Data journalism as a platform: Architecture, agents, protocols

This chapter proposes an approach whereby architecture transcends the boundaries of the hardware and reaches both the virtual and material datafied ecosystems that shape our modern society. Data were also perceived as an opportunity by a small number of news organizations, who invested in data journalism to spearhead their efforts in positioning journalism as society’s watchdog once again. The chapter argues that data literacy is essential not only for journalists to perform data journalism but, more importantly, for the public to make sense of an increasingly datafied world, where rules are dictated by automated agents and their protocols and power is mediated by data brokers. The idea of data as an immaterial commodity used by journalists is both limited and constraining, in the author view. This is why perhaps the most effective way to outline the contours of data journalism as a platform is by recognizing data as an active material entity that affects the agency of data journalists.