Predictive journalism: The case of Greek sports and betting websites

Abstract

Predictive journalism is an emerging genre in data journalism that incorporates predictive information such as estimates, forecasts, etc. It helps the audience to speculate about possible future events and outcomes. In recent years, there has been a fusion of predictive journalism with sports, as sports allow journalists to make predictions about the outcome of a match, how a team will line up on the field, and so on. The present study examines the application of predictive journalism in Greek sports and betting websites. It aims to analyze the volume and the content of articles, as well as where journalists base their predictions, concluding that, although Greek sports websites publish approximately 100 football-related articles per day, the percentage of predictive journalism articles are rather small to non-existent in some of them.