JOURNALISM, DATA LITERACY AND DEMOCRATIC FUTURES

In our datafied societies, there is a pressing need for an informed public debate about the impacts of big data systems. However, internet users are often unaware of the potential consequences of disclosing personal data online and few citizens have the knowledge to participate in such debates (Acquisti et al. 2016; Hitlin and Rainie 2019). Journalists and practitioners in formal and non-formal education often lack the knowledge to inform citizens on these complex mechanisms. This is a problem because these practices are not as neutral as often portrayed but pose risks to our democratic societies (see e.g. O'Neil 2016; Eubanks 2018). Moreover, there is a lack of data literacy efforts and too little knowledge about what kind of literacy efforts work best. My prior work provided a first insight into this gap in research, which this project aims to extend.