Computing the News

Faced with a full-blown crisis, a growing number of journalists are engaging in seemingly unjournalistic practices such as creating and maintaining databases, handling algorithms, or designing online applications. "Data journalists" claim that these approaches help the profession demonstrate greater objectivity and fulfill its democratic mission. In their view, computational methods enable journalists to better inform their readers, more closely monitor those in power, and offer deeper analysis.

In Computing the News, Sylvain Parasie examines how data journalists and news organizations have navigated the tensions between traditional journalistic values and new technologies. He traces the history of journalistic hopes for computing technology and contextualizes the surge of data journalism in the twenty-first century. By importing computational techniques and ways of knowing new to journalism, news organizations have come to depend on a broader array of human and nonhuman actors. Parasie draws on extensive fieldwork in the United States and France, including interviews with journalists and data scientists as well as a behind-the-scenes look at several acclaimed projects in both countries. Ultimately, he argues, fulfilling the promise of data journalism requires the renewal of journalistic standards and ethics. Offering an in-depth analysis of how computing has become part of the daily practices of journalists, this book proposes ways for journalism to evolve in order to serve democratic societies.

Auteur

Sylvain Parasie

Contenu

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Trying to Be Nonjudgmental
Part I. Two Paths to Data Journalism

1. Revealing Injustice with Computers, 1967-1995
2. Rankings; or, The Unintended Consequences of Computation, 1988-2000
   Part II. A Challenge for Journalism
3. Rebooting Journalism
4. A Tale of Two Cultures?
5. The Tensions Facing Data Journalism
   Part III. Data Journalism in the Making
6. The Making of a Revelation
7. How Not to Get Academic
8. The Art of Bringing About Publics
   Conclusion: An Ethics of Reflexivity
   Notes
   Bibliography
   Index