FROM WORDS TO NUMBERS: HAS ANALYTICS RESULTED IN LOWER QUALITY JOURNALISM?

In 2019, the big data and business analytics market generated $189 billion in revenue globally.

We now have more data than ever at our fingertips, uncovering the previously hidden patterns driving consumers. Observing these customer algorithms can lead to a brand discovering what exactly their customers want and how to adhere to this.

The use of analytics encapsulates the systematic analysis of quantitative data on various aspects of audience behaviour aimed at growing audiences and increasing engagement. This quantitative data then allows brands to tailor future content and advertisements to fit what they feel suits their audience best.

‘BEFORE ANALYTICS, JOURNALISTS HAD VERY LITTLE WAYS OF DISCOVERING WHO WAS READING THEIR CONTENT’

If we use Netflix as an example, the company use past search and watch data to find out exactly what their subscribers are watching in order to tailor suggestions and recommendations to their subscribers’ preferences. They use data to find out what time the subscriber watched the show, if they paused the show or watched an entire episode in one sitting.

We can apply this knowledge to journalism in a similar way. Before analytics, journalists had very little ways of discovering who was reading their content and why, relying on generic questionnaires and their own social circles.

‘GOOGLE ANALYTICS MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR JOURNALISTS TO TRACK HOW THEIR AUDIENCE ABSORB PUBLISHED CONTENT.’

Vogue recently unveiled their secrets regarding analytics, discussing how they use it to increase their discoverability and grow their audience. Advising journalists to expand their knowledge of when, where, and how their audiences engage with content in order to optimise content discoverability.

Websites such as Chartbeat and Google Analytics can provide us with this knowledge, presenting to us quantifiable and immediate feedback from our audience. Including information such as, what platform brought them to this article, how long they spent reading it, what the bounce rate was, if it was positively received and if the reader is a returning viewer or not.

‘JOURNALISTS ARE NOW CREATING USER-GENERATED CONTENT INSTEAD OF WRITING ABOUT IDEAS THAT THEY FEEL ARE IMPORTANT’

This makes it possible for journalists to track how their audience absorb published content. But some would argue that it has had a negative effect on the work we produce. Journalists are now creating user-generated content instead of writing about ideas that they are inspired by, feel are important or have a hunch about.

Has the role of analytics resulted in the increase of clickbait? Are journalists effectively just becoming online telemarketers? Churning out sharpened stories that game search engines and social media and play on the hopes and fears of readers to get the most clicks.

Are journalists now tailoring their own content and advertisers in order to increase traffic and page views, all the while neglecting the importance of well-informed information being released?

‘SHOULD WE START TO RAISE MORAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BOUNDARIES OF OUR OWN PRIVACY?’

Should we start to raise moral questions about the boundaries of our own privacy? Clearly, analytics are now having an impact on our everyday reading with corporations and governing bodies following our every click. Could this be why we are seeing a continuous increase in the figures of unclassified readers, those who do not want to be found and are using a private browser?

Are the fundamental values of journalism being undermined by the discovery of what sells best? Resulting in journalists producing banal and shallow content.

Isn’t it our jobs as journalists to produce content to mentally stimulate and challenge our readers, rather than just producing stories targeted towards search engine bots instead of real people reading real journalism.