Open source and journalism: toward new frameworks for imagining news innovation

Journalists and technologists increasingly are organizing and collaborating, both formally and informally, across major news organizations and via grassroots networks on an international scale. This intersection of so-called ‘hacks and hackers’ carries with it a shared interest in finding technologi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMedia, culture & society Vol. 35; no. 5; pp. 602 - 619
Main Authors Lewis, Seth C, Usher, Nikki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.07.2013
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Computer science
Computer Software
Cooperation
Cultural Values
Culture
Innovation
Innovations
Intervention
Journalism
Journalists
News
Open source software
Technological change
Transparency
innovation
participation
open source
online journalism
software development
data
hackers
journalism studies
transparency
computational journalism
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Summary:Journalists and technologists increasingly are organizing and collaborating, both formally and informally, across major news organizations and via grassroots networks on an international scale. This intersection of so-called ‘hacks and hackers’ carries with it a shared interest in finding technological solutions for news, particularly through open-source software programming. This article critically evaluates the phenomenon of open source in journalism, offering a theoretical intervention for understanding this phenomenon and its potential implications for newswork. Building on the literature from computer science and journalism, we explore the concept of open source as both a structural framework of distributed development and a cultural framework of pro-social hacker ethics. We identify four values of open-source culture that connect with and depart from journalism—transparency, tinkering, iteration, and participation—and assess their opportunities for rethinking journalism innovation.
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ISSN:0163-4437
1460-3675
DOI:10.1177/0163443713485494