Editorial Technologists as Engineers of Journalism’s Future: Exploring the Professional Community of Computational Journalism

Abstract

Editorial technologists, such as developers, designers, or data specialists represent novel interdisciplinary computational journalism positions in newsrooms. Drawing on field theory, this explorative study evaluates the character of the professional community of editorial technologists by analyzing their discussions in the peer conference “SRCCON” over four years (2016–2019). Findings indicate that editorial technologists are united by the goal to improve journalism. They critically reflect on their roles and strive to augment their agency in the field through normalizing their computational skills, accumulating social capital, e.g., by building enduring relationships in newsrooms, and gaining symbolic capital. Instead of pressing to enforce technological adoption at all costs, editorial technologists acknowledge their responsibility towards the editorial office, news organizations, audiences, and society at large. These responsibilities form the core of their doxa, which is why we conceive of editorial technologists as a community of accountable engineers of sociotechnical change in journalism. Editorial technologists’ collective professional imagination aims at overcoming the inert processes, hegemonic structures, and restrictive culture of journalism.