Editorial Technologists as Engineers of Journalism’s Future: Exploring the Professional Community of Computational Journalism

Figures & data

Table 1. Editorial technologists’ status quo conception and professional imagination (exemplary quotes).

Theme	Status Quo	Professional Imagination
Capital accumulation
Symbolic capital	Service provider: “[We are] servants that are just supposed to mindlessly recreate.” (2018_techcomm)	Recognition: “[E]ventually [journalists] start to understand that there’s depth to the things we do.” (2016_juggling)
Cultural capital	Uniqueness: “[Journalists] react to something that me or my team does as ‘magic’.” (2019_next)	Normalization: “This is a craft. Just like any other part of the industry.” (2019_next)
Social capital	Lack of comprehension: “[We need to] understand the journalism itself.” (2019_next)	Teamwork: “[I]t is the team’s problem to solve not that [of the] designer or engineer over there.” (2018_techcomm)
Agency for change	Newsroom level: “[T]he first challenge is getting buy-in from […] the newsroom.” (2018_usetools)	C-level: “[W]e need more people at the top. […] Who want to push technology forward.” (2019_next)
Doxa
Responsibility for society	Impact: “We really need to be teaching [students] how these programs are changing the world.” (2016_algorithm)	Equality: “[O]ur responsibility to go forth and to make sure that we’re presenting the clearest picture possible and that we’re presenting it fairly.” (2018_community)
Responsibility for audiences	Focus: “putting the user first” (2016_juggling)	Insight: “[U]nderstand the people that are behind those numbers.” (2018_pay)
Responsibility for the news organization	Hegemony: “[O]ther [than editorial] perspectives are subordinated automatically.” (2019_reorg)	Convergence: “not just print” but “all of our distribution channels […] also our advertising units” (2019_reorg)
Responsibility for the editorial team	Care: “[B]ut we don’t think about the impact on internal processes.” (2019_next)	Culture: “[I]nspire people to do better, versus just pitting them against each other.” (2019_next)

Table

Source	Year and short name	Title	Scheduled duration	Transcript length (words)
[1]	2016_juggling	Every day I'm juggling: Managing managers, peer expectations, and your own project ideas	60 min	2,570
[2]	2016_data	You’re The Reason My Name Is On Google: The Ethics Of Publishing Public Data	60 min	8,522
[3]	2016_algorithm	Designing participatory algorithmic decisionmaking processes	60 min	5,450
[4]	2017_minds	How do we change our minds anyway?	75 min	8,113
[5]	2017_bubble	Why you are part of the filter bubble problem and what you can do about it	75 min	7,217
[6]	2017_local	Local data journalism still matters (and we can make it better!)	75 min	10,955
[7]	2018_pay	Without Free or Favor: Compelling readers to pay for news (tote bags not included)	75 min	6,035
[8]	2018_community	Managing the blind spots in community news coverage	75 min	6,291
[9]	2018_techcomm	Navigating technical communication with journalists	75 min	7,648
[10]	2018_whineshine	Whine & Shine: A support group for nerds, journalists and those who bridge the gap	75 min	4,655
[11]	2018_tools	Sure, You’re Making Tools. But Do People Use Them?	75 min	5,050
[12]	2019_impact	Why it matters — Designing stories for impact	75 min	7,499
[13]	2019_buck	Bang for your buck: how to help your newsroom get the most out of SRCCON (or any journalism event)	75 min	4,789
[14]	2019_next	Designing the next phase for newsroom technologists	75 min	7,020
[15]	2019_reorg	How to re-org your newsroom around product without breaking it	75 min	8,186

Transcript sources:

[1] https://2016.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-juggling-expectations. .

[2] https://2016.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-ethics-public-data. .

[3] https://2016.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-participatory-algorithms. .

[4] https://2017.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-change-our-minds. .

[5] https://2017.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-filter-bubbles. .

[6] https://2017.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-local-data-journalism. .

[7] https://2018.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-readers-pay-news. .

[8] https://2018.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-blind-spots-coverage. .

[9] https://2018.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-navigating-technical-communication. .

[10] https://2018.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-bridging-gaps. .

[11] https://2018.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-using-tools. .

[12] https://2019.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-designing-stories-impact. .

[13] https://2019.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-events-teaching-toolkit. .

[14] https://2019.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-next-phase-news-nerds. .

[15] https://2019.srccon.org/schedule/#_session-newsroom-reorg-product. . .