The purpose of this study is to find out how open source community influences the data journalism practices, and to what extent it contributes to solving the challenges that hinder the integration of data-driven journalism into newsrooms. The study approached the subject by drawing from the previous work of Lewis and Usher (2013) which proposes applying the duality of open source which constitutes of open-source culture (values, principles, ethics) and
open-source materiality (software, coding libraries, etc.) on journalism to reconsider possible innovations. For the first time this study concerns with the effect of open source’s duality only on data journalism and its problems. To find out the effects of open source community’s binary structure on data journalism and its potential contributions to tackle with the constraints of data journalism a qualitative approach was preferred and in-depth interviews with 10 data journalists and data journalism scholars were conducted. The main findings reflect that majority of
participants seem to be motivated to follow along with transparent and open way of practicing data journalism while the content of datasets, the license of data sources, newsrooms’ policies and fear of having competitors, lack of time to working and documenting the data analysis are viewed as barriers for this way of practices. Similarly, although many of the participants acknowledge that duality of open source community has a great deal of influence in the
emergence of data journalism, the half of participants do not see open source mindset as a necessity to do data journalism but only a plus. More importantly, it is mentioned that sharing datasets and codes for open and transparent data journalism may not be aligned with some of the journalistic norms and rules. The main arguments of this idea are the closed source culture of journalism, journalistic autonomy, journalistic credibility, journalism’s business mindset, ethical and legal issues of publishing datasets while other half argues that these tensions will disappear as the news reporting digitalizes, the needs of audience changes or that overlook these
tensions and saw open source as a driven force to improve data journalism further. Lastly, the majority agreed on the benefits of open source’s duality to integrate data journalism practices into newsrooms and solve related challenges facing this integration.

Journalism, a discipline traditionally formed by a variety of disruptions, currently faces a disruption with global dimension: The digitalisation represents a democratisation of content, which allows various kinds of new actors to enter the journalistic stage. Thus, the internet heralded an era of fake news and post-truth, which left journalism almost voiceless. Yet,the up- and-coming phenomenon of open-source in journalism lead by nonjournalistic actors like Airwars, Bellingcat and Forensic Architecture use these new
developments for investigations on a universal scale. With novel methods and tools they show how the audience – which before was handled as a passive mass – could be integrated in their reporting and be transformed in active participators. This shift towards a news, image and investigative literate public represents a chance especially for investigative journalism. The open-source investigators transform the traditional role of the
journalist as “controller” and “gatekeeper” into an enabler of free collaboration and they open its “gates” towards new spaces, here called auditoriums, to find their voice and to address new audiences.

This investigation began when curiosity was piqued in early January, after reading a Guardian article regarding the murder of an environmental defender of the Chaparri reserve. The headline included a new term, “Land Trafficking”, and skimmed over issues that left me wanting to learn more: an irrigation project was mentioned; a reserve was under threat; and it stated that the murderers are known to the community. Although this tragic event had already happened, surely there would be more detail and context to the story.

Thinking it possible to follow up on this article for the final project at MIJ, I contacted a few of the names mentioned in the Guardian piece – they replied quickly and furnished me with documents and unpublished details, the start of which was a research paper on “Land Trafficking” by the one of its authors, Noga Shanee (who would become my first contact in Peru), along with links to news, press releases and other useful contacts.

I kept contact with these sources over winter, and, recalling a tactic learned through previous projects, created a series of Google alerts to keep abreast of developments in news regarding the subject, region and murder investigation.

After learning that a fellow classmate had received a grant to help fund her final project abroad, I took the opportunity to apply for an MFS grant myself, receiving funding a few weeks later.

Rajmonda Rexhi and I had planned on teaming up for a project (still underway) involving an advanced level of Spanish – she is fluent in the language, and my competence level is low. In March, we decided to put our previous project on hold and, as the situation in Chaparri, we learned from sources, was increasing in intensity, we began to plan for the coming seven to eight weeks ahead.

The story is placed in Argolis, a small prefecture of about 97.000 people in the south of Greece. There within a two year period between 2013 and 2014 was planned to take place 26 sports infrastructure projects through the Public Investment Program. This number represents the 30% of the total number of projects included in the Public Investment
Program ranked them first among all the regions. At the same time, Attica region, the seat of the capital Athens and the biggest region in Greece with around 3.8 million people received 17 projects placed second, whereas most of the regions had one or two projects and some even none. Moreover, a budget of about 7.5 million euro, the 13% of the total budget funneled to this small prefecture.
What makes the situation even more interesting was the person responsible for proposing the sports projects for inclusion to the Public Investment Program, the Deputy Minister of Sport at that time Ioannis Andrianos. Andrianos beside his role as a Deputy Minister of Sport was also an MP that is elected in Argolis regional unit. A very interesting and worth investigating coincidence.

The subject of my investigation, called “The Murder Business”1, if defined in one word, is corruption. On one hand this corruption depicts the vulnerability of Moldovan legal system to
protect such fundamental rights (as defined by Moldovan Constitution) as private property and
right to life2. On the other hand, the investigation reveals a corrupted way of action those who
normally would be called the victims of the situation.
In fact the investigation tells two interconnected stories. One of them is about a scam organized
by a corrupt policeman who fraudulently deposed a private company of a million-dollar land using his professional position. The scam has been organized with the help of a homeless taxi-driver (who became a proxy owner of the land). The fraud failed and as a result, the policeman killed the taxi-driver in breakout region of Transnistria in order to get rid of all the evidences and tracks towards him.
Another story is about a German retailer Kaufland who indirectly announced its plans to build a
hypermarket on the above-mentioned land without having any legal rights to do so. Based on the
evidences that me and my colleagues succeeded to find, we demonstrated that Kaufland has been
in talks to build a store there for a long time. That happened in conditions when the actual land
owner has been and still is a dead taxi-driver.
The investigation is extremely relevant and actual for Moldova. Not only because Kaufland is about to land on Moldovan retail market3. And not because the scam has been totallyunderreporter in Moldova. This investigation shows exactly how everyone, would it be a police officer, a homeless taxi-driver or a big company coming from European Union – are using
corrupted environment in Moldova for their profit.

Aim:
The aim of the thesis is to gather an understanding on how news robots have influenced and will influence journalists’ work. This thesis also seeks to explain how journalists’ attitudes towards news robots have changed after they started working with or side by side with news robots, and how news robots affect journalists’ professional identity.
Theoretical framework:
The findings of this thesis will be compared and reflected in relation to previous research results and analysed in the context of professional identity theories. To understand how news robots affect journalists’ professional identity Mark Deuze’s and Henrik Örnebring’s theories, along with other relevant theories, on identity construction will be used as a framework to analyse the findings.
Methodology:
Qualitative study was determined as the most relevant way to gather the information needed. Semi-structured interview was chosen as a method since in-person interviews give the respondents the possibility to answer the questions in their own words without pre-given options. Designing and conducting the interviews follows Steinar Kvale’s theories on qualitative research.
Conclusions:
Journalists use the same working methods as before but, due to news robots, they shift their focus from repetitive tasks to interviews, on the field work and analyses. News robots give journalists more time to work on news stories that would otherwise been left undone. They also increase both the quantity and quality of news articles. Working with news robots has changed journalists’ attitudes from neutral and negative to positive. Based on the findings of this study and theories on professional identity, journalists’ professional