Media labs: journalistic innovation, evolution and future according to experts

Abstract

At the current crossroads at which both the media and journalism find themselves, innovation emerges not as a “nice to have” but as an absolute, urgent, and pressing necessity. In this context, labs are presented as a structured and –in a certain way– privileged space to do so. However, since there are also voices that are critical of these spaces, we ask to what extent they contribute to journalistic innovation and also what future these spaces may have. To find out, we conducted semistructured interviews with a nonprobabilistic sample of 18 experts in this field, because they are both associated with a lab and are qualified experts in journalistic innovation or they are academic researchers. The results show that labs can bring a media outlet both tangible and intangible benefits, ranging from increased audience, audience loyalty, and revenue to increased prestige and reputation. However, today their future is uncertain owing to a variety of factors, including the funding necessary but also the utopian nature of the idea that the DNA of innovation can permeate the entire media outlet when there is no space specifically dedicated to designing, generating, and disseminating it to the newsroom as a whole.