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

TLDR

Journalists and technologists increasingly collaborate across news organizations and grassroots networks worldwide, sharing a common interest in using open‑source software to solve news problems. The article critically evaluates open source in journalism, proposing a theoretical framework to understand its implications for news work. The authors draw on computer science and journalism literature to conceptualize open source as a structural framework of distributed development and a cultural framework of pro‑social hacker ethics. They identify four open‑source values—transparency, tinkering, iteration, participation—highlighting how each can reshape journalism innovation.

Abstract

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.