Data Journalism in the United States

Abstract

Understanding the phenomenon of data journalism requires an examination of this emerging practice not just within organizations themselves, but across them, at the inter-institutional level. Using a semi-structured interview approach, we begin to map the emerging computational journalistic field. We find considerable variety among data journalists in terms of their educational backgrounds, skills, tools and goals. However, many of them face similar struggles, such as trying to define their roles within their organizations and managing scarce resources. Our cross-organizational approach allows for comparisons with similar studies in Belgium, Sweden, and Norway. The common thread in these studies is that the practice of data journalism is stratified. Divisions exist in some countries between resource-rich and resource-poor organizations and in other countries between the realm of discourse and the realm of practice.