Introduction: Datapublics Beyond the Rise and Fall Narrative

This chapter introduces the framework of the book and discusses its central concepts: datafication and publics. The chapter lays out the conjunctures of a technological drama, with a rise and fall narrative regarding processes of public formation in datafied societies. The drama stages three characters: a victim, in the form of the passive, defenceless public; a villain, Big Tech; and a hero, journalism. The chapter argues that the drama needs to be challenged by theoretical and empirical research. We suggest the notion of datapublics as a lens to investigate how publics are constructed at the junction of journalistic media, technological infrastructures and agentic citizens.