“Data Journalism”, an investigation Practice? A glance at the German and Greek cases

Abstract

This contribution explores the links between the traditional work routines in investigative journalism and those, emergent ones, in « data journalism ». How do the European journalistic cultures react to this phenomenon, widely considered as a potential vector of profound destabilization of the established professional practices of the field and thus redefining the – fuzzy per se – contours of a profession that is already questioning its future? The issue here is to examine the extent to which the discourse on « data journalism » also reflects investigation practices and, through it, the professional ethics and journalistic ideals. With this intention, we put in parallel two European cases, namely the German the Greek one. The comparison of the two cases, by getting into the details of this proximity, clarifies the structuring of a professional discourse, the imaginaires feeding it on, and highlights - through the rhetoric of visualization – how the implicit dimension in the discourse about “data journalism” relates to a great extent to the way the information is given to read.This contribution explores the links between the traditional work routines in investigative journalism and those, emergent ones, in « data journalism ». How do the European journalistic cultures react to this phenomenon, widely considered as a potential vector of profound destabilization of the established professional practices of the field and thus redefining the – fuzzy per se – contours of a profession that is already questioning its future? The issue here is to examine the extent to which the discourse on « data journalism » also reflects investigation practices and, through it, the professional ethics and journalistic ideals. With this intention, we put in parallel two European cases, namely the German the Greek one. The comparison of the two cases, by getting into the details of this proximity, clarifies the structuring of a professional discourse, the imaginaires feeding it on, and highlights - through the rhetoric of visualization – how the implicit dimension in the discourse about “data journalism” relates to a great extent to the way the information is given to read.