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

Photo of laptop and elements resembling AI

AI has entered the newsroom – but what future will it bring?

07 January 2021 |

Newsrooms around the world have already or are in the process of implementing AI as part of the newsroom practices, the considerations and potentials of AI have been mapped in a recent report by Polis. PI of DataPublics, Jannie Møller Hartley, here comments on some of the conclusions and their relations to the project.

RUC researcher receives grant for project on counterpublics

15 December 2020 |

Roskilde University’s (RUC) Department for Communication and Arts with the latest grant has three large research projects investigating the formation of publics in today’s mediated society. The three projects are ‘Data Publics’, ‘Cultural Publics’ and the latest addition ‘Alternative Media and Ideological Counterpublics’, making RUC a growing knowledge centre in research on publics and journalism.

Woman with a tattoo holding up a stack of books.

Data Publics Top Reads

11 December 2020 |

Are you interested in how algorithms and the increasing use of audience data by news organisations are transforming journalism and producing new forms of publics? Then we in the Data Publics project devised a list of favourite reads on the subject that hopefully can offer some inspiration to others like us who find this topic both interesting and important.

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.