Data Journalism Practices in Turkey During COVID-19: Methods, Narratives, News Production, and Future Directions

ABSTRACT

This research investigates data journalism practices in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring their current usage, development, and prospects. The research focuses on data journalism methods, narrative structures, and journalists’ approaches to news production processes, including the use of big data and access to open data. The semi-structured interviews with 15 journalists were coded and analyzed using an interactive and cyclical method within a phenomenological research design. The findings indicate that journalists maintain pre-pandemic habits and that the COVID-19 big data did not significantly alter news production practices. Journalists are interested in data’s potential, processing skills, and analysis. They receive encouragement, technological opportunities, and training. However, journalists face challenges such as the need for an open data culture, innovative perspectives, revenue models, pressure for breaking news, loss of reader loyalty, reader habits, and news literacy levels. The findings reveal the experiences of journalists by comparing a critical period such as the pandemic with its predecessors and explain the critical factors influencing the development of data journalism. It also highlights implications for the future of data journalism in Turkey and suggests ways to encourage innovation in news production processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Data journalism
• Turkey
• COVID-19
• journalism practices
• news production
• journalist opinions

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

Contact the lead author for access to the data.

Ethics

This study has been conducted as a master’s thesis at Ondokuz Mayıs University. Before the research, the data collection method was determined as semi-structured interviews and ethical committee approval was obtained from the Committee for Social and Human Sciences Ethics, Ondokuz Mayıs University in Turkey. (Decision No: 2020/527 – Date of Decision: 26.08.2020). In addition, informed consent of the participants was obtained before the semi-structured interviews.