Research Project DATAPUBLICS - Transforming Journalism and Audiences in the age of datafication

Project Duration: 01/01/2020 - 05/31/2024

The project examines what the ever-increasing amount of data available in our society means to Journalism, and thus sheds light on the changes in the relations between the news media and the news users. In recent few years, big tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have taken on an increasing role in news distribution, and their increased importance is changing not only the journalism as we know it today, but also the news media ecosystem itself. At the same time, news organizations have big data sets about the behavior of the news user, just as the news user can partly personalize his news consumption through filters and partly subject to filtering through various algorithms. In other words, the data affirmation has fundamentally changed the news journalism, and this project examines what it means and what consequences it has for the democratic conversation and public connection. Through four empirical studies, we analyze how datafication of news transforms the way the publics are created and how it affects citizen engagement with the public. Overall, the project thus contributes to a new field of research on datafication of the news media and their publics and will theoretically develop the concept of “Datapublics”.

News

The Media and Publics conference kicks off

27 April 2022 |

The conference, organised by three research projects at Roskilde University, takes place April 28th and 29th and will deliver insights into the concept and formation of publics

Hands browsing on a tablet in front of a computer screen

DataPublics article on the ‘Media-Use-No-Trust’ paradox out now

12 January 2022 |

Associate professor David Mathieu and PI Jannie Møller Hartley of the DataPublics team have a new article out in Big Data & Society exploring the paradox of citizens trusting least the media they use most. Here they reflect on how it came about and the subsequent findings.

Models of the structure of SARS-CoV-2 with numbers behind

Report: Limited presence of conspiratorial content during Covid-19

15 November 2021 |

In the Danish context, the impact and presence of conspiratorial content have been limited throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the conclusion in a newly published white paper from Roskilde University.

Contact

Rie Hovmann Rasmussen // General inquiries // Project coordinator // riehr@ruc.dk

Researchers

Jannie Møller Hartley // Project leader & Responsible for subproject 2 // Associate professor // jath@ruc.dk

My subproject investigates how datafication is changing news production and journalistic practices, ideals and self-understandings. Through ethnographic field work in news organisations the subproject focusses on the relations between algorithms and big data in the everyday news-work. The project applies an evolutionary understanding of technological artefacts, for example algorithms, seeing them as value systems and thus narrative discursive spaces for the circulation of symbolic goods, such as journalistic news articles or items.

Mette Bengtsson // Responsible for subproject 4 // Assistent professor // bengtsson@ruc.dk

My subproject will investigate audiences engagement practices situated in between platform mechanisms and algorithms in a number of case studies. Drawing on a range of qualitative methods, including ethnographic observations (online and offline), interviews and protocol-readings, the subproject explores concrete manifestations of engagement practices as they unfold across multiple contexts such as social media, news media and offline settings.

Morten Fischer Sivertsen // Responsible for subproject 3 // PhD student // msiverts@ruc.dk

My subproject scrutinizes the social structuration of citizens’ (lack of) links to and integration within public life in datafied publics. I use statistical analysis of survey data in order to investigate correlations between social class, media consumption, cultural practices and civic engagement in both offline and online settings. Furthermore, I am exploring how digital methods using Facebook-data can methodologically supplement the more classical survey approach.

Lisa Merete Kristensen // Responsible for subproject 1 // Postdoc researcher // lisak@ruc.dk

My subproject investigates what datafication – in the form of new networked associations between media companies means for the editorial decisions and for publicist business models in a Nordic democratic corporatist media system. In order to explore this, I draw on document analysis as well as conduct qualitative interviews with stakeholders, digital editors and marketing departments inside particularly technologically advanced and innovative newsrooms, both in Denmark and in other countries, in order to explore their usage of data in different practices. The hope is, that the project will deliver a systematic analysis of how ‘hyperscale’ big data networks are solidifying the relationships between platform mechanisms and journalistic media.

Anna Schjøtt Hansen // Research Assistant // anscha@ruc.dk

Tim Gottenborg Bruun Ramsland // Student Assistant // tgbr@ruc.dk

Publications

Audience Metrics: Operationalizing News Value for the Digital Newsroom
Kristensen, L. M., 2023, In: Journalism Practice. 17, 5, p. 991-1008 18 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Designing What’s News: An Ethnography of a Personalization Algorithm and the Data-Driven (Re)Assembling of the News
Schjøtt Hansen, A. & Hartley, J. M., 2023, In: Digital Journalism. 11, 6, p. 924-942 19 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Civic distinctions: Towards an analytical framework for analysing (mediated) citizenship through a field sociological lens
Sivertsen, M. & Hartley, J., May 2022.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Conference abstract for conference › Research › peer-review

More publications

Press-media

Fond giver millioner til forskning i datas betydning for journalistik
Hartley, J. M.
27/09/2019
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media

Funding

The project "Datafied News Media – Datafied Publics? How datafication is transforming Journalism and their Publics" has been supported with DKK 6 million by THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS' core group programme.