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Location Data: A Delphi Study of its Ethical Implications for the News Industry

Location data is used in many aspects of journalism today. For example, journalists can identify the number of COVID-19 cases by neighborhood, map those, and then share hot spots with their audiences. They can break down political allegiances, block by block, and predict elections. They can tag location data on reported events and filter those to provide a neighborhood-specific newsletter, and so on. But how is this location data acquired and attended to? This study examines how location data is being used by journalists and the ethical concerns that can arise with such data. Recent location data breaches with third-party technology companies have raised questions about how this kind of data is collected, stored, maintained, and shared on a wider scale. This study used the Delphi method of progressive interviews with a panel of subject matter experts and consisted of three rounds of discussions with U.S. journalists and journalism ethicists. The findings identify several themes of how location data poses new storytelling opportunities and significant ethical issues related to privacy, transparency, and validity. Implications for future uses of location data in journalism are discussed, including placing such data into contexts both in the profession and in the academy.