Journalism research has published a new, open-access article entitled ‘Journalism Aggregators: an Analysis of Longform.org’ written by Tobias Blanke, Jonathan Gray and myself.

The article is available here in English and here in German. The following is the article’s abstract which draws on work which has been published in the book ‘Yesterday’s News: The Future of Long-form Journalism and Archives’.

What is the significance of collection portals for large-format content in today’s journalism? This article advocates the thesis that they are becoming more important as an object of study in journalism research. Using the example of Longform.org , a leading collection portal for large-format content on the Internet, empirical analyses and theoretical conclusions are presented with the aid of digital methods. As we understand it, Longform.org uses datafication of news content to enhance the so-called long tail of archived material. Using digitally extracted archive data, we carry out an in-depth analysis of long-form portals. Longform.org while exhibiting some degree of curatorial diversity, older news media tend to be more prevalent. One of the main factors to appear on Longform.org is the accessibility of the digital media archives. Our analysis shows the relevant role of smaller, purely digital publications that offer a unique mix of sources. Using a network analysis of selected markings, we examine the composition of the topics, including the areas of personal, world politics, celebrities, technology and culture. The data and curatorial practices of long-form portals can be understood as the current form of today’s information transfer, through which earlier perspectives are more easily available, experienced and programmable on the Internet.

(23 August 2021)