* Real world studies of accountability in broadcast news, cable TV, newspapers and other media

Media accountability is back on the political agenda. This book advances research on media accountability and transparency, and also offers perspectives for newsrooms, media policy-makers, and journalism educators.

The prevalence of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system's remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light. The lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.

Increasingly governments around the world are experimenting with initiatives in transparency or 'open government'. These involve a variety of measures including the announcement of more user-friendly government websites, greater access to government data, the extension of freedom of information legislation and broader attempts to involve the public in government decision making. However, the role of the media in these initiatives has not hitherto been examined. This volume analyses the challenges and opportunities presented to journalists as they attempt to hold governments accountable in an era of professed transparency. In examining how transparency and open government initiatives have affected the accountability role of the press in the US and the UK, it also explores how policies in these two countries could change in the future to help journalists hold governments more accountable. This volume will be essential reading for all practising journalists, for students of journalism or politics, and for policymakers.

This book explores the role of the news media in promoting equitable economic development, and considers the obstacles it faces as a catalyst for change and growth. It examines the capacity of investigative journalism to scrutinise public policy and the activities of the corporate sector, to facilitate public access to information, expose corruption and weak governance and thus promote greater transparency and accountable government. It contains contributions from journalists, television and newspaper editors, economists and academics, as well as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics Joseph Stiglitz, and for Literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A number of case studies examine the work of the media and the challenges they face in various countries including Thailand, Bangladesh, Egypt, Zimbabwe and the former Soviet Union.

"Trenchant essays by excellent scholars Holding Police Accountable details advances in police accountability spurred by policy-oriented litigation. Implications for control of less-lethal force are deeply explored here." MERRICK BOBB, President, Police Assessment Resource Center --Book Jacket.

Much of public opinion research over the past several decades suggests that the American voters are woefully uninformed about politics and thus unable to fulfill their democratic obligations. Arguing that this perception is faulty, Vincent Hutchings shows that, under the right political conditions, voters are surprisingly well informed on the issues that they care about and use their knowledge to hold politicians accountable. Though Hutchings is not the first political scientist to contend that the American public is more politically engaged than it is often given credit for, previous scholarship--which has typically examined individual and environmental factors in isolation--has produced only limited evidence of an attentive electorate. Analyzing broad survey data as well as the content of numerous Senate and gubernatorial campaigns involving such issues as race, labor, abortion, and defense, Hutchings demonstrates that voters are politically engaged when politicians and the media discuss the issues that the voters perceive as important. Hutchings finds that the media--while far from ideal--do provide the populace with information regarding the responsiveness of elected representatives and that groups of voters do monitor this information when "their" issues receive attention. Thus, while the electorate may be generally uninformed about and uninterested in public policy, a complex interaction of individual motivation, group identification, and political circumstance leads citizens concerned about particular issues to obtain knowledge about their political leaders and use that information at the ballot box.

'Everyone agress that news media cannot be rued solely by the profit motive and that government regulation on media is extremely dangerous. How then can we obtain good service from news media? As far as ethics is concerned, can we depend on the moral conscience of the professionals to insure good service? The answer is M*A*S, nongovernmental media accountability systems. This book concentrates on M*A*S as one of the three pillars of good news media, together with free enterprise and state regulation. It presents general information about the major media accountability systems and their usefulness (press council, ombudsman, journalism review, etc.).--COVER.

The business of journalism has an extensive, storied, and often romanticized history. Newspaper reporting has long shaped the way that we see the world, played key roles in exposing scandals, and has even been alleged to influence international policy. The past several years have seen the newspaper industry in a state of crisis, with Twitter and Facebook ushering in the rise of citizen journalism and a deprofessionalization of the industry, plummeting readership and revenue, and municipal and regional papers shuttering or being absorbed into corporate behemoths. Now billionaires, most with no journalism experience but lots of power and strong views, are stepping in to purchase newspapers, both large and small. This addition to the What Everyone Needs to Know® series looks at the past, present and future of journalism, considering how the development of the industry has shaped the present and how we can expect the future to roll out. It addresses a wide range of questions, from whether objectivity was only a conceit of late twentieth century reporting, largely behind us now; how digital technology has disrupted journalism; whether newspapers are already dead to the role of non-profit journalism; the meaning of "transparency" in reporting; the way that private interests and governments have created their own advocacy journalism; whether social media is changing journalism; the new social rules of old media outlets; how franchised media is addressing the problem of disappearing local papers; and the rise of citizen journalism and hacker journalism. It will even look at the ways in which new technologies potentially threaten to replace journalists.

How bad is the problem of media bias? The answer can be summed up in a few words: President Donald J. Trump. Whether you love him or hate him, there’s no question that Trump gained a huge amount of support for his willingness to criticize the media in harsh and unsparing terms. The media seems baffled by the fact that it’s lost the trust of the American people. It has responded by being extraordinarily defensive and doubling down on histrionic attacks. However, the American system has always depended on a strong and trusted media to hold those in power accountable. Journalist Mollie Hemingway looks at the impressive list of media failure that led us to this unique moment and asks, Is it possible for the media to recover its credibility before it’s too late?