Professional domains of data journalism within the digital media ecosystem: an approach to the Spanish context and to leading media in the English-speaking world

Technological transformation is driving the evolution of the media ecosystem, in which data journalism is consolidating as an area of development. Among the aspects associated to this journalistic modality, data visualization, news verification and investigative journalism stand out. In this context, newsrooms made up of interdisciplinary teams are flourishing, where technological skills are gaining ground. Using the focus group technique, we collected the qualified opinions of twelve journalists from Spanish media, whose daily work is related to data journalism. We completed this with two in-depth interviews with journalism professionals from The Washington Post and The Guardian, both pioneering media in its implementation. Our results indicate that the most valued skills are centrer on database exploitation, big data analysis, visualization, and fact-checking. In Spain, data journalism is not advancing at the desired speed, because it is difficult to find qualified professionals and investments in technology is insufficient. In the Anglo-Saxon world, progress is remarkable, with a significant rise in the Graphics department. In both scenarios, data-related skills improve journalists' employability and career advancement.