Media accountability and its contribution to deliberative communication: Recent trends and current practices

When the news media are perceived as a vital system for identifying and discussing socially relevant topics, a question of crucial importance for democratic societies at large is, ‘What are journalistic media supposed to do and, not less important, what are they supposed not to do?’ The ap- proach applied for this study addresses the question from two different perspectives: The legal environment and regulation by-laws, on the one hand, and media accountability practices, on the other. If implemented suc- cessfully, such mechanisms of making the media accountable to the public can help safeguard journalistic autonomy—and thus support deliberative communication—by avoiding far-reaching legal and political interference. They can also work as a means of quality control that may help (re)gain public trust. Here, case studies on critical junctures and developments in the first two decades of the 21st century include specific sections on the situation and evolution of media accountability in the 14 countries. This chapter be- gins with a short overview of theoretical and methodological considerations behind the case studies, followed by a comparison of country-specific find- ings on professional, market, political, public, and international account- ability instruments. Finally, the comparative approach allowed us to group countries with similar risk and opportunity structures in this field. Detailed accounts of the situation in the 14 countries under study can be found in the case studies (Mediadelcom, 2022a).