ABSTRACT
Computational journalism tends to be represented as one of a series of digital
antidotes to the challenges facing mainstream journalism. Its proponents find possibility
in the form’s promise, from investigative depth, innovation, and increased audience
engagement, to its ability to reinvent journalism for the twenty-first century in a way
that empowers journalists for a more complicated information environment (Flew et al.
2012; Gynnild 2013; Karlsen and Stavelin 2013; Powers 2012). While many have exam-
ined the potential of computational journalism, a more site-specific and local under-
standing of how it is developing within specialized news genres is an important and
underdeveloped area of study. Boczkowski’s (2004) research on the transition of print
to online newspapers convincingly focused on daily newspapers in the 1980s and
1990s in order to understand the complexity of how technological change combines
with and emerges out of existing norms, routines, relationships, and social and material
contexts. By approaching newsroom technological change through an understanding
of the adoption process in specific local contexts, scholars can discern how digital
media both constitute and are constituted by practice and innovation.
