Journalism and civil society: key to data journalism in Argentina

Abstract

There is no tradition of quantitative journalism in Argentina. Mostly local NGOs have led initiatives for access of information in the last decades, which in many cases were the background of some articles in mainstream media. So data journalism in the country is usually associated with public journalism. The exception is La Nación Data, a special investigative unit in a local newspaper, identified worldwide as an important reference in data journalism. In recent years, La Nación has been recognized for many innovative contributions to digital journalism. The investigation based on leaked emails from the minister of transportation in 2010 was a key moment for the newspaper, considered since that moment a powerhouse of Latin American data journalism. But it is still the only media in the country with a data journalism unit. Many factors can explain the limited development of this journalism model in other media, especially the La Nación Data’s success and local recognition of its contribution to society and profession. From a social point of view, we can mention the tradition of secrecy in politics, the scarcity of open databases and the lack of a law of access of information till 2016. But the professional culture is the main obstacle. In general, watchdog journalism was a declining model in the last decades due to hostile political climates, weak professionalization and lack of resources in newsrooms to develop investigative reporting. Additionally, data journalism requires a quantitative perspective and an interaction between programmers and journalists. We propose to analyze in detail the factors of social context and journalistic culture in order to explain the situation of data journalism in Argentina.