El periodismo de datos en Españaperfiles profesionales, empleabilidad y oferta académica

Abstract

The aim of this research is to approach the professional profiles that emanate from data journalism in order to find out whether the acquisition of specific skills in the field increases the employability of journalism professionals and, on the other hand, to check whether universities are sensitive in their curricula to this job opportunity. Data journalism is a relatively recent journalistic discipline that consists of the construction of differential journalistic stories based on the compilation, analysis, selection, interpretation and visualization of data and has its origins in precision journalism and computer-assisted journalism. A discipline is consolidated in the digital and big data era. The digital transformation has impacted citizens and their economic, social and cultural structures. And the media have been particularly affected by these changes, which have led them to modify their relationship with users and change their business models. At the same time, the media have found new opportunities, derived from digital convergence, for which they are renewing their structures, professional roles and profiles, business strategies and the journalistic products they offer to consumers. The emergence of new narratives is one of the ways to get back in tune with new audiences and offer attractive and differential products; and data journalism stands as one of them. For this purpose, a triple methodology is followed: descriptive, qualitative and quantitative. First, a bibliographic study on the object of study is presented; second, the technique of in-depth interviews with experts from national and international media is used, which will approximate the profiles, competencies and characteristics of this professional performance. Third, an analysis is made of the Spanish university academic offer -undergraduate and official master's degrees- to see if the competencies indicated by the experts are included in the training and, for this purpose, a content analysis pattern has been applied to the sample of degrees extracted from the RUCT. The conclusions show that, although technical skills and the use of specific tools are essential for working in data journalism, the journalist's classic skills are equally important to be able to make journalistic use of data. It is also clear that employers value and prioritize the qualities of the data journalist when it comes to incorporating professionals into their teams, both digital and specific for data or graphics departments; however, there is also a poor response from universities, especially at the undergraduate level, when it comes to incorporating these subjects into their curricula.