily updated visualisations (Bisiani et al., 2023; Graßl et al., 2024; Tong, 2023).

This article outlines the key characteristics, ethical standards, and potential impact of data jour-
nalism as well as its challenges and limitations, and audiences’ interests. The article concludes by
highlighting new developments in data journalism driven by automation and AI tools.

Key features and ethical standards of data journalism

Although there is no commonly agreed definition of data journalism among academics (Ausser-
hofer et al., 2020) and journalists (Fink & Anderson, 2015), most scholars understand it as devel-
oping and telling data stories by analysing and visualising large sets of data (Arrese, 2022; Ausser-
hofer et al., 2020). Journalism has a longstanding tradition of reporting data and numbers, not only
in precision journalism—a forerunner of data journalism which originated in the 1960s and used
social sciences techniques to systematically analyse data (Anderson, 2018; Arrese, 2022)—but
more generally when data from media releases is incorporated into articles, often without veri-
fication or contextualisation (Fürst, 2021). In contrast to the latter, data journalism is “based on
data analysis and the presentation of such analysis” (Coddington, 2015, p. 334), meaning that data
are analysed and used “as a primary source for storytelling and reporting” (Erkmen, 2024, p. 59).
This often includes data visualisations, such as infographics and dynamic maps with interactive
components (Erkmen, 2024; Mutsvairo, 2019).

Ethical standards and core practices of data journalism comprise an “ethos of openness and trans-
parency” (Hermida & Young, 2019, p. 23) and of investigative work, including verifying and
cross-checking data, protecting sources, and contextualising data (Coddington, 2015; Erkmen,
2024; Lück & Schultz, 2019). That ethos is reflected in the role conceptions of data journalists and
the potential societal impact of their coverage.

Potential impact of data journalism

Data journalism is said to improve investigative reporting, to strengthen journalism’s role as

watchdog, and to hold those in power accountable (Erkmen, 2024; Porlezza & Splendore, 2019).
Data journalists not only analyse and visualise available government and public data but also tell
neglected stories hidden in datasets, fight for access to data sources, compare different datasets,
and search for trustworthy sources to explain and contextualise key findings of data analysis (Fink
& Anderson, 2015; Lück & Schultz, 2019; Porlezza & Splendore, 2019; Tong, 2023). Because
many, though not all, data stories make the analysed data accessible and use interactive elements
for user exploration, they enable citizens to access data, understand political and social structures,
and demand good governance (Erkmen, 2024; Mutsvairo, 2019; Porlezza & Splendore, 2019;
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Weber et al., 2018). In that light, data journalism contributes to citizens’ participation, transpar-
ency, and democratic accountability (Erkmen, 2024; Mutsvairo, 2019). However, data jour-
nalism’s potential impact depends largely on the political context, newsroom resources and journa-
listic skills, and the interests and knowledge of audiences.

Challenges and limitations of data journalism

Regarding the political context, research has revealed that data journalism is often limited by a
heavy dependence on data from government and other official sources. Open data are often either
unavailable or lack transparency, particularly in the Global South and non-democratic countries
(Bisiani et al., 2023; Erkmen, 2024; Mutsvairo, 2019) but also in Europe (Graßl et al., 2024),
especially at the local level. Because regional and local media outlets often struggle to gain access
to usable data, the “practice of data journalism at the local level depends on a few data journalism
advocates” (Stalph et al., 2023, p. 1882) who gain access to data through good relationships with
local authorities. In addition, technical and infrastructure issues, including security concerns, can
make data journalism reporting difficult (Erkmen, 2024).

Limited resources for journalism and a lack of data-oriented skills are additional barriers to the
widespread adoption of data journalism in newsrooms. Data journalism is practised by a small but
growing number of specialised journalists, who typically work in larger organisations (Erkmen,
2024; Tong, 2023), but remains rather marginal in local and regional media outlets, practised only
by a few journalists who engage in data-driven newswork alongside their regular duties (Stalph et
al., 2023). In most countries, journalism in general faces financial pressures, such that many news-
rooms have experienced severe staff cuts in recent decades and needed to produce more content
with fewer resources (Fürst, 2020). Those obstacles also affect the resources allocated to data
journalism, for such in-depth analysis and storytelling tends to be expensive and time-consuming
(Fink & Anderson, 2015; Graßl et al., 2024; Lück & Schultz, 2019; Stalph et al., 2023). Moreover,
many newsrooms lack staff with strong data skills (Mutsvairo, 2019) and rarely offer in-house
training programmes to acquire those skills (Erkmen, 2024), even though a growing number of
journalists are interested in learning them (Mutsvairo, 2019). In local and regional news organi-
sations, training in data journalism thus often depends on the journalists’ own initiative (Stalph et
al., 2023). Journalism education at universities also often lacks training in data literacy (Mutsvairo,
2019), and even specialised education in data journalism tends to exclude training in ethics and
transparency (Erkmen, 2024) and the development of deeper, more critical data literacy (Bhas-
karan et al., 2024).

In some cases, those shortcomings can cause journalists to leave the main work of data journalism
to “technologists and statisticians who in some cases have few journalistic skills” (Mutsvairo,
2019, p. 9). In others, data journalists may work on data teams composed of individuals with
complementary skills (Bisiani et al., 2023; Stalph et al., 2023) or use networks with scientists, soft-
ware programmers, and journalists from other news outlets, all of whom engage in collaborative
newsroom work and exchanges that are mutually beneficial (Graßl et al., 2024; Lück & Schultz,
2019). Overall, data journalism is more prevalent in Western countries than elsewhere due to the
need for data access, digital infrastructure, newsroom resources, and trained personnel (Bisiani et
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al., 2023; Erkmen, 2024). Even so, it is also increasingly adopted and practised in non-Western
societies as well, including Pakistan, China, Indonesia, and Nigeria (Mutsvairo, 2019; Tong, 2023).

Audiences’ interests in and uses of data journalism

Last, the impact of data journalism depends on the interests and knowledge of audiences. In many
media organisations, the production of data stories aims to attract the attention of audiences,
engage them, and regain or strengthen their trust in journalism (Tong, 2023). Data journalists
perceive visualisations as being crucial for arousing the interest of audiences and increasing the
time that users spend on their websites. Although some consider that simple data visualisations
sufficiently serve those purposes, other data journalists consider interactive elements as being vital,
for they “encourage users to look for further stories on their own” (Weber et al., 2018, p. 200)—
for instance, to check out their own local areas and thereby connect stories to their personal
environments.

Data journalists typically gain such understandings of audiences by using online audience metrics,
including page views or average time spent on their articles (Fürst, 2020; Weber et al., 2018).
However, little is known about the actual impact of data journalism on audiences. Most studies on
data journalism have focused on data journalists, production processes, and the content of data
stories, whereas few have examined their uses and effects on audiences (Erkmen, 2024). Those
audience-focused studies have suggested that users have varying interest in data stories (Link et
al., 2021) and “mixed levels of data literacy” (Mutsvairo, 2019, p. 9), especially in countries with
high levels of educational inequality. They have also suggested that “presenting statistical infor-
mation and visualizations has neither a positive nor a negative effect on message credibility and
reading experience” (Link et al., 2021, p. 590). Moreover, they support the mentioned assumption
that simple data visualisations are suited well for many users, while interactive elements are an
add-on for highly-involved users (Link et al., 2021). These studies indicate that data journalism’s
potential impact has yet to be fully realised and that more detailed analyses of the interests, skills,
engagement, and knowledge gains of audiences are needed.

New developments driven by automation and AI tools

Existing barriers to the production and use of data journalism might partly change with the growing
implementation of automation and AI tools in newsrooms. Data journalists can use AI-based tools
to improve the collection, cleaning, and analysis of large datasets and simplify the creation of
visualisations, which could help data journalists to compensate for increasingly scarce resources
(Erkmen, 2024; Fridman et al., 2023). However, the increased use of AI also presents ethical dilemmas,
including about data privacy (Fridman et al., 2023), and “the risk of biased algorithms, trained on
biased data” (Erkmen, 2024, p. 74). At the same time, AI is not only changing how data journalism
will be performed in the future but is also a relevant subject of such journalism. Given the growing
impact of algorithms and AI on society, data stories about algorithmic bias and the role of AI in
decision-making—for example, in financial markets, the health sector, criminal justice, and the
assessment of students and (prospective) employees (Tong, 2023, pp. 20–21)—are becoming more
important and can contribute to public deliberation on AI and its governance.
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Conclusion

To sum up, data journalism has grown significantly in importance since the 2010s, with data
journalists around the world developing and telling data stories by analysing and visualising large
sets of data, guided by an ethos of openness, transparency, and investigative work. Data journalism
is said to improve investigative reporting, to strengthen journalism’s role as watchdog, to hold
those in power accountable, and to empower citizens. However, the potential impact of data
journalism depends largely on the political context, newsroom resources, journalistic skills, and
the interests and knowledge of audiences, and has yet to be fully realised. AI-based tools offer
opportunities but also present challenges to the production and use of data journalism.

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