Data journalists’ perception and practice of transparency and interactivity in Indian newsrooms

Abstract

Data journalism research recorded exponential growth during the last decade. However, the extant literature lacks comparative perspectives from the Asian region as it has been focused on select geographies (mainly Europe and the US). In this backdrop, the present study examined data journalism practices in the Indian media industry by conducting intensive interviews with 11 data journalists to investigate their perception of transparency and interactivity which are two of the core aspects of data journalism practice. Further, a content analysis of data stories published by two Indian news organizations for two years was conducted to assess the status of transparency and interactivity options in these stories. The findings showed that Indian data journalists acknowledge the importance of transparency and interactivity, but exhibit a cautious approach in using them. There is general apathy in practicing transparency among journalists in legacy organizations, drawing a stark contrast with their counterparts in digitally-native organizations.

Keywords:

• Data transparency
• interactivity
• India
• data journalism
• digital journalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research.