A Desert Flower

Abstract

In the Arab region, data journalism is like a desert flower: a beautiful surprise in a mostly arid land that can take root in imperfect conditions. Data journalism is rare in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region yet oddly contrarian: it surfaces in unexpected, even repressive locales and fails to gain traction in nations where freedom of expression is more accepted. The purpose of this chapter is to identify what distinguishes data journalism in the Arab region and identify the conditions under which it has sprouted. This study is based on 16 interviews with data practitioners in the five nations, an ethnography at the region’s most influential news organization, and field observation. Data journalism in the region is both similar to and different from its cousins in the Global North. In any nation, data practice requires technical expertise and tools as well as numerical literacy. Sufficient equipment and expertise are absent in some Arab nations, though grant-funded organizations have provided computers and training. The fruits of data journalism are more often produced for digital formats than for broadcast or print, which in the Arab region is both a limit (coding skills are rare and legacy platforms ascendant) and an opportunity, as some data journalists have used the internet to circumvent official meddling. Yet what differentiates data in the region is less availability of skills than limitations on journalism practice both real and imagined. Those restraints are not just official; they involve self-censorship and the low career status afforded journalism. Equally important is role perception and a belief that nationalism requires loyalty and passivity as information conduits over detachment and an embrace of knowledge production. Such factors are as much societal as journalistic and preclude efforts to apply a Western template to detain the Arab region.