The exploitation of data in the media industry has always played a significant role. This is especially evident today, since data (and in many cases big data) are generated through various activities that relate to the production and also consumption of news. This paper attempts to highlight the importance of big data utilization in the media industry. Specifically, it discusses cases of big data exploitation, such as media content consumption and management, data journalism production, social content utilization, and participatory journalism applications. The study also examines the changes that big data has introduced in all stages of the journalism practice, from news production to news distribution, by utilizing the available tools. Finally, it discusses new developments that relate to semantic web (Web 3.0) technologies, which have already started to be adopted by media organizations around the world.

The technologies behind today’s web services, tools, and applications are evolving continually. As a result, the workflows and methods of different business sectors are undergoing constant change. The news industry and journalism are heavily affected by these changes. New technological means for practicing journalism and producing news items are being incorporated in media workflows, challenging well established journalistic norms and practices. The perpetual technological evolution of the web creates a wide range of opportunities. For this reason, both technology companies and media organizations have begun to experiment with semantic web technologies. Our focus in this paper was to discover and define the ways that semantic technologies can contribute to the technological upgrade of everyday journalism. From this perspective, we introduced the term ‘semantic journalism’ and attempted to investigate the transition of journalism to a semantic-oriented technological framework.

During the last two decades, citizens’ participation in news production process has attracted significant interest from both academia and the media industry. Media production and consumption have been altered considerably and traditional concepts, such as gatekeeping, have been under discussion. Many news organisations include in their websites tools and applications that allow users to be active consumers or even co-producers of journalistic content, by liking, sharing, commenting and submitting material. At the same time, large amounts of user-generated content are uploaded every day on social media platforms. Subsequently, media organisations must deal with continually available information which requires management, classification and evaluation not only to keep high journalistic standards, but also to avoid problems. The latter category can include grammar mistakes, fake or misleading information and hate speech. All the above-mentioned parameters highlight the obvious need for platforms that can support journalism manage practice. Such a platform should utilise semantic technologies, which can support organised collection and moderation of content in an effective way and in short time. This study discusses the design and the implementation of a participatory journalism management platform.

A theoretical idea of convergence between journalism and selfie photographs in a single framework led academic researchers to identify and examine a new tendency in journalism, which they termed selfie journalism. This chapter investigates the relationship between selfie journalism and politics. Based on quantitative analysis, the authors seek to examine the uses and benefits of selfie journalism during elections. The aim of the study is twofold: first, to examine the use of selfie journalism in political campaigning and, second, to examine the impact of this phenomenon on the media.