‘X Journalism’. Exploring Journalism’s Diverse Meanings through the Names We Give It.", paper presented by Wiebke Loosen, Laura Ahva, Julius Reimer, Paul Solbach, Mark Deuze & Lorenz Matzat at the International Communication Association's (ICA) 70th Annual Conference, 20–26 May 2020 (virtual conference), Gold Coast, Australia.

1. X JOURNALISM
Exploring journalism’s diverse meanings
through the names we give it
Wiebke Loosen, Laura Ahva,
Julius Reimer, Paul Solbach,
Mark Deuze & Lorenz Matzat
#ICA20

2. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 2
OUR TEAM
Julius Reimer│@julius_reimer
Wiebke Loosen│@WLoosen
Laura Ahva│@laahva Paul Solbach│@__paul
Mark Deuze│@markdeuze
Lorenz Matzat │@lorz
PhotobyJulia_Bornkessel

3. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 |
OUR TEAM
3
Julius Reimer│@julius_reimer
Wiebke Loosen│@WLoosen
Laura Ahva│@laahva Paul Solbach│@__paul
Mark Deuze│@markdeuze
Lorenz Matzat │@lorz
My most recent encounter with a
new X Journalism has been with
Trust Journalism, an approach from
Denmark with the idea of making
journalism more inclusive and
therefore also trustworthy.
PhotobyJulia_Bornkessel

4. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 4
OUR TEAM
Julius Reimer│@julius_reimer
Wiebke Loosen│@WLoosen
Laura Ahva│@laahva Paul Solbach│@__paul
Mark Deuze│@markdeuze
Lorenz Matzat │@lorz
I find it highly interesting how
X journalisms highlight and exemplify
the on-going expansion and
differentiation of practices and ideas in
the field and how they often result from
journalism's creative friction with other
social domains.
PhotobyJulia_Bornkessel

5. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 |
PhotobyJulia_Bornkessel
5
OUR TEAM
Julius Reimer│@julius_reimer
Wiebke Loosen│@WLoosen
Laura Ahva│@laahva Paul Solbach│@__paul
Mark Deuze│@markdeuze
Lorenz Matzat │@lorz
My preferred X-journalisms are either
affective or machinic X journalisms. These
are all types of journalism that privilege
feelings, emotions and the personal role of
the journalist. And then, on the other hand,
machinic X journalisms, all privileging the
role of devices, machines, the computer,
code, the binary system as the starting point
for journalism. So, affective and machinic
journalism go hand in hand in defining what
the future of journalism might look like.

6. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 6
OUR TEAM
Julius Reimer│@julius_reimer
Wiebke Loosen│@WLoosen
Laura Ahva│@laahva Paul Solbach│@__paul
Mark Deuze│@markdeuze
Lorenz Matzat │@lorz
I like X Journalism particularly
because it has the data aspect in
mind from the beginning:
How can the information be stored in
a structured way, and how can
visualization be used in a meaningful
way?
PhotobyJulia_Bornkessel

7. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 7
JOURNALISM(S)

8. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 8
COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM

9. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 9
CROSS-BORDER JOURNALISM

10. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 10
AUTOMATED JOURNALISM

11. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 11
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

12. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 12
PREFIX + JOURNALISM =

13. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 13
X JOURNALISM

14. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 14
X JOURNALISM
▪ Owes its existence to a simple observation:
the evolution of journalism is accompanied
by the emergence of ever-new journalism-
related terms
▪ Combinations of ‘journalism’ with a
particular modifying term that (is supposed
to) represent and signal a certain specificity
and, in a certain time frame, novelty
▪ A practice by which researchers and
practitioners alike attempt to keep apace
with the dynamics of the field
Photo by Mika Korhonen on Unsplash

15. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 15
X JOURNALISM AS AN OBSERVATIONAL TOOL│X JOURNALISM AS A CONCEPT
▪ Holistic: not focused on one ‘X’, but intended to
capture and map all X journalisms
▪ Observer-related: sensitive to the fact that each
X journalism is always brought to the world by
someone and may be understood differently by
different actors
▪ A three-dimensional understanding of meaning:
considers the meaning of X journalisms as a
product of the fact, social, and temporal
dimensions of meaning (following Luhmann 1995)
X Journalism as a concept
▪ X journalisms as empirically identifiable
communication units
▪ No particular sampling procedure: the collection is
just a collection
▪ To date more than 200 X journalisms in our database
▪ ‘Crowd-categorized’ X journalisms into clusters
eight clusters: (1) specific motivation or reporting
style; (2) technology or data-led approach; (3)
thematic focus or beat; (4) audience relationship; (5)
(distribution) medium or channel; (6) organizational
or economic model; (7) place or locus; (7) time-
related dimension
X Journalism as an observational tool

16. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 16
DATABASE AND AUTOMATED DATA
COLLECTION - XJOURNALISM.ORG
▪ Explore:
▪ Temporal dimension: New York Times search
API (dating back to 1851) to extracted time
stamps for the earliest mention of each term
▪ Social dimension: Google Scholar gives a
general idea of scientific interest by the
number of search results per term
▪ Up to three academic references per term
▪ Filter terms according to 8 categories
▪ Contribute: submit@xjournalism.org
▪ Analyze: database in .csv format an code are
available on Github:
https://github.com/leibniz-hbi/xjournalism-data

17. 17
EXPANDING MAPPING AND COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH
▪ Extending/revising categories and terms (e.g.
critical/negative X journalisms)
▪ Extending the mapping to different languages/
languages spaces in order to open up a spatial
dimension of meaning
▪ X Journalism is well suited for the use of
computational methods: e.g. using LDA in order
to capture the context in which certain X
journalisms are used (in the practical as well as
in the academic field

18. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 18
CHECK OUR PAPER FOR:
▪ An empirical test case with audience-related X journalisms: analysis of 822 mentions
of audience-related X journalisms in 695 academic papers
▪ An Illustration for the theoretical compatibility of X Journalism with various
theoretical approaches, e.g. systems theory, field theory, a figurational approach
Five Phases of audience-related X journalisms

19. X Journalism | Loosen et al. | ICA 2020 | 19
IDEAS FOR FUTURE X JOURNALISM-BASED RESEARCH
▪ Reconstruct the strategies behind the use of X
Journalism terms in academia and in the field
of journalism itself
▪ Analyze what types of terms (dis)appear at what
time, e.g. to identify and differentiate between
trends/phases in journalism’s transformation
▪ Distinguish between terms of unchanged
relevance and those with shorter lifespans
▪ Identify particular patterns of
(re-)differentiation within the eight clusters or
categories of X journalism terms
▪ Compare internationally the significance
of particular X journalisms in different
countries and journalism cultures
▪ Use as stimulus material in empirical
research, e.g. in interviews with
practitioners to create mind maps for
related terms
▪ Investigate the potential co-emergence
and relations between x journalisms and x
societes

20. THANK YOU!
@X_Journalism │ xjournalism.org
Wiebke Loosen, Laura Ahva,
Julius Reimer, Paul Solbach,
Mark Deuze & Lorenz Matzat
#ICA20