The most prominent journalistic innovations in Spain (2010-2020): organizational, industrial and social characteristics and impact

Abstract

The emergence of new players and technological platforms, changes in consumer habits, and the transformation of the digital ecosystem accelerated the process of journalistic innovation in the last decade (2010-2020), emphasized by the Covid-19 pandemic. Journalism has undergone a process of permanent change, affecting practices, products, and professionals. In this context, this study identifies the most prominent journalistic innovations, describes their characteristics, and analyzes their impact in terms of the value provided in organization, their scope in the industry, and their contribution to society. To achieve this, semistructured interviews were conducted with a group of experts (n = 22) made up of academics and professionals. Once the innovations (n = 60) from a total of 253 references were coded and added up, the scope of these changes in the organizational, industrial, and societal  fields was analyzed to obtain a list of the 20 most relevant. The results indicate that innovation emerges incrementally in how journalism is produced, organized, distributed, and sustained. Some innovations have substantially influenced organization and society, such as the membership model or fact-checking; however, they are still far from being widely adopted in the industry. Data journalism has been catalogued as the most relevant journalistic innovation because it implies changes in production, generates quality journalism, and encourages its implementation by other representatives in the sector.