Privileged Voices, Practitioner Realities: Subjectivities, power and the discourses of data journalism through a Foucauldian perspective

Hannaford, Lizabeth Jane (2025) Privileged Voices, Practitioner Realities: Subjectivities, power and the discourses of data journalism through a Foucauldian perspective. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

Preview

Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Data journalism is a contemporary form of journalism that sources and analyses quantitative, digitised data to identify and tell a story. Yet to call oneself a data journalist is not simply to acquire a neutral skillset. I argue that being a data journalist is to engage in a series of epistemological and social controversies, pulling in broader political debates. To be a data journalist is to intentionally position oneself as a certain kind of subject - a certain kind of ‘knower’ and ‘doer’ - within a network of relations. Recent studies have emphasised the unsettledness of data journalism both as a form of knowledge and as a way of being in the world. However, there is a rationale for further research into the role of power in shaping the contours of data journalism and the subjectivities this makes possible. To address these issues, this thesis uses a number of tools and concepts from across the different periods of Foucault’s work to analyse data journalism's discourses and their effects. This leads to a two-phase study that analyses two discreet but complementary datasets of data journalism discourse. The first dataset is characterised by privileged voices - the pioneers who defined the field of data journalism for others through regular public speaking appearances. Using the Foucauldian concepts of power/knowledge and governmentality, I identify and critique the dominant discourses deployed by pioneers to construct an idealised version of data journalism and produce specific subjectivities responsibilised to self-improvement. I then take an alternative perspective to analyse how data journalism is constructed from the ground up by 'ordinary’ practitioners as they navigate the dynamic interactions of the newsroom. I turn to Foucault’s later work on the ‘ethical’ subject to explore the opportunities for contemporary practitioners of data journalism to go beyond the limitations of the subjectivities imposed on them by engaging in micro-resistances – a constrained form of freedom. Examining data journalism from these two perspectives - the macro-level discourses of pioneers versus the everyday, micro-level discursive practices of ‘ordinary’ practitioners - can reveal more about the object of study than either one in isolation. My thesis therefore contributes to the growing body of literature critiquing the discourses of journalism by unmasking the problematic biases and exclusions in data journalism’s optimistic language of empowerment. The study also contributes to the limited scholarship on the novel subjects produced by data journalism by applying Foucault’s concept of self-care which has been under explored in journalism scholarship.