Media Accountability Today... and Tomorrow

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

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

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.)

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 T