[Commlist] cfp: Special issue of the Media Studies and Applied Ethics - Datafication of Journalism

Call for papers
Special issue of the Media Studies and Applied Ethics - Datafication of 
Journalism
Deadline (abstracts): 13 December 2022
Edited by Ana Milojevic (University of Bergen)
*
*
*Datafication of journalism *

Datafication is changing every aspect of our society including 
journalism as one of the important fundaments of democracy. Following 
the news production phases (observation, production, distribution, and 
news consumption) Loosen (2018:4) distinguishes between four forms of 
datafied journalism: data-based journalism, alogrithmed journalism, 
automated journalism, and metrics-driven journalism. Different aspects 
of data driven changes in journalism have been examined in all those 
forms during the last decades, but many
blind spots are still to be filled. Therefore, the main aim of this 
special issue is to put audiences in the forefront of examining 
different forms of journalism datafication.

Namely, data journalism as a fast-growing phenomena has been attracting 
scholarly attention. However, most of the research has been focusing on 
identifying characteristics of data journalism as the emerging subfield 
(genres, methods, storytelling techniques) and its integration into 
organizations, practices, and education worldwide (e.g. Bhaskaran, 
Kashyap & Mishra, 2022; Fink & Anderson, 2015; Munoriyarwa, 2022; Young, 
Hermida, & Fulda, 2018; Wu, 2022), while far less is known about 
audience relation to data journalism.
In the strand of the algorithmic journalism research, studies of user 
interactions with algorithms have been more prominent and diversified, 
including user perceptions of news personalization process (Monzer, 
2020), experiences of news recommender systems (Wieland, 2021), and 
satisfaction with algorithmic news selections (Swart, 2021; Thurman et 
al. 2019). However, as Shin (2022: 1168) underlines, “little is known 
about the ways through which readers understand and actualize the 
potential for trust or affordances in algorithmic journalism”.

Also, significant body of research considers audiences in form of 
audience analytics and metrics as central for journalism transformation, 
including journalistic roles (Belair-Gagnon, Zamith, and Holton, 2020), 
news values (Kristensen, 2021), news selection (Lamot and Van Aelst, 
2020), and journalistic norms and routines (Ekström, Ramsälv and 
Westlund, 2021). However, this area of research is mainly focused on 
editors’ and journalists’ work and decision-making processes. Much less 
attention has been given to data-analysts as
growingly important actors in media, companies providing analytics to 
media, existing metrics and infrastructures for audience datafication.

Therefore, we invite submissions that theorize or empirically study the 
role of audience datafication in journalism, as well as audience 
interaction and engagement with data-based and algorithmic journalism. 
More precisely, studies that aim to answer: How is data journalism 
perceived, consumed, and valued in different contexts? What kind of 
audience needs data journalism gratifies? Does data journalism foster 
audience engagement? Second, we seek submissions that examine how users 
perceive algorithmic features and experience algorithm systems in the 
context of algorithmic journalism. Third, we welcome papers that focus 
on the role of various technological agents and non-journalist actors 
that intervene in the use of audience analytics and metrics in newsrooms.

*Timeline:*
Abstract deadline: 13 December 2022
Manuscript deadline: 31 March 2023

No Payment from authors will be required. More information on the call:
https://izdanja.filfak.ni.ac.rs/casopisi/media-studies-and-applied-ethics 
<https://izdanja.filfak.ni.ac.rs/casopisi/media-studies-and-applied-ethics>
For further details please contact Ana Milojevic
((ana.milojevic /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(ana.milojevic /at/ gmail.com)>)


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------