Different yet complementary: A systematic literature review on data journalism in visualization research and journalism studies

Abstract

This article surveys and compares literature on data journalism from two areas of inquiry: journalism studies and visualization research. As digital interfaces become an important access point for news, journalism and visualization scholars have begun to share a common research interest: data journalism. Given their radically different traditions and histories, these areas follow very different rules in how the topic is approached. The result is two parallel scholarships on data journalism with little points of contact. Arguably, developing research space for encounters and exchange of the two is an opportunity for expanding the academic discourse on data journalism. This study aims at opening this space of exchange through a systematic literature review. 121 articles, published between 2010 and 2023, are analyzed. Findings show that the two areas of research approach data journalism with very different aspirations. In relation to data journalism, journalism studies and visualization research could be compared with Lazersfeld’s distinction between critical and administrative research. These aspects cause various differences at an epistemic level, namely what, how and when knowledge about data journalism is produced.