Journalists should follow the lead of media scholars and look to the Internet as a rich source of data.

Journalists rarely use the web as a source of data about the state of issues, debates and information flows in different societies. Liliana Bounegru looks at how media scholars have leveraged digital data and algorithmic accountability. In times of shrinking news budgets and staff cuts journalists can turn to such readily available sources of data as a way to understand public engagement with major issues. Scholars can support this process by making the datasets, tools and protocols developed during their work available to others.