Ester Appelgren


Ester Appelgren is Senior Lecturer, Södertörn University. Research interests focus on two main areas: data journalism and digital integrity. I study working processes, technological processes and organisational processes within media companies, and I have a special focus on media companies in the field of journalism. My research is cross-disciplinary, I believe that my research profile is positioned between journalistic production and media management and even though my research interests are currently twofold, the areas of Data Journalism and Digital Integrity complement each other.

DJRG Fellow, October 2019

My studies in Data Journalism started in 2011 when I was the project leader of the Vinnova-funded project, “Databasjournalistik”. One year later, I remained the project manager for the project group, but extended it with a larger consortium and additional funding. The project was named “Datajournalistik”. This two-year project totalling SEK 6 million involved seven media companies (SVT, SR, Aftonbladet, SvD, Helsingborgs Dagblad, Mittmedia and NTM) and the analytics company, Sas Institute. The aim of the project was to develop, test and evaluate methods and tools for data journalism, with the overall objective of increasing knowledge and awareness among journalists and media leaders in Sweden. During and after the project, I published four peer-reviewed journal articles and one more is accepted for publication, five conference papers and five popular science contributions based on the project findings. With mixed methods such as interviews, surveys, network analysis and content analysis, I have studied the development of data journalism from a technological, journalistic and organisational perspective.

Currently, I cooperate with professor Anna Maria Jönsson at Södertörn University on a study of Environmental data journalism and with associate professor Andreas Widholm at Stockholm University on a study of hard and soft news in data journalism projects.

My studies in the area of digital integrity are focused on ethical challenges connected to personal data. I am currently one of three researchers in the two-year, Vinnova-funded project, Sjyst data!. We are developing a certification for processes related to the measurement of personal data. This certification will be developed in close cooperation with seven companies and three universities and and the research institute RISE.  My role in this project is to test the boundaries for when the audience considers its integrity online to have been compromised in contrast to the business goals of companies collecting behavioural data and using this data as part of their business models. Theoretically, this is often referred to as the privacy paradox, but it also involves privacy by design. Furthermore, this project is focused on making sense of the change in legislation concerning personal data in the pending data protection regulation, GDPR. The project is a continuation of a previous project (Distinct) that I worked on in 2014 and 2015 and that was also funded by Vinnova. The Distinct project was focused on media consumption, digital integrity and methods to measure consumption. My participation in the two projects has thus far resulted in one peer-reviewed journal article, two book chapters and two conference papers.

Title and abstract

Journalism and innovation; approaches to data and fact-checking

Part 1: A closer look at Nordic fact checkers  

Fact-checking is a growing global practice where the accuracy of viral claims in the media are openly reviewed by journalists in order to detect false claims. In 2017, as a response to the growth of what is often denoted as fake news, an organization called IFCN (International Fact Checkers Network) was established at the Poynter Institute in the USA. This organization has since empowered fact-checking organizations around the world by establishing a code of principles to guide fact-checking organizations toward best practice, primarily in terms of nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency.

During this session, Ester Appelgren, Associate Professor of Journalism and one of the 88 international external assessors of the IFCN, presents the code of principles from the perspective of the external assessor. She will show examples of how Nordic Fact Checkers meet the twelve criteria in terms of best practice, but she will also touch on mistakes that can lower the credibility of fact-checking organizations with their audience.

Part 2: Fellow Focus Seminar: Seven years of Nordic data journalism — pro-innovation bias and critique

The transition toward a digital media landscape is often said to increase the interaction possibilities for those with access to the web and the needed skills. Seven years ago, data journalism was still in its infancy in Nordic newsrooms. Back then, it was ascribed features such as a high level of interactivity, user participation, multimodality, interconnected processes and more choices for the audiences compared to more static forms of reporting. As the years have passed, data journalism has been recognized as a practice that has changed newsroom culture and journalistic working methods.

Summarizing the research on data journalism, Hermida and Young (2019) determines that the scholarly attention has mostly revolved around data journalism as a process and seeks to detail the routines, roles, and responsibilities of the actors involved (23). Studies based on content analysis of data journalism have also found that data journalism is a practice that can enhance stories with visualizations while simultaneously enabling journalists to incorporate data sources as primary sources (Stalph 2017).

The introduction of data journalism in Nordic newsrooms has changed the media landscape and can be viewed as a technological innovation that has brought not only uncertainties but also media leadership to journalism. Today, journalists struggle to remain in control, creating linear pre-packaged content flows rather than providing the interactivity and user participation that data journalism is famous for (Appelgren 2018). Similarly, media leaders consider innovations such as data journalism to be a strength at media companies, even though innovation work may still stand in contrast to the institutional perspective.

This session focuses on the development of data journalism in the Nordic region from 2011 to the present, from the initial pro-innovation bias that comes with the introduction of something new in the newsroom to the current critique that unsolved challenges still restrain the potential of data journalism as a form of interactive investigative reporting serving democracy.

Selected publications