MediaAcT

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Huub Evers, netherlands
What is media accountability for you?
Media do play an important role in the daily
life of most people. They have a lot of influence
and therefore responsibility. The audience
wants journalists to legitimate their choices and
decisions. People want to learn how media work
and why journalists write or broadcast things in a
certain way. They want journalists to react to their
remarks and complaints. Because: if journalists
call everything and everybody to account, they
must be able to practice openness and transparency themselves.
Why is it so important to do research on media accountability?
Media accountability is one of the leading topics in journalism studies. Editorial
staffs need to be pushed to get in touch with their audience. Journalists can use
‘best practices‘ from all over the world for their own newsroom. Exploration of
accountability and transparency examples is useful for journalists and audience.
What was the funniest/most interesting moment in the project?
The funniest moment was our mosquito meeting in Tartu, Estonia. We had
Mike jempson, UK
What is media accountability
for you?
It means that journalists
respect their sources and their audiences. They cannot always get at the
whole truth, so the humility to acknowledge mistakes adds to rather than
diminishes credibility, in my view. My team and I at the MediaWise Trust
believe that Press Freedom is a responsibility exercised by journalists on
behalf of the public. That says it all for me.
Why is it so important to do research on media accountability?
Changing technology, the changing political economy of the media, and the
varieties of journalistic traditions mean that different systems may be required
under different circumstances. As always we must be alert to change, and
adapt accordingly. The value of research (if it is not too long drawn out, and
the results can be translated into normal language) is that it helps everyone
to understand the landscape and their place in it, and how best to respond to
the consequences of changes that research has identified.
What was the biggest task in the international project?
Trying to get working journalists in the UK to complete a complex
questionnaire.
What was the funniest/most interesting moment in the project?
Funniest (after the event) trying to enjoy a mean al fresco in Tartu without
being bitten alive by forty million mosquitoes.
What did you learn from the MediaAcT project?
That it is really interesting to learn about the complexities of different
journalistic traditions. That devising questionnaires by committee is a
nightmare. That we still have a long way to go before journalists and
academics can find the right way to communicate with each other effectively.
That despite all our different cultural influences, preferences and constraints,
we all share a desire for accurate, responsible and responsive journalism
that holds power to account and is free from corporate or governmental
interference.
our MediaAcT conference there in the hot summer of 2010. During the
conference we had to take great pains to keep the mosquitoes at arm‘s
length. Every few minutes a hard blow was to be heard in the small and
broiling conference room. It influenced the decision taking processes and
caused laughter.
There were a lot of interesting moments: meeting colleagues from
abroad, listening to presentations and discussing new developments in the
conference rooms and outside. A very important consequence of the project
is the international network each participant built.
What did you learn from the MediaAcT project?
The most important thing I learned from the project is about the important
role media watchblogs and social media play in media criticism. In my
opinion, modern mediawatch and criticism will come from blogs and social
media (Facebook and Twitter). Every journalist should be aware of this
development and go along with it.
Do you think international media is on the right track?
Difficult to answer. Depends on where you live and what your experience
about it is. Press freedom is not everywhere an established asset. A debate
on topics like responsibility, accountability and transparency presupposes a
certain level of freedom.
Accountability and
mosquito meetings in Tartu
personal views on MediaAcT by the international research team
Raluca Radu, Romania
Why is it so important to do research on
media accountability?
Research on media accountability may
help journalists, media managers and
journalism educators to understand the
phenomenon better, identify strategic
actors, key resources and key processes, in
the short term, and ensure the survival of
media companies, alongside other fields
of media research, in the long term.
What was the funniest/ most interesting
moment in the project?
The most interesting moment for me was to discover that the Romanian
journalistic sample is the youngest and one of the most religious. It is now an
intellectual challenge for the team of the University of Bucharest to find out the
reasons and the effects of these facts.
What did you learn from the MediaAcT project?
I was motivated by the excellent MediaAcT team to overcome my fears related
to quantitative research and to statistical analysis.
Do you think international media is on the right track?
At the moment, in my opinion, media companies are trying to find new
business models and new revenue models. Different media stakeholders
pressure the industry to use a cleaner line of conduct, and to stand up against
political and maybe against economic pressures. There are multiple roads
international media may take from this point.