The need to reflect: data journalism as an aspect of disrupted practice in digital journalism and in journalism education

Abstract

Open data is both an opportunity and a challenge for journalism. Our paper describes how newsroom quality management has to be readjusted to provide accurate news in data driven journalism and how these changes affect the pedagogy and learning environments of journalism education. We discuss qualitative changes in newsgathering caused by the availability of open data sets and big data sources and their consequences for quality management against the background of structuration theory. Although there is no clear evidence signaling disruptive change in quality management, two developments cause a need for normative realignment, expansion of individual skill sets and an inventory of novel resources.