ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out a basic framework for understanding the relationship between big data and journalism—that is, between this messy assemblage of data-centric practices, philosophies, and possibilities, on the one hand, and journalism as professional field, mode of practice, and media industry, on the other. It explains big data's relevance to and relationship with journalism, in light of historical developments and contemporary concepts and case studies. The chapter provides a slight twist of perspective: a consideration of what these developments mean for the study as well as the practice of news. It addresses what big data, as a social, cultural, and technological phenomenon, means for journalism—for its editorial products as well as commercial needs, for its epistemology and expertise, its economics and ethics, and its professional authority and social standing in an era of algorithms and automation. Technological advances have made it easier than ever to observe such data and to organize, and visualize massive collections of these digital traces.
