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Media Accountability Goes Online. a Transnational Study on Emerging No. 14/2012 January | 2012 Media Accountability Goes Online A transnational study on emerging practices and innovations Heikki Heikkilä, David Domingo, Judith Pies, Michal Glowacki, Michal Kus & Olivier Baisnée MediaAcT Working Paper series on ‘Media Accountability Practices on the Internet’ MediaAcT Working Paper 14/2012 Editors: Heikki Heikkilä & David Domingo Journalism Research and Development Centre, University of Tampere, Finland 2011 This comparative report is part of a study on media accountability practices on the Internet. You can find further country reports as well as a general introduction to the methodology and concepts of those reports at: http://www.mediaact.eu/online.html The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 244147. The information in this document is the outcome of the EU project Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe (MediaAcT). The research reflects only the authors’ views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The user thereof uses the information at their sole risk and liability. Media Accountability Goes Online A transnational study on emerging practices and innovations Heikki Heikkilä, David Domingo, Judith Pies, Michal Glowacki, Michal Kus & Olivier Baisnée Summary The Internet is both a challenge and an opportunity for media accountability. Newsrooms and citizens are adapting existing practices and developing new ones on news websites, weblogs and social media. This report offers the first comparative study on how these practices are being developed and perceived in thirteen countries in Europe (Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, United Kingdom), the Arab world (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia) and North America (USA). Through the analysis of data on the media systems and in- depth interviews with journalists, experts and activists, the study maps the initiatives performed by media organizations and explores media criticism projects promoted from outside the newsrooms. The concept of journalistic fields proposed by Bourdieu provides the contextual analysis of the diversity of countries. It articulates the relationships between the media and the political and economic fields to explain how they shape media accountability developments on the Internet. The role of media self-regulation institutions and the active user culture enabled by the Internet are other actors considered in the description of the tensions surrounding media accountability in the journalistic fields. In this context, the study suggests that media accountability online is being enacted in practices that vary from country to country depending on the perceptions of journalists and newsrooms about it, the interplay of accountability aims with economic and political goals of the media, and their positions in the dynamic struggle for credibility within the journalistic field. Few media accountability practices are widespread in the countries analyzed, and the actual developments are very uneven in terms of motivations, technical tools and workflows. The analysis shows that those countries where there are more active online practices (USA, UK) are some of those with lower trust of the public in the media. In other contexts, such as the Arab countries, the efforts towards media accountability are mainly led by those citizens and journalists that also struggle to democratize society. The challenges in Europe seem to be maintaining the autonomy of the journalistic field, and while practices within and outside media organizations are scarce and often not systematic and institutionalized, the study has found cases that highlight how the Internet can be an effective tool to promote ethical journalism by fostering transparency and responsiveness. Heikki Heikkilä & David Domingo et al.: Media Accountability Goes Online Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 A theoretical framework ...................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Research design for the empirical study ..................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2: In the journalistic fields: The dynamics of developing media accountability inside news organizations ........................................................................................................................................................ 17 2.1 Journalistic fields and the political field ...................................................................................................... 19 2.2 The influences from the economic field ....................................................................................................... 24 2.3 Institutions for self-regulation and journalistic fields ........................................................................... 31 2.4 Journalistic fields and the Internet user cultures ..................................................................................... 38 Chapter 3: Accountability practices online: Contributions of the newsrooms ...................................... 42 3.1 Practices for actor transparency ................................................................................................................... 43 3.2 Production transparency .................................................................................................................................. 50 3.3 Responsiveness ...................................................................................................................................................... 55 3.4 Social media use by journalists ....................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 4: Accountability practices online: Contributions from outside the newsrooms ............... 61 4.1 Media activism ...................................................................................................................................................... 61 4.2 Media bloggers ..................................................................................................................................................... 63 4.3 Social networks .................................................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter 5: Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 69 Sources ................................................................................................................................................................................ 71 The authors........................................................................................................................................................................ 75 4 Heikki Heikkilä & David Domingo et al.: Media Accountability Goes Online Chapter 1: Introduction This interim report discusses the development of media accountability on the Internet. Our analysis aims to shed light on how transparency of media production and the responsiveness of those who produce them is facilitated by media organizations and/or called for by Internet users. Our empirical study is comparative by design. It encompasses thirteen countries: eight of them are in Europe, four of them represent Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and one North America (the United States). Our intention is to identify the scope and volume of specifically Internet-based media accountability practices. But, instead of proposing that these practices are universal or similarly adopted in any part of the world, we assume that their existence, functionality and lifespans are culturally dependent. We anticipate finding some common trends but also some sharp discrepancies in the development of media accountability online, with diversity not only among countries but also within actors in different positions in the media ecosystem. This paper aims to elaborate on the conceptual and methodological background of the study. In chapters 1 and 2, the emphasis is put on the concept of media accountability on the one hand, and on the premises of studying media accountability in a comparative setting on the other. The empirical part of the report focuses on two sets of developments of media accountability practices: those initiated by media organizations (chapter 3) and those deriving from outside media organizations (chapter 4). Both elements of the report will be elaborated in a book that is due to be published in 2012. This report is part of the project Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe (MediaAcT) funded by the European Union. The project as a whole analyzes the development and impact of established media accountability systems (e.g. press councils, codes of ethics) as well as new media accountability systems emerging in the Internet (e.g. media criticism in blogs). The project is a joint interdisciplinary effort of a team of twelve partners from Eastern and Western Europe as well as from the Arab world. 1.1 A theoretical framework Media accountability In general
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