Analysis of data journalism covering the Spanish general election campaign held on 20th December 2015 through the digital editions of national newspapers

Abstract

This research paper carries out an in-depth study on data journalism in Spain by analysing the full coverage of the election campaign of the general elections, held 20th December 2015, that were covered by the main Spanish digital editions. Elections are deemed a brilliant scenario to broaden both the visualizing and analysis scope that data journalism provides political journalism. The aims of this paper are determining the presence of said specialised discipline, establishing its main features, the quality assessment of pieces and the identification of similarities and differences of data journalism in hybrid and digital native news sites. The sample is constituted by El Confidencial, Eldiario.es, El Español, El País, El Mundo and ABC. Among other findings, it can be concluded that the main differences within media are quality and the implementation of a methodology.