Search results

Van automatische nieuwsaanbevelingen tot smart cities: ons leven wordt steeds sterker beïnvloed door het combineren van data. In dit proefschrift bestudeer ik de invloed hiervan op democratische visies en praktijken, door te kijken naar de handelwijzen, het zelfbegrip en de visies van datajournalisten en data-activisten. Als pioniers op het gebied van de toepassing van data in journalistiek en de maatschappij fungeren zij als voorbeeld voor anderen. Bovendien zijn beide groepen nauw verbonden: ze zijn beiden afhankelijk zijn van data en streven ernaar het publiek te dienen op een manier die burgers meer macht geeft. Ik onderzoek deze verhouding en bestudeer hoe hun werk het verband tussen journalistiek en de maatschappij beïnvloedt. Om dit te onderzoeken voer ik drie case studies uit. De eerste studie toont aan hoe data-activisten werken vanuit een open source-cultuur en hoe vrij beschikbare overheidsdata naar hun idee de transparantie verhogen en overheden meer participerend en representatiever maken. De tweede studie onderzoekt hoe data-activisten proberen om het voor het publiek makkelijker te maken om autoriteiten te bereiken en te betrekken door het gebruik van data. De derde studie toont hoe de praktijken van datajournalisten en data-activisten uiteenlopen van enerzijds het doel om als poortwachters het publieke debat te sturen tot anderzijds het voor burgers mogelijk maken om actie te ondernemen. Binnen deze drie case studies toon ik doorlopend aan dat de groeiende afhankelijkheid van data in journalistiek en maatschappij invloed heeft op hoe − en door wie − oudere democratische visies en opvattingen van journalistiek worden toegepast. ; From news recommendations to smart cities, our lives are increasingly affected by the aggregation of data. In this dissertation, I study how this affects democratic visions and practices by looking at the practices, self-understandings and visions of data journalists and data activists. These actors are particularly relevant because they are pioneers for how data is employed in journalism and civil society: They act as exemplars for other journalists and civil society actors and shape their use of data. Moreover, because both rely on data and aspire to provide a public service that empowers citizens, they have developed a close relationship with each other. I explore this relationship and reflect on how the work of these actors affects the relationship between journalism and civil society. To research this, I conduct three case studies. The first study shows how data activists draw on open source culture and envision that freely available government data increases transparency and makes governments more participatory and representative. The second study examines how data activists attempt to enable the public to more easily engage with authorities, using data. The third study shows how the practices of data journalists and data activists range from the aim to steer public debates via gatekeeping on the one hand, to facilitating the actions of citizens on the other. Throughout these three case studies, I show that the growing reliance of data in journalism and civil society affects both how, and by whom older democratic visions and notions of journalism are being implemented.

This article shows how activists in the open data movement re-articulate notions of democracy, participation, and journalism by applying practices and values from open source culture to the creation and use of data. Focusing on the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany and drawing from a combination of interviews and content analysis, it argues that this process leads activists to develop new rationalities around datafication that can support the agency of datafied publics. Three modulations of open source are identified: First, by regarding data as a prerequisite for generating knowledge, activists transform the sharing of source code to include the sharing of raw data. Sharing raw data should break the interpretative monopoly of governments and would allow people to make their own interpretation of data about public issues. Second, activists connect this idea to an open and flexible form of representative democracy by applying the open source model of participation to political participation. Third, activists acknowledge that intermediaries are necessary to make raw data accessible to the public. This leads them to an interest in transforming journalism to become an intermediary in this sense. At the same time, they try to act as intermediaries themselves and develop civic technologies to put their ideas into practice. The article concludes with suggesting that the practices and ideas of open data activists are relevant because they illustrate the connection between datafication and open source culture and help to understand how datafication might support the agency of publics and actors outside big government and big business.

Open Data bzw. Open Government Data meint den freien Zugang zu und die uneingeschränkt Nutzung und Weiterverbreitung von unbearbeiteten Rohdaten der öffentlichen Verwaltung durch jedermann für jegliche Zwecke. Spätestens seit der Eröffnung des ersten offiziellen Open-Data-Portals Data.gov in den USA 2009 erfreut sich der Begriff wachsender Beliebtheit. So zählt die ebenfalls 2009 gegründete, multilaterale Open Government Partnership inzwischen über 30 teilnehmende Staaten. Auch immer mehr NGOs und Open-Data-Aktivisten erhoffen sich von Open Data mehr Transparenz, Verantwortungsbewusstsein und Partizipation, weshalb parallel zu einer zunehmenden Etablierung von Open Data durch Regierungen von einem Aufkommen der Open-Data-Bewegung die Rede ist. Bislang ist diese Bewegung jedoch weitestgehend unerforscht. Die vorliegende Arbeit versteht sich daher als eine explorative und qualitative Studie über die Open-Data-Bewegung am Beispiel der Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland. Genauer geht es um das Verhältnis von Praktiken, Zielen und Selbstbild der Aktivisten: Was sind die zentralen Praktiken, welche Ziele werden mit der Verbreitung offener Daten verbunden und wie kann das Selbstbild der Beteiligten dabei beschrieben werden?

The coverage of Wikileaks' huge amounts of leaked data was a challenge for newspapers – they had to figure out how to get stories out of extensive and complex data sets and how to present their findings to readers. The result significantly differs from traditional news reporting; including illustrations, interactive web applications and reading instructions to make the material accessible. This style of news reporting is called data-driven journalism. The international interest in the leaks combined with collaborative work between newspapers from different countries made it a new trend in current journalism. A key lesson from working with this kind of material is that data collection is essential for the effectiveness of the used techniques. If journalists would adapt this insight to their own, internal data collection process, this form of news reporting could be used on a large scale and be much more common. The coverage of Wikileaks' might give a glimpse of how journalism will look like in the future.