Media Accountability Today... and Tomorrow
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Media Accountability T Tony Blair demands it, Reuters wants it, the Spokane Spokesman-Review practices some of it and scholars try to define it – media accountability. Media Accountability Today... and Tomorrow The need for media accountability was formulated more than 100 years ago and made manifest with codes of ethics and ”bureaus of accuracy”. The Hutchins Commission used the concept in 1947 as a way to avoid government prescription of media content. The practice of Updating the Concept in Theory and Practice media accountability has since been fueled by market expansion, looser regulation of public service and a technological facilitation of media/public interaction. Torbjörn von Krogh (ed.) In March 2007 these issues were discussed in a two-day international conference at the School of Communication and Design, University of Kalmar, Sweden. Scholars gave overviews oday of Media Accountability Systems (MAS), media journalism, media blogs and the effects of market-driven journalism on media accountability. Practitioners presented cases dealing with ... and T victims of the media in the United Kingdom, news ombudsmen and media critique in Scandinavia, and transparency in Spokane, Washington, USA. To the presentations from Kalmar the conference-initiator Torbjörn von Krogh has added a omor background chapter on the origins and rise of media accountability and some thoughts on its future. He also offers a new working definition of media accountability, building on the work ro of European and North American scholars: w T orbjör Media accountability is the interactive process by which media organizations may be expected or obliged to render an account (and sometimes a correction and/or excuse) of their activities to their constituents. The values and relative n strength of the constituents vary over time and are affected by media systems vo and media technologies. n Kr Contributors ogh Scholars: Claude-Jean Bertrand, Susanne Fengler, Gordon S. Jackson and John H. McManus. Practitioners: Terje Angelshaug, Mike Jempson, Martin Jönsson, Åke Pettersson, Steven A. (ed.) Smith, Olav Anders Øvrebø Editor (and practitioner/scholar): Torbjörn von Krogh NORDICOM Nordic Information Center for Media and Communication Research University of Gothenburg Box 713, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden Telephone +46 31 786 00 00 Fax +46 31 786 46 55 www.nordicom.gu.se ISBN 978-91-89471-58-0 0 0 NORDICOM 8 5 1 7 An International Seminar 4 9 at School of Communication and Design, The Institute 8 NORDICOM for Further Education 1 Kalmar University, 13-14 March 2007 9 of Journalists 8 7 9 ISBN 978-91-89471-58- Media Accountability Today... and Tomorrow Media Accountability Today... and Tomorrow Updating the Concept in Theory and Practice NORDICOM Media Accountability Today... and Tomorrow Updating the Concept in Theory and Practice Torbjörn von Krogh (ed.) © Editorial matters and selections, the editor; articles, individual contributors; Nordicom ISBN 978-91-89471-58-0 Published by: Nordicom University of Gothenburg Box 713 SE 405 30 Göteborg Sweden Translation from Norwegian and Swedish by: Charly Hultén Cover by: Roger Palmqvist Cover illustration by: Lars-Erik Håkansson Printed by: Livréna AB, Göteborg, Sweden, 2008 Environmental certification according to ISO 14001 Contents Preface 7 Torbjörn von Krogh Introduction. Media Accountability. A 60-year-old Compromise that Still Holds Promise for the Future 9 Claude-Jean Bertrand M*A*S in the Present World. An Overview of Media Accountability Systems 29 John H. McManus Media Accountability in the Era of Market-driven Journalism 41 EXAMPLE OF INTERNAL MEDIA AccountabilitY SYSTEMS Steven A. Smith “And the Walls Come Tumbling down”. From Fortress Newsroom to the Transparent Newsroom 49 EXAMPLES OF EXTERNAL MEDIA AccountabilitY SYSTEMS Susanne Fengler Media Journalism ... and the Power of Blogging Citizens 61 Olav Anders Øvrebø Journalism After the Monopoly on Publishing Has Been Broken 69 Martin Jönsson Media Journalism 2.0 79 Åke Pettersson From Opinion Journalism to Internal Strife. Vår grundade mening – A Program of Media Criticism on Swedish Public Radio 83 Mike Jempson From PressWise to MediaWise. Promoting Journalism Ethics in the UK, 1993-2007 87 5 Gordon S. Jackson Ten Things I Want Community Leaders to Know About Journalism. A Former (external) Ombudsman at The Spokesman-Review Teaches Media Literacy 99 EXAMPLES OF CooperatiVE MEDIA AccountabilitY SYSTEMS Terje Angelshaug Chink in a Stone Wall. A Presentation of a Readers’ Ombudsman at Bergens Tidende, Norway 105 Terje Angelshaug When Readers Wonder. A Column in Bergens Tidende with a Comment 111 Claude-Jean Bertrand Watching the Watchdog-Watching dog. A Call for Active Press-Councils 115 Torbjörn von Krogh “Constructive Criticism” vs Public Scrutiny. Attitudes to Media Accountability in and Outside Swedish News Media 119 Torbjörn von Krogh Final Words – New Starting Points 137 SUPPLEMENTS Press Councils in the World – 2007 145 110 Media Accountability Systems 149 About the Authors 157 6 Preface Through a three-year grant from the Stiftelsen [Foundation] Barometern, the School of Communication and Design, IKD, was able to invite a visiting profes- sor in journalism during the academic year 2006-2007. Torbjörn von Krogh, a journalist with a long, distinguished and varied career spent the year with us, exploring the implementation of Media Accountability Systems. MAS cover a wide variety of self-regulating methods by which the mass media can improve their publishing ethics in practice. A symposium with the same title was held at Kalmar University on March 13-14, 2007. The event brought together practicing journalists, researchers pri- marily from the Scandinavian countries, and teachers from Kalmar University. Invited speakers came from Germany, UK and USA as well. Unfortunately, the leading person in global MAS research, late professor Claude-Jean Bertrand from Paris, could not attend due to his illness. The School of Communication and Design wishes to express its thanks to those who attended the symposium and, in particular, to those whose contribu- tions appear in this volume. On behalf of our School, I want to thank professor Torbjörn von Krogh for spending the academic year with us, helping us to convene the symposium and editing this volume. The School of Communication and Design was joined by The Swedish In- stitute for Further Education of Journalists, FOJO, at Kalmar University, in the planning and execution of the symposium. Finally, to the Stiftelsen Barometern, many thanks for your support of our School, and to Nordicom, for publishing this volume. Kalmar in February, 2008 Olof Hultén Head, School of Communication and design Kalmar University 7 Introduction Media Accountability. A 60-year-old Compromise that Still Holds Promise for the Future Torbjörn von Krogh June 12, 2007, Prime Minister Tony Blair held a valedictory in which he ex- pressed harsh criticism of British news media. The media, Blair said, “is a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits”. He was clearly of the opinion that the beast should be tamed, but how to go about it when, just moments before, he had assured his listeners that “a free media is a vital part of a free society”? “It is also a part of freedom”, he continued, “to be able to comment on the media”. He then went on to speak of the need for a new regulatory framework (in which he included institutions of self-regulation). It has to be possible to hold the media, like all other centers of power in society, accountable, Blair argued. Many a prime minister – and others who don’t have Tony Blair’s access to the public – are critical of the media news reporting. Part of the friction has to do with the fact that the media highlight problems and criticize how powerful figures perform their duties. But there is also dissatisfaction among a broader circle of users of the media, who find fault with newsgathering practices and note errors in the reporting. Holding media accountable for what they do – and don’t do – has become a means to tackle problems on several levels. To get an explanation, to get errors corrected, to receive an apology when it is called for. But also, to raise the overall level of quality in news reporting, according to the principle that a medium’s performance will be affected by knowing that it may be called to account and have to explain how it went about its work, i.e., a dynamic ele- ment of interactivity (see also the working definition of ‘accountability’ offered at the end of this chapter). Launched in 1947 by the Hutchins Commission in the USA, the concept of media accountability was a solution to a conflict within the Commission between those who were willing to impose some form of government regulation on the media and those who wanted media to remain free of government influence. The Commission was of the opinion that American media were not fulfilling their proper role in a democracy, i.e., they were not providing the information citizens need, but the group shied away from the idea that legislators should 9 TORBJÖRN von KROGH be able to prescribe media content. They arrived at a compromise: the media would be held accountable through criticism, debate, critical scrutiny and a non-governmental ‘media inspectorate’ that would be privately funded and hosted by an unspecified university. The notion of ‘accountability’ in the abstract has been debated by media theorists ever since; meanwhile, in practice the concept has gained ever wider acceptance among media practitioners. Given the interactivity that both ‘our times’ and new communications technology make possible, the concept would appear to have bright prospects. Some Examples of the Current Interest Speaking at the inauguration of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University in November 2006, Geert Linnebank, then Editor-in-Chief for Reuters, concluded his remarks with the following words: This brings me to the point I want to end on – accountability.