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In the nick of time, the digital revolution comes to democracy's rescue. And, perhaps, journalism's.

By: John Mecklin | January 10, 2009

If you pay passing attention to the media landscape, you know that most mainstream news outlets have had their business models undermined by the digital revolution. As their general-interest monopolies have been pillaged by niche online competitors, traditional news organizations have lost revenue and cachet, laying off journalists in waves that have grown into tsunamis. This process has created dire prospects for the future of investigative reporting, often seen as the most costly of journalistic forms.

Now, though, the digital revolution that has been undermining in-depth reportage may be ready to give something back, through a new academic and professional discipline known in some quarters as "computational journalism." James Hamilton is director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University and one of the leaders in the emergent field; just now, he's in the process of filling an endowed chair with a professor who will develop sophisticated computing tools that enhance the capabilities - and, perhaps more important in this economic climate, the efficiency - of journalists and other citizens who are trying to hold public officials and institutions accountable.

[ Valdis Krebs, the leading social networks researchers commented on this article:

social network analysis is one of the new maths -- mathematical sociology -- that is being used to uncover corruption, reveal criminal behavior, and uncloak covert networks. A couple of real life examples here... - http://is.gd/cKSN - http://is.gd/8c7V ]

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