JOLT

Journalism in the digital age

Traditional news media are under threat in today’s digital environment, with many people used to accessing content for free and major digital platforms dominating the online advertising market. Researchers in the JOLT project are investigating how to harness digital and data technologies to support the journalism sector, as Professor Jane Suiter explains.

The development of new digital and

data technologies is having a dramatic impact on the traditional media industry, as more and more people go online and to social media platforms for their news fix, challenging the established media business model. At the same time the emergence of new digital and data technologies also opens up new opportunities, yet this requires effective communication and collaboration between editorial teams and technical specialists, which is not always the case at the moment. “A lot of studies have shown that technical staff tend to be quite isolated from editorial and news staff. And among researchers there is often a lack of common understanding between technologists and social scientists,” outlines Prof Jane Suiter, Professor in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and director of the Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society. This issue is at the heart of JOLT, an EU-funded project which brings journalism and social science researchers together with people from technology and data backgrounds to develop an understanding of each others’ needs. “The JOLT network brings together different disciplines that don’t normally interact,” says Prof Suiter. “It is a collaboration between five universities - Dublin City University, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Amsterdam, University of Navarra, and University of Toulouse III – and two media companies – BBC and Samsa.”

JOLT project

The project includes technology and databased researchers, working in areas like engineering and data science, as well as others researching the business, political, and ethical dimensions of new journalism practices. Within JOLT as a whole, 16 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) are examining different aspects of digital and data journalism, part of the wider goal of ensuring the long-term future of the news media sector. “The European Commission recently launched a Media and Audiovisual Action Plan. The concern is that the media’s ability to play its key democratic role, of holding government to account and explaining issues to the public, is under threat,” explains Dr Eileen Culloty from Dublin City University and the JOLT management board. One of the reasons for this is the nature of today’s digital environment, in which Prof Suiter says audiences have grown accustomed to getting content for free and the major digital platforms dominate the online advertising market. “The money that used to go to the media is now eaten up by Facebook and Google, so there’s a huge black hole where the money used to be,” she continues.

Through a PhD training programme, the aim of the project is to advance research

that helps media organisations build a sustainable future and harness the power of new technologies in the modern digital environment. “JOLT’s main research goal is to develop new theoretical, technical, and best practice frameworks for the integration of data and digital technologies with journalism,” explains Prof. Suiter. “Each of the researchers in JOLT are working on their own projects, which are divided into three areas: data and technology, business and organisational practices, and politics and ethics.”

Among the data and technology projects, the journalism ESRs are investigating the rise of automated journalism, the integration of data journalism in newsrooms, and bestpractices in data visualisations. Meanwhile, the technology ESRs are investigating techniques to colourise archive footage, to automatically summarise content from videos, to compress broadcast video more efficiently, and new forms of multimedia storytelling. For example, Marc Górriz Blanch is applying artificial intelligence to develop a framework for the enhancement and colourisation of archive footage. This framework will help legacy media exploit their existing stock of media content. Working with his supervisors at BBC Research and Development in London and the Insight Centre for Data Analytics in Dublin, Marc has released open-source software arising from his work. To date, JOLT ESRs have published four open-source releases for the benefit of the wider community.

Digital technologies have placed severe pressure on the traditional business and revenue model of print and broadcast journalism. However, new technologies also create opportunities for leveraging digital and data services for audience expansion and alternative revenue streams. Among the business and organisational projects, ESRs are investigating how newsrooms incorporate metrics in decision making, the globalisation of news services, the adoption of data journalism, the rise of collaborative journalism, the impact of technology platforms on news media practice, and the extent to which newsrooms engage audiences in production. For example, Sophie Chauvet is co-supervised by Samsa in Paris and University of Toulouse III to investigate how media companies use audience metrics to inform their business strategy. The use of metrics is increasingly controversial as some media outlets reward journalists based on the volume of engagement their work generates.

While digital and data-driven technologies have greatly increased the capacity of journalism to serve the goals of democratic accountability and diversity of political expression, the same technologies operate in a complex ethical-political environment. Among the politics and ethics projects, ESRs are investigating the threat of digital surveillance for journalists, how digital technologies can give voice to activists and marginalised groups, and the complex policy

dimensions surrounding the moderation of online content. For example, Dimitri Bettoni is investigating the impact of surveillance by governments and non-state actors on journalism practices. Based at Dublin City University, his research will deliver new insights into how journalists can protect their data, themselves, their sources, and their colleagues.

In addition to working on their own protects, the ESRs are encouraged to collaborate, both with their peers and others outside the project. “One interesting collaboration has examined how WhatsApp is used to distribute news and engage audiences in Brazil,” explains Dr Culloty. Online news consumption on mobile devices has surpassed that from desktops since

2016. As a result, more news organizations are attempting to use social media and messaging apps to reach audiences. To analyse this, Giuliander Carpes from University of Toulouse III and Enric Moreu from Dublin City University analysed the WhatsApp channels of 14 Brazilian media organizations between November 2020 and March 2021. They applied a computational

To thrive, journalism needs to take advantage

of the significant technological

opportunities while putting technology in the service of the core journalistic values of accuracy,

fairness, and accountability.

The JOLT Project Team.

Harnessing Digital and Data Technology for Journalism Project Objectives

JOLT is a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie European Training Network, which aims to harness digital and data technologies for journalism by providing a framework for the training and career development of 16 Early Stage Researchers. JOLT researchers will provide empirical answers to important questions regarding the future of journalism by forging multidisciplinary and crosssectoral research into the digital and data-driven tools, practices, and values shaping journalism.

Project Funding

The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska Curie grant agreement No 765140.

Project Partners

• Dublin City University (coordinator) • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki • BBC Research and Development • University of Amsterdam • University of Navarra • University of Toulouse III • Samsa.fr Supporting organisations: Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIPSEA, CNN Greece, COLABORA, Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, El Confidencial, Trinity Mirror, The Irish Times, The Press Project, RTÉ.

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Professor Jane Suiter Dublin City University Ireland T: +00 353 1 700 6994 E: JOLTinfo@dcu.ie W: http://joltetn.eu : @JOLT_EU : jolt-project

https://fujomedia.eu/jolt-harnessing-digital-anddata-technologies-for-journalism/

Professor Jane Suiter

Professor Jane Suiter is the coordinator of the project. She is a professor in the School of Communications, her research focus is on the information environment in the public sphere and in particular on scaling up deliberation and tackling disinformation. content analysis to identify patterns and conducted interviews with news editors to understand their strategies. The results are available on the project website with interactive visualisations: https:// whatsappening.joltetn.eu/

In recent years, Latin America has shown significant innovation in the application of data and digital technologies for journalism. JOLT supervisor Ramón Salaverría and ESR Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos from the University of Navarra recently edited a new book Journalism, Data, and Technology in Latin America. Featuring the work of four ESRs, it explores innovative approaches to digital and data journalism, brought by both legacy media and newcomers to the industry, with the purpose of examining this changing media landscape.

Sustainable news media

The wider aim of the project is to ensure the long-term sustainability of journalism that is democratically and socially valuable. “Digital disruption has created distinct challenges for the news industry, journalism practitioners, and the publics journalism is supposed to serve”, says Prof. Suiter. “To thrive, journalism needs to take advantage of the significant technological opportunities while putting technology in the service of the core journalistic values of accuracy, fairness, and accountability”.

To achieve that, journalists and journalism researchers need to be technically literate, Prof. Suiter says, but technology developers also need an understanding of the social, ethical and industry dimensions of their work. “We need more opportunities for people to interact and collaborate,” she stresses. “For example, at one of our meetings we had a fantastic presentation from a PhD student from the Insight Centre for Data Analytics about deep fakes and artificial intelligence, where we heard about those technologies – how they work, what’s possible and what’s likely to happen in the coming years. That was really helpful for people from the journalism and social science side, who are researching how you counter these challenges.”

The JOLT project is supported by a diverse range of media organisations from Europe and further afield. These organisations have hosted researchers on secondment, provided training, and offered their industry insights at project conferences. “A key aim of the project was that the researchers would be exposed to different environments, working with people in industry, NGOs, as well as other different disciplines”, says Dr Culloty.

This has been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, yet there have still been opportunities for researchers to collaborate across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries. The final Jolt conference will be held in the University of Navarra in September. “This will be a great opportunity for the researchers to showcase their work,” says Prof Suiter.

ESRs present their work at the University of Navarra in Spain.