Setting an agenda to tackle environmental issues with data and collaboration

The environmental crisis and more recently climate emergency have driven news media outlets to create editorial brands that specifically cover these topics. To make itself heard in a market for environmental news that is increasingly dominated by global media outlets, La Nación (Argentina) has leveraged its reporting on the topic by developing a novel editorial brand focused on environmental data journalism: “Proyecto Naturaleza.” Through the lens of data journalism and collaborative journalism, this article relies on methods such as participant observation and in-depth interviews to understand the practices, norms, and routines adopted by La Nación to produce data journalism focused on environmental topics. The results indicate three specific pillars for such journalism: climate change, biodiversity, and audience participation. The team sets an agenda based on these topics in light of annual events or large celebrations, resulting in a calendar of proposed activities (the production of data stories or crowdsourcing actions). The data team holds meetings with different individuals and organizations from different sectors to identify distinct perspectives on environmental issues to discuss undertakings and collaborate as needed with these actors. La Nación also emphasizes involving audiences on a deeper level, transforming their traditional role as passive recipient into active participant.