Beyond Journalism
A case study on the South African start-up Code for South Africa
Sophie Frankenmolen
UvaID: 10628118
April 2015
dhr.prof.dr. M.J.P. Deuze
Journalistiek en Media
Research en redactie voor Audiovisuele Media
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Table of contents
1.
Introduction………..
p.4
1.1 Beyond Journalism 1.2 Code For South Africa 1.3 Relevance
1.4 Main question 1.5 Pointers for reading
2.
Description of the start-up………..
p.7
2.1 Brief history of the start-up
2.1.1 Mission
2.2 Business model 2.3 Services and products 2.4 Relation to other initiatives 2.5 People involved
2.6 South African media landscape
2.6.1 Politics and journalism
2.6.2 Newspapers, broadcasters and the internet
2.6.3 Editorial landscape
2.6.4 Legacy of apartheid
3.
Theoretical framework………..
p. 15
3.1 Start-ups
3.2 Civic journalism (objectivity versus neutrality) 3.3 Open source philosophy
3.3.1 Hacks/Hackers
3.4 Identity
3.5 Changing discourse: from journalism towards information
4.
Methodological framework………..
p. 23
4.1 Choice for Code4SA as a case study 4.2 Research objectives
4.3 Thick description 4.4 Literature 4.5 Grounded theory
4.6 Semi structured interviews
4.7 Document analysis of private documents 4.8 Research questions
5.
Analysis………...
p. 27
5.1 The organization
5.1.1 The motivational foundations of Code4SA
5.1.2 The power of data
5.1.3 The projects
5.1.4 Success
5.1.5 Business and everyday work
5.1.6 Typically South Africa 5.2 The people
5.2.1 What is important, what do you look for in a job?
5.2.2 The common element or binding factor
5.2.3 So, what are you then?
5.3 Journalism
6. Conclusions………
p.44
7. Literature……….
p.47
Prefix I Code4SA projects……….
p.49
Prefix II Topic list semi-structured interviews……… p.54
1. Introduction
1.1 Beyond journalism
This thesis is part of a larger research project called Beyond Journalism. This project is an exploration of the so-called start-up culture that is emerging within the broader field of journalism. The internet is increasingly being used as a platform for new journalism start-up enterprises. Impetus for the coming into existence of these start-ups are deteriorating business models, due to changes in technologies, dissatisfaction with existing media and the layoff of journalists (Naldi & Picard 2012:69). But despite these rigorous changes, this era may well be typified as a period of innovation and change. For since the mechanisation of printing and the industrialisation of newspaper production, journalism has been changing in response to technological change (McQuail 2013:13). The possibilities of the internet have several implications on journalism, like the loss of control, the increasing diversity of content and the decreasing concentration of power of the institutionalized press and a chance for active social participation (14).
Innovation is a response to change. A response to a digital era and to a generation that no longer finds its information the same way their parents did. A response to increasing insecurity, regarding labour conditions, channels of publication and the public’s mounting disinterest and distrust in journalism (Naldi & Picard 2012:70).
“Even as inherited professional practices and business models are under immense pressure, pioneers are prospecting for the future of journalism, both within and outside existing legacy media organisations, creating new opportunities for journalists to practice their profession along the way” (Bruno & Kleis Nielsen 2012:3)
Start-ups present us a base and a window to what journalism may look like in the future. Shaping a future requires thinking outside the box: considering new business models and ways of using technology. But this new situation also challenges the most permanent and fundamental themes in journalism (Franklin 2014:487). For example, the internet has challenged the we write-you read dogma, for the public is no longer a passive reader or spectator (Hermida & Thurman 2008:5). Also, the digital age questions the professional autonomy of the journalist. New online developments have affected the traditional monopoly on news of the journalist and institutional media businesses (Deuze 2008:113).
There are definitions of journalism, digital or otherwise, that make presumptions about the practitioners qualifications and place of employment (Kawamoto 2003:3). In this age of digital media, where allegedly anyone can be a publisher, the designation of journalist is being called into question. Questions on who is a journalist or what is journalism are not merely academic ponderings. People choose to work in non-traditional settings and perform programming, design, activism, moderating and storytelling altogether, giving their ideals shape in practice.
This research aims to look at start-up enterprises that function online and outside the institutional media and try new things, that some might now define as journalism.
Beyond journalism means to explore a new field of journalism and stimulate thinking
about the field and question assumptions about practice and theory. Because after all, the words ‘digital journalism’ suggest an old practice in a new format (Kawamoto 2003: 4). Therefore, the Beyond journalism research seeks to explore how journalism
manifests itself in new start-up enterprises. The overall question the Beyond Journalism research aims to answer is: What are the factors involved in creating and running a journalistic start-up?
1.2 Code for South Africa
To answer the question above, this thesis presents a case study of the South African start-up Code for South Africa (Code4SA), founded in 2013 by Adi Eyal. Code4SA was founded on the belief that data should be openly available to anyone for the promotion of informed decision making. It’s a small organisation, with less than ten (data)journalists, ‘techies’ and designers working together to create technical tools. Their founding documents state that they “want to use liberated data to improve lives and empower people to make informed choices. We hope to build and active citizenry by increasing interactions between the public and the government, using applications that really matter to people”.
Code4SA is a non-profit organization that is physically situated in Cape Town. The staff makes technical tools for people in four areas of interest: media, government, civil society and community. Next to that, Code4SA organises workshops for journalists, to teach them how to embed the tools into newsrooms and get as many people as possible involved with the possibilities of data. For that same purpose they also organize events with people from local governments, hackers, journalists and techies. Recapitulating, Code4SA is an online journalism start-up with a social agenda that uses innovative technology and collaborations to promote informed decision making
1.3 Relevance
Code4SA not only touches upon a fairly new field of journalism, it is also an organization that is highly converged, with employees from different backgrounds but sharing a similar ideology.
“The age of democracy has also been an age of journalism and the two have always supported each other. The main reason lies in what journalism does – providing essential information on issues of the day to citizens that enables them to make informed choices and judgements concerning policies and politicians” (McQuail 2013, 206).
South Africa is a young democracy with a scarred racial background and large differences between rich and poor. It does not have a long tradition with institutional journalism serving as a watchdog. Personal interest and a background as anthropologist stimulated me to seek for a start-up not only dealing with technological changes and possibilities, but also one that faces democratic challenges, especially when it comes to informed decision making.
This thesis is a collaboration with Evelien Veldboom, with whom I share a background as cultural anthropologist. We were both interested in researching a journalism start-up in South Africa and got interested in Code4SA in November 2014.
1.4 Main question
In the beginning of this research, we worked together, gaining general impressions and information about Code4SA. We found that Code4SA as a case study provided two different research possibilities. On the one hand we were interested in the datajournalistic practice of Code4SA and on the other hand in the professional identity
and intrinsic motivations of Code4SA’s team. We both focused on separate subject matters but have continually, throughout the period of writing and research, exchanged insights on the workings of Code4SA.
The main question of this specific research is:
How does the social agenda (ideology) of Code4SA gain meaning in daily routines of the start-up (practice)?
Sub questions, operationalized in the theoretical chapter involve:
1. What are the intrinsic motivations for creating and running this start-up?
What is the ideology that set off the founding of Code4SA? What are Code4SA’s main goals?
What is the surplus value of data (journalism)? What are characteristics of Code4SA’s projects What defines as a right partner?
What kind of difficulties does Code4SA encounter as a business? What defines success for Code4SA?
2. What kind of people created and run this start-up?
What are the backgrounds of the employees?
What do the employees consider to be their occupational identity? Why are the motivations of Code4SA’s employees to work there? What binds the employees of Code4SA?
3. How are classical journalism values combined with an activist agenda?
How do the goals of Code4SA relate to classical occupational values and norms of journalism?
Is Code4SA a journalism start-up?
How do the employees of Code4SA define journalism?
These questions are meant to explore how a social agenda influences daily practice, to find what binds the employees and what the members of Code4SA consider to be their occupational identity. Semi structured interviews with Code4SA employees and an analysis of private documents offer insight into the ways they experience working at Code4SA, how they give meaning to their ideals in their daily practices and to where Code4SA stands within the developing and expanding field of journalism.
1.5 Pointers for reading
This thesis starts off with a description of the case-study which provides and overview of its history, business model, products and services and those involved. Next follows a theoretical chapter, providing a framework for analysis. In this chapter, the reader will read about ideology, identity, citizen journalism, open source philosophy, datajournalism and start-up culture. A methodological chapter follows on the theoretical framework. The research continues with an analysis and conclusion. More generally, this thesis seeks to explore what constitutes start-up culture through looking at this specific case study. It is to be expected that start-ups are doing something radically different than traditional media. This particular research aims to provide some initial insights on how they do this and what his means for the definition of what constitutes journalism.
2. Description of the start-up
Before getting to the theoretical framework, methods and analyses of this thesis, this chapter provides a description of the start-up. First, the history of the start-up, its business model, its services and products and the people involved are outlined. Additionally, the last paragraph gives context regarding the South African media landscape, covering politics and journalism, an overview of South African media and the editorial landscape and information on the legacy of the apartheid regime.
“The emphasis is not just on describing what ‘is’, but on explaining
how the nature of this phenomenon is closely linked to other aspects of its social context” (Denscombe 2010:328).
The information provided in this chapter stems from context interviews with Adi Eyal, founder of Code For South Africa and private documents on strategy, mission, vision and founding principles of the organization. Rather than providing this information in the analysis chapter, this chapter is meant to provide context on the case study for the reader.
2.1 Brief history of the start-up
Code4SA came into existence in November 2013. The idea was a submission for the African News Innovation Challenge (ANIC), a competition that aims to stimulate innovation within the broader field of journalism. Adi Eyal, data specialist and Gabriella Razzano, human rights lawyer, thought up a way and a workflow to embed the use of data in newsrooms in order to change news organizations. Both believe in data as a way of promoting informed decision-making. They set out to help news organizations with the technical part of doing datajournalism. Their idea proved to be a good one and the African News Innovation Challenge rewarded them with a starting capital.
Getting Code for South Africa off the ground, Eyal and Razzano got advice and help from Justin Arenstein, who is involved in many innovative journalism projects. Arenstein had formerly helped setting up Code4Kenya and helped Eyal and Razzano to connect with funders and partners and forming a strategy. Finding funds proved to be hard. The ANIC only had little money itself and finding a place on the market of data nurtured a lot of worries. Initially, Code4Sa offered their services for free, but other organizations failed to see their potential worth because of this. When a little more funding was found and Code4SA made a name for itself, projects started to set off. The organization found that the services they provided resonated with the wants and needs of civil society organizations. Also, Eyal was a prominent person in the South African open data community and his connections were helpful to the promotion of Code4SA.
Code4SA shares a name with Code4Africa and Code4Kenya, Code4Ghana and others. However, except for the name, the organizations are not formally linked. Code4SA is much more evolved than the ‘Code4’s’ in other countries. However, they are share the ‘creative commons thought’, which means that the technical background of tools should be open to share and re-used by others.
From the beginning of 2014, Greg Kempe, a softwaredeveloper, got involved with Code4SA, taking on the technical part of the start-up. This gave space for Eyal to focus more on the business side of the organization. Razzano decided to spend her time focussing on the strategic part. In the following months, several new employees joined and left Code4SA.
2.2 Business model
Code4SA is a non-profit organization and asset ownership is currently not a central motivation. The organization relies heavily on borrowing physical and technical infrastructure. The staff uses their own machines, and their servers are shared.
The projects are partly (about fifty percent) financed by funds (talks have taken place with African LII, Black Sash, Freedom House, Indigo Trust, Open Society Foundations and Code4Africa, Hivos and Google South Africa). The other fifty percent is paid for by partner organizations in exchange for services. These partner organizations currently consist of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, Media Monitoring Africa and Ndifuna Ukwazi. In the past year Code4SA also has had talks with several other civil society and media organizations such as the Mail & Guardian, City Press, African Media Institute and the African News Innovation Fund.
2.3 Services and products
The products and services that Code4Sa provides can be divided into four groups being: datatools/ visualisations, technical assignments, data trainings/(un)conferences and other projects. A comprehensive overview of all the projects can be found in appendix A. This paragraph describes a few examples.
Code4SA aims to work together with four areas in their projects: government, civil society, community and media. One of the most successful project so far is Wazimap, which was launched in collaboration with Media Monitoring Africa. Wazimap is a map of South Africa that provides geological and geographical information. Users (both journalists and citizens) can derive information like graphics and specific maps from Wazimap and use it as content for their own websites. Another example is Live Election Map, which was created in cooperation with the Mail & Guardian. This data visualisation was used during the elections of 2014 and showed live the election results throughout the country. From the moment of establishment up until December 2014, Code4SA made fifteen of these kind of data projects.
Next to these visualisations, Code4SA also helps other organizations which the technical aspects of their enterprise. For example, Code4SA developed a communication channel for the inhabitants of squatter camp Red Hill and the Municipality of Cape Town in Open Democracy Advice Centre, which was commissioned by the Open Democracy Advice Centre. Also, AricanLII, an organization that tries to make the South African law insightful, asked Code4SA for help incorporating technology into their services. To ensure making it a common good that news organizations apply data in their daily work, Code4SA provides data training for journalists. Code4SA also organises so-called (un)conferences, at which ideas about open data and data journalism are exchanged.
The past year, Code4SA also organized a number of projects that are not to be categorised in the above groups. For example, the advocate sends a two-week newsletter with updates and links to interesting projects that have to do with open data. Users can subscribe to this service. This year (2015), Code4SA aims to reach more organizations in order to strengthen the open data community. The team hopes to encourage this, through meetings, both online and offline. Additionally, the team wants to promote their tools OpenByLaws, Parliamentary Monitoring Group, Medicine Price Comparison Tool and Wazimap to their target groups, since these apps and tools are only successful once used.
2.4 Relation to other initiatives
The open data and datajournalism community of South Africa consists of a small, but active group of individuals and organizations. At international level, there are several organizations that operate under the name of ‘Code4’, such as CodeAfrica, Code4Kenya, Code4Nigeria and Code4Ghana. Code for Africa is a federated umbrella that frames itself as a people-driven movement that aims to empower active citizenry and strengthen civic watchdogs to help governments shape and improve its services to citizens. Code for Africa’s partners include the African Media Initiative, the International Center for Journalists, the Open Knowledge Foundation, the Praekelt Foundation, Hacks Hackers Africa and many more1. The partners represent a sense to what is
important for Code for Africa. The different ‘Code4’s’ are not formally linked but share common goals.
Through international conferences, Code4SA connects with other similar international organizations to exchange knowledge. According to Code4SA’s founder, Adi Eyal, Code4SA is rather unique in their own country, but on a worldwide scale there are many similar organizations.
Within the boundaries of South Africa, the start-up aims to fill a gap in the market. “We fill a gap in developing and using technology to further social change which would otherwise not be effectively filled” (private documents Code4SA). Also, Code4SA offers its skills, tools, software and knowledge to news organizations and civil society organizations. According to Siyabonga Afrika, Code4SA is not seen as a competitor in a ‘data journalism market’ but rather as a partner.
2.5 People involved
During research, Code4SA consisted out of seven employees with a core of three permanent employees, four part-timers (freelance), two consultants, two ex-interns and two ex-employees who still somehow feel affiliated. The information of this section was gathered during a context interview with founder Adi Eyal.
• Adi Eyal is the founder of Code4SA. He is thirty-six years old and born in South Africa with Israeli roots. He studied computer science and worked as a software developer and project manager at ICT4D (Information and Communications Technology for Development) for fifteen years. Before Code4SA, Eyal also worked at two other start-ups where he developed tools. He is involved in the open source and hackers community and works at Code4SA fulltime. At Code4SA he manages the projects and tries to put the organization on the map.
• Greg Kempe is the software developer of Code4SA. He is thirty-four years old and was born in South Africa. He graduated in computer studies and works fulltime at Code4SA since September 2014 and before that he already did some projects for the organization on a more freelance base. Before Code4SA, he worked at a Canadian start-up and for Amazon. He then worked as a consultant and webdeveloper. Kempe leads the technical part of the organization and has a great interest in civilian technology and open data.
• Jason Nordwood-Young calls himself a data journalism protagonist. He is thirty-seven years old and was born in South Africa. He works at Code4SA four days a week and tries to make a stand for data journalism in South Africa. He focuses mainly on training media companies on how to use data. Nordwood-Young studied journalism at university for about a year and then quit. He then worked as a journalist. He used to be the technical manager of the Mail and the Guardian Online, worked at Stuff Magazine and was a freelancer. Nordwood-Young had known Adi Eyal for a while when Eyal started Code4SA and Nordwood-Young joined.
• Raymond Joseph is a data journalist who is sixty-one years old and was born in South Africa. He is a trained journalists and works for Code4SA for about ten days a month. He’s been a journalist, correspondent and editor for over forty years. Primarily, he provides data-journalism trainings for journalists and students and also works on several projects with Code4SA’s developers. He also blogs and occasionally manages Code4SA’s social media outlets. Joseph himself says he does a bit of everything.
• Gabriella Razzano is the strategist of Code4SA. She is thirty years old and was born in South Africa. Along with Eyal she founded the organization. She also works at the Open Democracy Advice Centre, and does not work at Code4SA on a daily base. Additionally, Razzano provided legal advice to organizations in the non-profit sector.
• Siyabonga Afrika is a data journalist and programmer. He is twenty-nine years old and was born in South Africa. He studied journalism and User Experience Design and Information Architecture and has worked at several newsrooms. Also, he worked as a digital media specialist at Media24, the Preakelt Foundation and Do Not Look Down. Afrika participated in the School of Data course from August 2014 to Januari 20152. He worked on various projects and
helped media organizations with implementing the usage of data in their newsrooms. Since Januari 2015 he works at the South African Broadcasting Coorperation (SABC). Ever since 2013 he has been the chairman of Hacks//Hackers Johannesburg.
• Hannah Williams is a graphic designer and is thirty-six years old. She studied Information Design and has worked as a designer for fourteen years. Just like Siyabonga Afrika, she participated in the School of Data. That is where she first discovered about open data and data journalism. She currently works on projects for Code4SA as a freelancer.
Some other people have occasionally worked on projects for Code4SA as well. The team has an office in Cape Town, but employees often work partly at home. The team communicates through communication tool ‘Slack’, on which they chat and have conversations. Throughout this thesis, the employees of the start-up will be called by made-up nicknames, so it will be easier for the reader to remember which person is being referred to. However, these nick-names have no other intention or meaning that
this. Adi Eyal will be called the Founder; Greg Kempe will be called the Software
Developer; Jason Nordwood-Young will be the Data Advocate; Raymond Joseph will
be called the Senior Journalist; Siyabonga Afrika will be called the Programmer
Journalist and Hannah Williams will be known as the Graphic Designer.
2.6 South African media landscape
As Reese (2001) states in his model on professional identity, one does not work detached from his or her national or cultural context. The creative industry, of which journalists are part, does “not exist independently of a complex institutional framework which authorizes, enables, empowers and legitimizes them. This framework must be incorporated into any analysis that pretends to provide a thorough understanding of cultural goods and practices” (Johnson in Bourdieu 1993, 10). Therefore I reckon it necessary to briefly elaborate on contemporary South African political, legal and social issues insofar these affect the operations of journalism in general and news startups in particular in the country.
Bourdieu understands the creative industry, or journalism is this case, as a manifestation of the cultural field as a whole. Consequently, journalism must be viewed as socially constructed, since its actors function in a complex and constantly changing and negotiated set of circumstances in which multiple social and institutional factors are involved
South Africa is a young parliamentary republic and one of the most socially and economically developed countries of the African continent. Despite its developed status, the country still faces one of the most skewed distributions of income in the world (development program United nations, 2014). Freedom House, an American organization pursuing global freedom in the broadest sense of the word, releases an annual ‘freedom of the press indication’, in which every country in the world is given a rating (0 = best, 100 = worst). In 2014, the Netherlands scored a 10 and was classified as free. South Africa is considered to be partly free, with a score of 33. This, among other reasons, because there are an increasing number of laws with potential effects on freedom of the press and freedom of speech. These include laws like the Protection of Personal Information Act and the Protection of State Information Bill 3(dubbed ‘The
Secrecy Bill’ by scholars such as Fourie 2013, Hadland 2007). The policy environment perhaps reflects the political atmosphere that is currently not conducive to progressive attitudes to information access (Code4SA strategy documents 2014). Towards 2015, political actors are paying lip service to open data and access to information, but are hesitant to take actual steps given the instability of current political alliances. This despite freedom of press being enshrined in the constitution.
3
The Protection of State Information Bill (POSIB) allows for the government to impose restrictions on journalists to report on security forces, prisons and mental institutions. In 2013 the controversial Protection of State Information Bill (POSIB) was approved by parliament. The bill enables the government to classify certain information as of ‘national interest’. The publication of such classified information is considered a criminal offence. There have been many protests against this bill by opposition parties and activists whom expressed concern that the POSIB would be in conflict with the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) of 2000, which could be considered as the South African counterpart of the Dutch ‘Wet Openbaarheid van Bestuur’ (WOB: often successfully used by Dutch journalists to request access to otherwise classified information). Due to this criticism – for example regarding the risk of a twenty-five year imprisonment for journalists who leak information that is protected under POSIB – the bill has not been signed by President Zuma.
2.6.1 Politics and journalism
The largest and most powerful political party in South Africa is the African National Congress (ANC). When the first free elections were held in 1994, the ANC, led by anti-apartheid freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, came out as winner.
Traditionally, the ANC has a hundred year old history with the press, in which the ANC repeatedly fought for freedom. In a 1992 Ready to Govern document, they ANC states:
"At the core of democracy lies the recognition of the right of all citizens to take part in society's decision-making process. This requires that individuals are armed with the necessary information and have access to the contesting options they require to make informed choices. An ignorant society cannot be democratic." (ANC 1992)
The South African constitution is even considered to be one of the most liberal in the world (Daniels 2013). However, many scholars notice a dissonance between the constitution and state practice (Daniels 2013, Johnston 2007, Harber 2014) Hadland (2007) is critical of the ANC, which he calls the powerful elite:
“Why would they introduce legislation like the Protection of State Information Bill (known as the ‘secrecy bill’) that profoundly limits the media’s capacity to expose state corruption? […] The ANC understands it is far more than just a political party. It is a movement representing no less than human progress on the southern tip of Africa. As such, all the tools and levers of society –from economy to the press- form part of the national democratic revolution and could be used to achieve its objectives.” (ANC 2014)
The objectives that Hadland refers to are the ones in the ANC quote above. He addresses that after apartheid the media were seen as a sector not only in need of urgent change, but also as a vehicle for transformation (Harber 2014:206). Over the past few years the ANC criticized the media for not living up to its three purposes as stated after the apartheid era. Simultaneously, journalists and critics accuse the government of suppressing freedom of the press. Also, state broadcaster South African Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC)– that dominates the radio and television landscape - has been accused of providing biased information in favor of the ANC (Daniels 2013: 7). During the last couple of years the relationship between ANC and media professionals has grown increasingly volatile.
Code4SA is not linked to news organizations and works independently. By embedding Code4SA’s tools in established newsrooms, Code4SA hopes to create honest and transparent news- and information (context interview Founder Adi Eyal). News organizations may get a fresh perspective on journalism through the trainings and content provided by Code4SA, making it easier to stray from traditional systems. Johnston, a South African political scientist, emphasizes the importance of the role of media in society (2007:29). The media provide an intermediary role between politics and the public by transferring information in a clear way. Code4SA has set up several projects that aim to bring citizens closer to politics. For example, the organization has developed several data visualizations and applications during the elections of 2014. Also, Code4SA developed a platform on which young people can chat with politicians.
2.6.2 Newspapers, broadcasters and the internet
In 2013, Glenda Daniels (Wits Journalism, journalism department of the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) did research on South African newsrooms. According to her research, there are a total of 539 papers in South-Africa. Fifteen of them are distributed weekly, 32 only on the weekends, 28 daily, 58 exclusively local and 219 free of charge. Most of the papers are written in English, but some are in isiZulu or Afrikaans (Daniels 2013, 2). Harber states that there is a great absence of ethnic, accessible media and that the English language of most of the media is a problem. “The fact that English is increasingly dominant as the language of national debate, business, and politics excludes many, and notably a disproportionate number of its poorer, less educated citizens” (2014:219). In other words, language may marginalize those who don’t speak English, Afrikaans or isiZulu. State broadcaster SABC4 (South African
Broadcasting Cooperation) is the largest radio and television broadcaster. In addition, three commercial broadcasters fill a large part of the paid and unpaid programming on television: e.tv, TopTV and DStv (last two on surcharge). Radio is the most popular medium in South Africa, especially at local level (Daniels 2013:7).
When it comes to the internet, growth and usage have grown significantly. Internet use has more than doubled in four years, Daniels states. It has become more popular than the newspaper but would still be ‘defeated’ by radio and television. Seventeen percent of adults read a newspaper on a daily base, twenty-two percent use the internet dail, fourty-seven percent listen two the radio for at least one hour a day and seventy-one percent watches television for a minimum of one hour a day (Daniels 10). Internet is used mainly through mobile services.
According to Harber (2014), technology entails the potential to facilitate much greater interaction and to break gatekeeping roles of traditional media. But results depend on access. And bandwidth remains expensive and slow. But the majority of the population is not able to make use of the Internet, because of the high cost and the largely English content. One must be careful not to deepen the digital divide much further. Despite shifting demographics of ownership in management and in newsrooms, many, especially poor black marginalized still have little access to media (220).
However, the internet is still quickly gaining popularity, which contributes to media distribution. The number of facebook users went from 6.8 million to 9.4 million in 2014 alone (World Wide Worx 2014). Fourie labels South Africa as both a developing and developed nation, in which there are big differences in access to media. The gap between a digitized elite and the majority living in poverty has a major influence on media use and is called the digital divide (2013:153). Code4SA made an interactive data-visualization project called Wazimap, that shows Internet access in South African households5. The organization Freedom House calculated at the end of 2013 that the
percentage of South Africans with Internet access had risen exponentially.
Since 2012, more and more media companies launch new apps. There are several technological innovations for apps of South African media companies that have won international awards, including by Naspers managed app Price Check (Daniels 2013:12). Through the app or website, consumers can enter a product, than Price
4
Moreover, SABC runs both public and commercial television channels and radio stations. The
broadcasting company is owned by the state, but manages its public and commercial services separately. The commercial branches partly finance the public services (SABC 2015).
5
Check shows a price comparison of different options. They recently expanded its application to other countries in Africa (Naspers, 2014). Code4SA also has in the last year several applications developed with data projects.
2.6.3 Editorial landscape
The turmoil, brought about by rapidly changing technology has also caused cutbacks and layoffs, like anywhere else in the world. Consequently, mergers have lead to greater homogeneity and less diversity among regional newspapers and broadcasters, leading to a decreased capacity to critically report on daily news. (Harber 2014:209, Daniels 2013:3).
Daniels argues the media should make a shift to an industry that can monitor democracy, so that the traces of apartheid in the media disappear (3). The media provide an intermediary role between politics and the public. According to Johnston the media faces a major challenge in the absence of a strong parliamentary opposition, to act as a watchdog and enforcer of accountability (2007:30), Code4SA uses the possibilities of the Internet and open-source technology to encourage and support democracy and access to information.
During the era of apartheid and the years thereafter, the vast majority of journalists were white. Daniels’ research in nine prominent newsrooms showed that in 2013, sixty-one percent of the journalists are black or colored (5). That distribution of skin color in newsrooms is generally not leading to black journalists in the definition of their work (Fourie 2013: 151). According to him, the South African press attaches more value to the role as a watchdog of democracy, than to reduce ethnic differences.
2.6.4 Legacy of apartheid
Two decades after the abolition of the apartheid regime, the theme remains prevalent in South African social, cultural, political and economic practices. According to South African communications scholar Pieter Fourie, apartheid and racism are often thought to be responsible for poverty, a lack of development, poor education, poor governance and conflict. He claims that many dichotomies, such as rich-poor, illiterate-literate, developed–underdeveloped, and urban-rural, are often found in South African society (213). South African society is characterized by a variety of cultures, languages and ethnic groups. “The media are a mirror of society: what appears in the newspapers, on TV and on the internet says something about our way of thinking.” (Koetsenruijter en Van Hout, 164, translated). This means that issues that society deals with are to be represented in the media and journalism, in order to contribute to a healthy and democratic public sphere (in content, media ownership, regulations and staffing). Maintaining a space for public debate, connecting citizens with governments and giving opportunities to voices of civil society to speak out are important to (McQuail 2013, 48). Fourie calls, when transferring information, to reflect on the properties of African communication. One can, for example, take the importance of the symbolic value of words into account. The same goes for the use of singing, dancing, drama, story telling and the effective use of proverbs (Fourie 2013:153). Evelien Veldboom’s thesis discusses how Code4SA communicates its messages.
3. Theoretical framework
This chapter provides the theoretical framework of this thesis. This framework is meant to provide the theoretical support needed to answer the main and sub-questions of this research. In order to understand and analyze the way the social agenda (ideology) of Code4SA gains meaning in daily routines of (practice), this chapter discusses theoretically elaborates on five topics that have implications for both its practical and ideological workings. First, the premise that combining ‘neutral’ journalism with activism could be contradictory. Second, theory is provided on how knowledge and expertise socializes members of a profession group and provides them with a collective identity. Third, this chapter elaborates on how Code4SA’s open source philosophy mixes with journalism’s professional logic of control. Fourth, a paragraph on how a change in discourse may help include new start-ups in the wider space of journalism and lastly, an insight in the South African Media landscape. Literature on these five topics presents a framework from which this research aims to answer its questions.
3.1 Start-ups
The main reasons for commencing an online journalism start-up are threefold: the demise of newspapers and broadcast journalism, the discontent with existing journalism and the job abatement at existing media enterprises. Journalism start-ups are therefore framed as a counterforce, with an ability to renew journalism (Naldi and Picard 2012). The term ‘online journalism start-up’ has three implications in this thesis. First, they’re born digital, second, they do not affiliate with existing media enterprises (Bruno Kleis & Nielsen 2012:4) and they identify with fundamental journalistic occupational values like truthfulness, informing, interpreting, criticizing and entertaining (Deuze 2004). For the purposes of this thesis, a journalism start-up is considered to be a small or medium sized enterprise (SME), with between ten and two hundred employees (Powell 2007:376).
Code4SA fits this description and is an interesting case study for other reasons as well. The organization is engaged with data journalism, has a social agenda that promotes informed decision making and wants to build an active citizenry and does so by engaging with journalists, hackers, technical people and designers (in the four above mentioned areas of government, media, civil society and community).
According to Deuze (2008) there is a distinction between start-ups with a strong public service agenda or a strong connection with a specific interest or target group and start-ups who see a clear competitive advantage in convergence culture in a strongly declining market. This is what McQuail (2013:162) calls the difference between a ‘civic’ motive, where the aim is a better service to the citizen and a ‘strategic’ motive, where market considerations predominate. For both types, the formula for success depends on the following elements: good partners, a distinctive and unique quality product, miscellaneous income flows, being aimed at a niche audience that is not served by existing media and an effective financial logic (Bruno and Kleis 2012:2, Naldi and Picard 2012:71). What these authors mean by ‘success’ is not only focused on financial independence and profit, since many start-ups function as non-profit organizations. Success may also be measured in terms of public service and survival (Bruno and Kleis 2012:8).
Code4SA is a non-profit organization that aims to provide a service to South African citizens through working with partners from four areas. By using open source
technology and data, they want to give people the opportunity to gain the information needed to make informed decisions.
Innovation requires new ways of thinking (Bruno & Kleis Nielsen). Studying start-up culture is studying convergence culture. Characteristic for convergence culture is the ever so more interactive engagement between people and their media, within media companies and between different types of professionals (Deuze 2008:104). And all of these opportunities brought by a digital age also bring about theoretical and practical challenges. Five of these contemplations are illustrated below.
First, Code4Sa combines journalism with activism. Since journalism is idealistically about neutrality and objectivity and activism is about fighting for a cause, this could be contradictory. Secondly, each profession demarcates certain boundaries of elitist knowledge and expertise that justify their authority and socializes its members, providing them with a collective identity (Lewis 2013:841). Theory on this matter is needed to understand and analyze how Code4SA gives meaning to its identity in their ideology and daily practices. Third, this chapter will elaborate on how Code4SA’s datajournalism and open-source philosophy may or may not be combined with the professional logic of control of journalism. Fourth, the chapter will present how a recent change in discourse may help to include organizations that stem from convergence into the wider scope of journalism. Lastly, the chapter provides useful insight on the South African media landscape, which outlines the political context in which Code4SA arose.
3.2 Civic Journalism
Civic journalism is the idea of integrating journalism into the democratic process. The media do not only inform the public, but also work towards engaging citizens and foster public discussion. The civic journalism-movement is an attempt to abandon the notion that journalists and their audiences are spectators in political and social processes. Civic journalism seeks to treat community members as participants and pursue a goal of improving life. Usually, it is non-profit driven (McQuail 2013:49).
The concept of civic journalism dates back to the 1920s, when Walter Lippmann and John Dewey famously discussed the role of journalism in society (Glasser 1999). Lippmann viewed the role of the journalist as recording what politicians say and informing the public. Dewey, however, defined the journalist’s role as being engaged with the public and critically examining information provided by the government.
Jay Rosen further explored Dewey’s argument, but called it public journalism. This kind of journalism, marked by the engagement and needs of the community, has also been called communitary journalism, engaged journalism and civic journalism. “All of them have in common the centralizing of the profession’s practical objectives on encouraging effort to advance citizenship, improving public debate, reviewing public life and contributing to the improvement of democracy” (Dornelles 2008:108). Therefore, its philosophy or set of values, which goes beyond unloading facts and has an obligation to public life, makes for a good way to analyze Code4SA.
Rosen gives five ways of understanding public/civic journalism, namely, as an
argument, a way of thinking about what journalists should be doing. As an experiment,
a way of breaking out of established routines. As a debate, with both people inside and outside the media about the role of the press. As a movement involving practicing journalists, former journalists, academics, researchers and other like-minded people and using lend ideas that might stimulate a think-tank. And lastly, as an adventure, “an
open ended and experimental quest for another kind of press” (Rosen in Glasser 1999:22).
However, civic journalism collides with the original idea of journalism as a neutral carrier of information about current events (McQuail 2013:11). There has always been a difference in profit-oriented newspaper press and the ones with a more ideological objective, but in recent times, digital opportunities have widened the possibilities of the last one. The last one is usually considered to be less objective than the first one (Rijssemus 2014:61).
Rosen dissects this myth of journalistic, objective, detachment. To him, every story and every decision is based on an assumption on how the world is supposed to work. A story on injustice, for example, is only a story if there exists a perspective that injustice is bad (Linksy 2001).
Rijssemus takes it one step further and implies that engaged journalists are needed for society. Engaged journalists bring about contemplations, facts and insights that their ‘neutral’ colleagues may withhold the public. He argues that media that explicitly choose a side are usually discarded not providing ‘quality’ journalism. Advocacy journalism, or engaged journalism is therefore not popular, he states. But if you take this advocacy journalism ‘outside journalism’ and you give it a different name, it is considered a virtue. To Rijssemus, a journalist does not leave his view on society aside when he sits down at his desk and writes a piece (Rijssemus 2014:61).
According to Rijssemus, it is essential to remember that we live in a society with different collective identities. To him, it is important that all those collective identities have a channel to the public sphere, since there are different perspectives on reality (2014, 61). This democratic purpose can be served through the digital media, where the entry is not only easily accessible, but also more democratic. The internet is a way for minorities and the less represented to make their voice heard (2014:17).
Rosen and Rijssemus dismantle the myth of neutrality and argue that the media are not detached from what they report, despite the ideal of neutrality and objectivity (Rosen in Glasser 1999:27). To them, what is needed to save journalism is reporters and editors making explicit their decisions and rethink and reflect on their practices. Code4SA makes decisions based on their own perspective of what is important to society. However, providing people with tools to make sense of the world around them, on their own pace, and think and react to that information also fulfills an old journalism mission: “to call attention to the shared interests, values, and concerns that bind a community as a real place and help to create that sense of place” (Schaffer 2000:268).
Engaged- and civic journalism are gaining popularity and their worth is being reevaluated, as Rijssemus’ 2014 book shows. Engaged and civic journalism add something to the ‘neutral’ news. Even though the professional ideology of journalism prescribes neutrality and objectivity, Rijssemus and other scholars argue that civic journalism can also lead to very rich and informed pieces of journalism. Of course, Code4SA is not the first organization that combines elements of journalism and activism. Indymedia6, a collective of independent media organizations has proved its
6
According to www.indymedia.org: "Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth."Indymedia was founded as an alternative to government and corporate media and seeks to facilitate people being able to publish their media as directly as possible.
surplus value, as it has many users. Just like Code4SA, Indymedia asks for input of the public, making the public a co-producer. Access or influence to publishing areas/tools is connected to the ideals of open source movement, where information is freely distributed and exchanged between communities (Deuze & Platon 2003:348). Code4SA is also sympathizes with the ideals of open-source publishing, in which software is freely shared. However, controlling content, like journalism does and open publishing seems to be a paradox, which will be addressed in the next paragraph. Studying daily practices, we can see ideology at work. Kovach and Rosenstiel (2001) state that giving meaning to ideology in reality is what gives legitimacy and credibility to what a journalist does. Therefore, journalism should be viewed as an occupational ideology rather than as just a profession, literary genre or industry (Deuze 2004). Viewing journalism in terms of how journalists give meaning to their work, gives relevance to researching new types of journalism, because it says something about how journalism’s ideology is evolving.
3.3 Open source philosophy and a professional logic of control
“Open access to information will be the default position, in formats that are simple to use and machine-readable, and Code for South Africa will be central to finding innovative ways to repackage that information so that citizens can participate in their governance constructively” (Code4SA vision, 2014)
Code4SA works with data and an open source philosophy. Its founding principles state that they subscribe to the principles of openness and want to play a pioneering thought leadership role in the development of the open data community in South Africa.
Journalists and technologists are increasingly organizing and collaborating across news organizations and grassroots networks (Lewis and Usher 2013:603). This intersection of journalism and technology opens up many possibilities to improve journalism (Bradshaw 2012).
“By a technology-focused approach to journalism innovation, we mean understanding how the ideas, practices and ethos long held by communities of technologists could be applied to rethinking the tools, culture and normative framework of journalism itself” (Lewis & Usher
2013:603).
What Lewis and Usher mean by this, is that it might be helpful to study and engage the way technologists handle, use and approach information, when overthinking and shaping the field of journalism in the future. Paul Bradshaw, one of the authors of the datajournalism handbook, sees datajournalism as full of possibilities, applicable to any sector within journalism: for example to retrieve and order information from authorities, or by using software to find connections between thousands of documents. But data, which can ultimately be traced to a set of one’s and zero’s, can also be used as a tool to tell a complex story, by making an application of infographic (Bradshaw 2012). Mirko Lorenz, also author of the Handbook, adds that data journalism has the ability to collect information that cannot be seen by the naked eye. By this he means that sometimes, ‘a pile’ of information makes no sense and does not seem relevant, until you find the right correlations and patterns within that ‘pile’. The role of the journalist herein is not just to report, but also to explain. Using data transforms the abstract to something understandable, to which people can relate.
Open source is based on the notion that ideas should be shared without copyright (Platon & Deuze 2003:341) – it is transparent and participatory coding, with an emphasis on a social philosophy of sharing. Open source offers the capacity to rethink journalistic practices because of its alternative emphasis: participation from multiple sources (different disciplines, professionals and amateurs), collaborative community building and increased transparency (Lewis and Usher 2013:610). Combining technological know-how of software architecture with the open-source culture of participation emboldens journalism to think of information as both a process (how to retrieve information) as a product (story).
3.3.1 Hacks/hackers
Hacker is a contested term, which hereby refers to a broad range of computationally skilled people. Hacker ethic is marked by experimentation and play as well as pro-social interest in information liberation and democratic ideals, just like civic journalism (Lewis & Usher 2013: 603). The collaboration between journalists and technologists, with an ethos of open source, has become an international phenomenon on the edges of the journalism field called Hacks/Hackers (604). Lewis and Usher did a two year case study on Hacks/Hackers and found that journalists and hackers usually have similar goals: to find out how software can help tell a story. Code4SA has warm bonds with the Hacks/Hackers community in both Johannesburg and Capetown, with some of its employees being organizers of Hacks/Hackers meetings.
The hacker culture and journalism culture are two entirely different worlds. However, their ideals overlap. An anthropological concept may clarify this: the trading zone. The trading zone is a place where two different homogeneous groups come together and form a new identity. This newly formed combination between groups, individuals and ideas is much more diverse and heterogeneous. Literature on the trading zone suggests that the coming together of two different 'cultures', with common goals (such as accessible information for the purpose of informing the public and the power to control) could lead to a productive synergy. (Lewis and Usher 2014: 385)
This kind of journalism is based on ideas regarding open sourcing of software code, as used by computer programmers, and how it can and is being used by other groups and professionals (Moon, in Deuze en Platon 2003:341). In spite of the involvement of citizens as active participants, most news organizations retain a certain degree of conventional control over what is eventually published. Within this blurring of boundaries, and involving non-journalists, Lewis (2012) observes a tension between a professional desire to control inherent to classic journalism as opposite to the opportunities of open participation which is inherent to this digital era. Controlling content in an open publishing newswire seems to be a paradox.
“Empirical literature finds that journalists have struggled to reconcile this key tension, caught in the professional impulse toward one-way publishing control even as media become a multiway network. Yet, emerging research also suggests the possibility a hybrid logic of adaptability and openness –an ethic of participation- emerging to resolve this tension going forward.” (Lewis 2012: 836)
Deuze argues that ongoing mergers of media companies and professionals, as well as the convergence of production and consumption are signs of a global convergence culture (2008:104). Characteristic of this convergence culture is the ever more so interactive engagement between people and their media, within media companies and
between media professionals and amateurs. Convergence culture is not just a technological process. “Media convergence must also be seen as having a cultural logic of its own, blurring lines between different channels, forms and format, between the acts of production and consumption, between making media and using media and between active and passive spectatorship” (Deuze 2008:103). Journalists find it difficult to navigate the challenges this brings to established notions of professional identity and gatekeeping. Journalists tend to react nostalgically on innovation, since the opportunities of the digital era undermine their professional autonomy (Deuze 2008:113) This matter is elaborated on in the next paragraph.
3.4 Identity
Developments in digital and mobile media facilitate a climate for innovation. Also, it creates new opportunities in terms of production, distribution and consumption of journalistic content. One can wonder about the implications of these developments on several levels such as business models, financial strategies, journalism education, journalism ideology and professional identity (Franklin 2014:481).
Each profession demarcates certain boundaries of elitist knowledge and expertise that justify their professional authority and autonomy. Journalists have traditionally exercised the control of a body of knowledge and practice of certain fields. The trend towards de-professionalization, which has emerged in journalism, has disrupted this practice and knowledge monopoly.
The emergence of start-ups, the possibilities of digital participation affect the self-determination of the journalist. Journalists no longer exert exclusive control over content collection, filtration and distribution: the producer-consumer dichotomy and you read-we write dogma have drastically changed. In the past, journalism was defined by a certain degree of control and scarcity. But it has now lost control over some classical domains. Kovach and Rosenstiel (2001) state that giving meaning to these values in reality is what gives legitimacy and credibility to what a journalist does. That is why researching daily work is important when studying identity.
Lewis argues that a well-defined profession also ensures socialization by its "members". It provides them with a collective identity and culture. Professionalism, in this sense, is an important aspect of the self-conception of the journalist. When it gets damaged, it has direct implications for his identity - resulting in an identity crisis (2013:841).
According to Powell (2007), a start-up is not a ‘static’, non-evolving business: its identity and goals are continually constructed and changed. The brand and vision are temporary outcomes of negotiations between the creativity of the employees and the ideas of the founders. Powell claims that the vision and identity of a creative SME are thoroughly influenced by negotiation and debate.
Townley e.a. (2009) did research on creative industries and found that creatives often identify more with their projects/clients than their own organization. The same is the case for journalists (Russo 1998:72). There seems to be a tension between the fixed or permanent identity that is needed for an effective representation of the start-up towards the outside world and the dynamic organizational creativity that shapes and reshapes the journalism start-up day to day. Code4SA functions without a marketing department that may function as a buffer. They do however, have a very clear mission, but employees from very differing backgrounds.
A distinct and stable professional identity can also function as a way for journalists to set themselves apart, communicate their uniqueness and their added value. Sirkkunen and Cook (2012) refer to this phenomenon as monetizing ideology by using the idea of a counterculture to attract subscribers.
This process of identification can be seen as a form of what Gieryn (1983) calls boundary work. These are a professional domain’s attempts to establish and enhance limits of institutional authority. These kind of professional boundaries are mainly brought into motion by tension. Boundary work is done in every profession, but especially in creative industries like journalism, because of its malleable nature. The concept of boundary work is crucial to understand how such distinctions professional / amateur, producer / consumer, journalist / Non-journalists are forged, maintained and continually renegotiated in changing circumstances. These circumstances are constituent of what Deuze (2008) and others label as convergence culture.
The professional identity of the journalist is influenced by individual characteristics like background, work routines, organizational, extra media and ideological (Reese 2001). All these levels are important when considering the occupational identity and Reese organizes them from micro (the individual) to macro (the national context). He states that a person or a journalist has its own professional attitude and views, which are being influenced by larger structures. The journalist’s background is respectively influenced by work routines, the organization and the national context in which he or she operates. Reese’s model (2001) assumes that a workplace influences the journalist. This is important to consider when exploring the occupational identity of Code4SA’s employees and the identity of the organization.
3.5 Changing discourse: from journalism towards information
Framing journalism very strictly makes it hard for new organizations that affiliate with journalistic values, but might not be purely journalistic, to consider themselves as actors in journalism. Probably therefore, until recently, new experiments like participant/ audience involvement where done in a ‘traditional arena’, where journalists still gained some form of control. For example by monitoring online reactions on content, like one traditionally did when deciding on publishing a letter to the editor. However, online channels arose that were not controlled by established media. Lewis:
“There is emerging evidence that journalism’s ideological commitment to control, rooted in institutional instinct toward protecting legitimacy and boundaries, may be giving way to a hybrid logic of adaptability and openness: a willingness to see audiences on a more peer level, to appreciate their contributions and to find normative purpose in transparency and participation, a la open source technology culture.”
(851)
The Knight Foundation, a wealthy American fund that supports journalistic innovation, promotes the idea of journalism as an open, participatory whole and encourages this reformulation of borders (852). The question that arises is where (digital niches on editorial boards), how (which discourse and practice) and why (under which normative considerations), is the original logic of control of journalism reformulated? In the Netherlands, a similar encouragement can be witnesses in the form of the
‘Persinnovatieregeling’. Organizations and individuals with an innovative idea for journalism can get subsidies from this fund7.
The Knight Foundation is a funder of the African News Challenge, which initially invested money in Code4SA. American journalism scientist Seth Lewis studied how the Knight Foundation, founded in 1950, changed its discourse from 'journalism', with its existing ideological implications and expectations, to a more boundless and open 'information'. With this, the fund seeks to fade the professional limits inherent to the term ‘journalism’ (which traditionally excludes amateurs like civic journalists) and weaken its own historical emphasis on professionalism as requirement for quality. The fund used to have a persistent belief in the expertise and knowledge of professionals. They argued for a causal relationship between professionalism and journalistic excellence. The underlying thought was that professionalization leads to consistent standards and greater compliance with existing codes of ethics, which would lead to quality journalism.
The foundation has shifted its emphasis, both rhetorically and materialistically to the ‘wisdom and expertise of the public’ and citizen participation. As of 2009, all winners of The Knight News Challenge, of which Code4SA is one, have been innovative, experimental ideas. Also, it’s remarkable that the contest is now open to everyone: individuals, organizations, (non) profit and -crucially- journalists and non-journalists. According to Lewis, the fund seeks to send journalism (or ‘information’ as a business) in a new, unclassified direction.
The intersection between technology and journalism, in which hackers, programmers and ‘techies’ merge, receive much emphasis (Lewis and Usher 605). Data visualizations, software applications, the development of APIs, new algorithms are now considered relevant for journalism (or information) in a digital age (615). In South Africa, the intersection between technology and journalism is in its infancy. Data journalism is only done by a handful of pioneers. Many of them are affiliated with either hacks/hackers or the Open Knowledge Foundation South Africa. The Open Knowledge Foundation is a worldwide organization with departments in different countries that wants to improve openness and the spread of information by combining technologists with people who can ‘transfer’ information, such as journalists. Greg Kempe and Adi Eyal, are both active participants of the Open Knowledge Foundation SA and Raymond Joseph is the chairman of hack/hackers Cape Town.
This thesis is a case study on the South African organization Code4SA. This theoretical framework has shed light on several changes journalism is going through and what kind of challenges new start-ups, like Code4SA may pose to journalism ideology. Challenges that have to do with combining activist ideology with journalism ideology, challenges on whether to call start-ups that derived from convergence culture journalistic or not. This chapter also provides theoretical concepts that help analyze the occupational identity of Code4SA’s staff members, how ideology is given meaning in practice and what kind of difficulties Code4SA may face doing so. How these aspects have been researched and analyzed, is explained in the next chapter.
