Between Objectivity and Openness—The Mediality of Data for Journalism

Data Journalism in the Philippines: New Trends, New Practices for Old Media Organizations

“…Informants in the study report of frequent collaboration with "civic organizations", "open-source initiatives", as well as "communities of programmers", "libraries, trusts, and foundations" (Borges-Rey, 2016, p.840). Lesage and Hackett's (2013) analysis of data journalism identifies a judicious set of challenges for two of the key selling points of data journalism -openness and objectivity, that shape changes in how news organizations conducted research and dealt with data. Data journalism represents a shift to a type of credibility now judged based on the openness of datawith openness referring to its accessibility in terms of format and visualization -and an objectivity that is automatically granted because data is believed to be objective in itself.…”

“…However, Lesage and Hackett (2013) caution against taking for granted the openness and objectivity of data. For one, raw data often requires filtering and cleaning so that it may become understandable, machine-processible, and accessible to readers (Lesage and Hackett, 2013, p.42), which poses a challenge in terms of organizational resources needed to support operations.…”

The Technological Imagination of Public Media

“…One example of this approach is the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) recent announcement that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to explore new uses of open data and open standards with the Open Knowledge Foundation, the Open Data Institute, the Mozilla Foundation (who distributes Firefox), and Europeana. The details of this memorandum and a more in--depth discussion of what constitutes open data are beyond the scope of this paper (for more details on the former, see Lesage (2014), and for examples of the latter, see Gurstein (2011)). Broadly speaking, open data represents a set of principles related to the collection, analysis and distribution of data rather than a specific technology or a technological solution.…”

“…This alternative technological imagination for public media is also being explored here in Canada. The RC Lab in Montreal has been experimenting with ways to change the culture among journalists and other content creators related to digital media (Lesage, 2014). Open data is by no means a 'fringe' movement but its future direction remains uncertain.…”

“…Open data is by no means a 'fringe' movement but its future direction remains uncertain. Media organizations are currently exploring how to adapt its princi-ples to the way they deliver information to their audiences (Lesage & Hackett, 2013). Whether broadcasters like the CBC decide to apply these principles in ways that present real alternatives to the current state of media likely depends on the extent to which decision makers have the courage to embrace an alternative technological imagination.…”