A presentation at the Noda17 Academic track

1. The Mobile Challenge for
Data Journalism
NODA17, Odense
27.1.2017
Ville Manninen & Turo Uskali
Department of Languages and Communication
University of Jyväskylä
Finland

2. Introduction
• “In the next 12–18 months,
many news organizations will
cross the 50 percent threshold
where more users are visiting
on phones and tablets than on
desktop computers and
laptops.” (Fiona Spruill/New
York Times, 2012, Nieman Lab)

3. Introduction
• “Data journalism
needs to go mobile”
(Simon Rogers, 2014,
Simonrogers.net)

4. Introduction
• Many newsrooms announced for the first time
during 2014 that over 50 percent of their
traffic came from mobile devices.
(Journalism.org)
• Also Google told that more searches are being
made on mobile devices than on desktop
computers in 2015. (Search Engine Land)

5. Introduction
• The starting point for this paper is in the claim
that journalism research focusing on mobile
journalism is still in its infancy.
• In similar vein, it can be argued that academic
research on data journalism has so far (2010–
2016) mainly focused on data journalism in
the desktop era.

6. Main concepts
• For this paper mobile journalism was defined
as journalism tailored for small screens,
especially for smartphones.
• Data journalism is journalism based on large
data sets.

7. Main questions and method
• Does mobile data journalism exist in the
newsrooms? What kind of practices there are?
• Interviews of leaders of data journalism teams,
data visualisation experts, and data journalism
trainers from eight countries (Denmark, Finland,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, the
UK, and the US, N=20) during 2016.

8. Results

9. “Mobile data journalism”
• The initial responses to our inquiries regarding
“mobile data journalism” were puzzled, or
even openly antagonistic.
• Several interviewees were either unfamiliar
with the concept, or they questioned its
usefulness.

10. Problems in producing data journalism
for mobile devices
• Smaller screen size restricts the amount of
data that can be fitted onto a single screen.
• Fewer data points means fewer and simpler
elements.
“The more pixels you have
available, the more you can
show.” (Jan Willem Tulp)

11. Problems in producing data journalism
for mobile devices
• The touchscreen interface restricts the
amount of data points and/or the use of
interactive features.
• Elaborate interactive features can create a
problem for information discovery.

12. Problems in producing data journalism
for mobile devices
• Device and setting variety cause some
problems with back end development.
• What technology can be utilized to enhance
the user experience?
First and foremost, everything has to work on
the mobile platform.

13. Opportunities in producing data
journalism for mobile devices
• Only few interviewees saw the mobile
platform to provide new opportunities for the
production or presentation of data journalism.
• Some points of interest:
– Personalisation options
– Geolocation
– Crowdsourcing
– Playfulness

14. Opportunities in producing data
journalism for mobile devices
Personalisation
Uutisvahti
(News Watch)
By Yleisradio

15. Opportunities in producing data
journalism for mobile devices
Geolocation
Ålesund Brenner
(Ålesund Burns)
By Sunnmørsposten

16. Opportunities in producing data
journalism for mobile devices
Crowdsourcing: Suomen leppoisin kunta (Finland’s
most easygoing town) by Yleisradio

17. In conclusion
• The mobile challenge has not yet
changed much of the journalistic
practices in data journalism - only the
end product must be made to conform to
the mobile platform.
• Data journalists accept mobile devices as
the future, but they do not seem to be
very excited about it.

18. Next
• What has happened since spring 2016 in the
newsrooms in terms of ”mobile data
journalism”. (More interviews during
NODA17).
• Content analysis of sample of ”mobile data
journalism” stories. (So far, N=4). Based on
Hans Bredow Institute’s codebook (Loosen et
al. 2016)