Big data is a term that refers to data that is so large, fast, or complex that it’s very difficult to process and manage using traditional methods, and also challenging storage capacity. Accessing and storing large amounts of information has been possible for a long time, but the concept of big data gained in importance in the early 2000s when analyst Doug Laney articulated the now-mainstream definition of big data as the three V’s: volume, velocity and variety. Volume represents the big amount of data that is being collected and stored by several organizations, from a great variety of sources, like smart (IoT) devices, industrial equipment, videos, images, audio, social media and many more. Velocity refers to the fact that data streams into the organizations at an unprecedented speed, coming from sensors, RFID tags or even social media, bringing with it the challenge of managing flows in a timely manner. Variety means that data comes in different formats – for example it can be structured or unstructured, it can be numeric data in a database, and it can be text documents and videos, and this also brings challenges to the use of this data. There is an enormous and unprecedented growth in the collection and analysis of digital trace information regarding human and natural activity, such as localization information from mobile phones or pollution sensors. If we think about networked communication, smart cities, and the Internet of Things we see how big of an impact this can have in our world. In addition to their impact on technology and society, these developments have particular significance for the media industry and for journalism as a practice and a profession. Although there is still much to learn about these impacts, we can surely say the use of algorithms in the newsroom, or the emergence of automated journalism, are some of the uses of big data in media organizations that will have and are already having impacts in this field.
