Automating the search and selection of news in municipal registries: Experiences from a Swedish participatory action research project

Abstract

This article describes a Swedish case study with a focus on how to enhance journalists’ professional autonomy, local news coverage and local democracy with the help of an automated search tool. The aim was to involve journalists in the development project using the theory of participatory action research and tailor a search tool to their specific needs to search for news stories in documents from municipalities. We conclude that user-centred design is a viable methodology when developing a new tool, but not necessarily when it comes to implementing the tool in journalists’ everyday practice, as the implementation is dependent on other factors connected to management and organizational structures. It became clear that the journalists were optimistic about the automated search tool as long as it made their work more efficient in terms of time and money and offered better possibilities for independent news discovery. We also noticed that some of the journalists’ professional knowledge about a certain geographical area or municipality became subordinate to the knowledge of how to best use available search tools.