The Mobile Challenge for Data Journalism

NODA17, Odense27.1.2017

Ville Manninen & Turo Uskali Department of Languages and Communication

University of JyväskyläFinland

Introduction

• “In the next 12–18 months, many news organizations will cross the 50 percent threshold where more users are visiting on phones and tablets than on desktop computers and laptops.” (Fiona Spruill/New York Times, 2012, Nieman Lab)

Introduction

• “Data journalism needs to go mobile” (Simon Rogers, 2014, Simonrogers.net)

Introduction

• Many newsrooms announced for the first time during 2014 that over 50 percent of their traffic came from mobile devices. (Journalism.org)

• Also Google told that more searches are being made on mobile devices than on desktop computers in 2015. (Search Engine Land)

Introduction

• The starting point for this paper is in the claim that journalism research focusing on mobile journalism is still in its infancy.

• In similar vein, it can be argued that academic research on data journalism has so far (2010– 2016) mainly focused on data journalism in the desktop era.

Main concepts

• For this paper mobile journalism was defined as journalism tailored for small screens, especially for smartphones.

• Data journalism is journalism based on large data sets.

Main questions and method

• Does mobile data journalism exist in the newsrooms? What kind of practices there are?

• Interviews of leaders of data journalism teams, data visualisation experts, and data journalism trainers from eight countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US, N=20) during 2016.

Results

“Mobile data journalism”

• The initial responses to our inquiries regarding “mobile data journalism” were puzzled, or even openly antagonistic.

• Several interviewees were either unfamiliar with the concept, or they questioned its usefulness.

Problems in producing data journalism for mobile devices

• Smaller screen size restricts the amount of data that can be fitted onto a single screen.

• Fewer data points means fewer and simpler elements.

“The more pixels you have available, the more you can show.” (Jan Willem Tulp)

Problems in producing data journalism for mobile devices

• The touchscreen interface restricts the amount of data points and/or the use of interactive features.

• Elaborate interactive features can create a problem for information discovery.

Problems in producing data journalism for mobile devices

• Device and setting variety cause some problems with back end development.

• What technology can be utilized to enhance the user experience?

First and foremost, everything has to work on the mobile platform.

Opportunities in producing data journalism for mobile devices

• Only few interviewees saw the mobile platform to provide new opportunities for the production or presentation of data journalism.

• Some points of interest:– Personalisation options– Geolocation– Crowdsourcing– Playfulness

Opportunities in producing data journalism for mobile devices

Personalisation

Uutisvahti(News Watch)

By Yleisradio

Opportunities in producing data journalism for mobile devices

Geolocation

Ålesund Brenner (Ålesund Burns)

By Sunnmørsposten

Opportunities in producing data journalism for mobile devices

Crowdsourcing: Suomen leppoisin kunta (Finland’s most easygoing town) by Yleisradio

In conclusion

• The mobile challenge has not yet changed much of the journalistic practices in data journalism - only the end product must be made to conform to the mobile platform.

• Data journalists accept mobile devices as the future, but they do not seem to be very excited about it.

Next

• What has happened since spring 2016 in the newsrooms in terms of ”mobile data journalism”. (More interviews during NODA17).

• Content analysis of sample of ”mobile data journalism” stories. (So far, N=4). Based on Hans Bredow Institute’s codebook (Loosen et al. 2016)