A documentary and library science perspective about big data and data journalism

The implementation of new systems for the creation, storage and dissemination of information is a key factor in the rapid growth of open data access through technical and computational mechanisms. Open data, big data, and social networks have transformed the work in mass media, driving the creation of a world of globalized information. This transformation also involves changes in the work of documentalists and journalists. Through a review of current research, including case studies, this paper analyzes from the standpoint of big data the processes, methods and tools oriented to media documentation. In addition to changes in professional routines, a set of contradictions between the semantic web and big data with regard to the objectives of transparency and understanding of information. Finally, from the documentary level, it is important to weigh the benefits reaped by broad data dissemination against those provided by filtering.