Abstract
Theme: Building resilience for the future
The ongoing pandemic has underlined that data journalism is increasignly vital as a “social epistemology“ of journalism to deliver public services (Godler, Reich & Miller 2020). Journalists collaborate with data providers to design interfaces for making realtime data understandable to audiences. This kind of “automating the news” (Diakopoulos 2019) is not only limited to covering the pandemic but becomes experimentally embedded in different kinds of contexts. In this paper, we analyse dashboards and databases created by news organisations in different European cities that present the “realtimeness of cities” (Kitchin 2018) through dynamic, visual representations of data, flows and sensor measurements. The overall ambition of this study is to situate journalism as a change agent in long-term trajectories towards sustainable societies. Making data available and understandable to audiences through both interfaces and narratives of change requires a collaborative environment where journalism can regain public relevance (Ward 2019; Anderson and Borges-Rey 2019).
The conceptual starting point for this paper are three current trends: 1) the infrastructural power of social media platforms to engage audiences with issues of public concern, 2) experimental methodologies in sustainability transitions in smart cities, and 3) the opportunities of collaborative frameworks around ‘digital civics’.
(1) Social media platforms such as Facebook exert "monopoly control over a core digital infrastructure" (Pickard 2020: 10), engaging audiences, consumers and citizens through instant access to social networks. But these platforms offer resources for collaborative arrangements where journalism can be a change agent (Burgess and Hurcombe 2019) in crafting narratives and long-term modes of engagements with societal issues. This means crafting interfaces for civic communication around a "platform pivot" (Barns 2019) in the smart city and the wider society to reinvent the public mandate of journalism.
(2) Experimental methodologies for citizen participation in smart cities (Marvin et al. 2018) are a role model here: urban futures need participation and deliberation processes that cater to sustainability and social equity. Designing for different aspirations and user perspectives means to think of “democratisation as political design in an agonistic public framework" (Björgvinsson, Ehn and Hillgren 2012: 129). Such transition experiments “need to be inclusive of a variety of engaged social actors with the objective of connected social learning in relation to a new socio- technical configuration" (Sengers, Wieczorek and Raven 2019: 161). Experimental methodologies offer a new way of engaging audiences and stakeholders in the design of interfaces and resources for civic communication as a form of journalism beyond the news.
(3) Using such methodologies, data journalism can make data actionable through design and deliberation processes that allow different groups of actors to understand themselves as agents in a change process. The challenge is to collaborate with actors in civil society, the tech industry and also policy makers and administrators to make sustainability transitions part of citizens’ daily lived experience (Author et al.; in press).
We conceptualize journalists as change agents, focusing on a new generation of journalists and designers as representatives of the “digital civics” movement (Vlachokyriakos et al. 2016). Experimenting with data, media and new modes of engagement and collaboration, actors deliberately develop counter-narratives to the news agenda of the day (Broersma and Singer 2020) with long-term goals and political aims in sight. We argue that activities located within activism networks can be considered journalistic in kind, e.g., making existing but imperfect data actionable for social change (Alvarado Garcia et al. 2017), sharing data stories from underrepresented groups (Gabrys et al. 2016), or to design publics at a local level (Le Dantec 2016). Journalistic practices are needed to create new interfaces in which realtime data and long-term narratives of change are co-creatively developed and contested with audiences and publics.
The ongoing pandemic has underlined that data journalism is increasignly vital as a “social epistemology“ of journalism to deliver public services (Godler, Reich & Miller 2020). Journalists collaborate with data providers to design interfaces for making realtime data understandable to audiences. This kind of “automating the news” (Diakopoulos 2019) is not only limited to covering the pandemic but becomes experimentally embedded in different kinds of contexts. In this paper, we analyse dashboards and databases created by news organisations in different European cities that present the “realtimeness of cities” (Kitchin 2018) through dynamic, visual representations of data, flows and sensor measurements. The overall ambition of this study is to situate journalism as a change agent in long-term trajectories towards sustainable societies. Making data available and understandable to audiences through both interfaces and narratives of change requires a collaborative environment where journalism can regain public relevance (Ward 2019; Anderson and Borges-Rey 2019).
The conceptual starting point for this paper are three current trends: 1) the infrastructural power of social media platforms to engage audiences with issues of public concern, 2) experimental methodologies in sustainability transitions in smart cities, and 3) the opportunities of collaborative frameworks around ‘digital civics’.
(1) Social media platforms such as Facebook exert "monopoly control over a core digital infrastructure" (Pickard 2020: 10), engaging audiences, consumers and citizens through instant access to social networks. But these platforms offer resources for collaborative arrangements where journalism can be a change agent (Burgess and Hurcombe 2019) in crafting narratives and long-term modes of engagements with societal issues. This means crafting interfaces for civic communication around a "platform pivot" (Barns 2019) in the smart city and the wider society to reinvent the public mandate of journalism.
(2) Experimental methodologies for citizen participation in smart cities (Marvin et al. 2018) are a role model here: urban futures need participation and deliberation processes that cater to sustainability and social equity. Designing for different aspirations and user perspectives means to think of “democratisation as political design in an agonistic public framework" (Björgvinsson, Ehn and Hillgren 2012: 129). Such transition experiments “need to be inclusive of a variety of engaged social actors with the objective of connected social learning in relation to a new socio- technical configuration" (Sengers, Wieczorek and Raven 2019: 161). Experimental methodologies offer a new way of engaging audiences and stakeholders in the design of interfaces and resources for civic communication as a form of journalism beyond the news.
(3) Using such methodologies, data journalism can make data actionable through design and deliberation processes that allow different groups of actors to understand themselves as agents in a change process. The challenge is to collaborate with actors in civil society, the tech industry and also policy makers and administrators to make sustainability transitions part of citizens’ daily lived experience (Author et al.; in press).
We conceptualize journalists as change agents, focusing on a new generation of journalists and designers as representatives of the “digital civics” movement (Vlachokyriakos et al. 2016). Experimenting with data, media and new modes of engagement and collaboration, actors deliberately develop counter-narratives to the news agenda of the day (Broersma and Singer 2020) with long-term goals and political aims in sight. We argue that activities located within activism networks can be considered journalistic in kind, e.g., making existing but imperfect data actionable for social change (Alvarado Garcia et al. 2017), sharing data stories from underrepresented groups (Gabrys et al. 2016), or to design publics at a local level (Le Dantec 2016). Journalistic practices are needed to create new interfaces in which realtime data and long-term narratives of change are co-creatively developed and contested with audiences and publics.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Publikationsdato | sep. 2021 |
| Status | Udgivet - sep. 2021 |
| Begivenhed | The Future of Journalism: Overcoming Obstacles in Journalism - Wales, Cardiff, Storbritannien Varighed: 22 sep. 2021 → 24 sep. 2021 https://cardiffjournalism.co.uk/foj2021/future-of-journalism-2021-itinerary/ |
Konference
| Konference | The Future of Journalism |
|---|---|
| Lokation | Wales |
| Land/Område | Storbritannien |
| By | Cardiff |
| Periode | 22/09/2021 → 24/09/2021 |
| Internetadresse |