Branding data journalismgiving a soul to data storytelling

Resumen

This study aims to investigate the strategic value of data journalism for small and medium-sized news outlets from the perspective of elite organizations. To that end, this thesis throws light on the entanglements of data journalism, collaborations, and business models on news outlets worldwide. Considering the particularity of this project, a thesis as a collection of publications would be more appropriate. Therefore, nine publications with different foci but with a common, dominant pattern encompass this thesis and were used to understand the object of study. The body of work presented here represents a point along the phenomenological arc of my contribution to new knowledge and understanding in the field of data journalism. Collectively, it represents different contexts and origins to build a repository of knowledge for a better understanding of contemporary practice in the data journalism industry. By analyzing them together, this study proposes a roadmap that gives a major edge in how data journalism can be deployed to increase the competitive advantage of news outlets in relation to its peers, which is described in the chapter that concludes this thesis. This work collectively fulfills the criteria for thesis by publication, in terms of volume and academic substance. In particular, it brings a distinct contribution to knowledge in journalism studies and brings evidence of broad knowledge and understanding of journalism literature. Furthermore, these publications are high-quality research products with a satisfactory literary presentation and successful application of appropriate methodologies pertinent to the field. Finally, this body of work is an important contribution to the literature and the practice of journalism in the digital and datafied age, which adds to the literature on the topic, but also provides a clear joint vision and roadmap that allows practitioners working in small and medium-sized news outlets to embrace data journalism in their newsrooms.