Responsabilização e Qualidade do Jornalismo: Instrumentos e Práticas Digitais de Accountability dos Média Portugueses

João Miranda

doi:10.17231/comsoc.44(2023).4750

Authors

João Miranda Centro de Estudos Interdisciplinares, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4720-3724

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.44(2023).4750

Keywords:

media accountability, digital journalism, quality of journalism, media responsibility, transparency

Abstract

Although the public debate on the quality of journalism and media responsibility and accountability efforts is not novel, the recent online and digital transition context has facilitated the emergence and expansion of new forms of media responsibility and monitoring of the quality of journalistic information. This study draws on a literature review to explore the relationship between media accountability and the quality of journalism while also examining how new forms of media responsibility could enhance information quality. Three facets of this relationship are emphasised: accountability as a dimension or hallmark of media quality, accountability as a mechanism for controlling or assessing the quality of journalism, and accountability as a space for defining the quality of news information. Additionally, this paper presents and discusses findings from an exploratory study mapping and analysing the level of implementation of digital responsibility and accountability mechanisms of six Portuguese editorial projects. The mapping of instruments highlights the heterogeneous reality and potential underlying the adaptation of conventional responsibility models to online formats, as well as underscores the mandated nature of media accountability and transparency processes in the Portuguese media. The analysis of the level of implementation of these mechanisms indicates asymmetries in their application.

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Author Biography

João Miranda, Centro de Estudos Interdisciplinares, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

João Miranda is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra and a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies — CEIS20. In 2019, he defended his doctoral thesis, O Papel dos Jornalistas na Regulação da Informação: Caraterização Socioprofissional, Accountability e Modelos de Regulação em Portugal e na Europa (The Role of Journalists in Information Regulation: Socioprofessional Characterisation, Accountability and Regulation Models in Portugal and Europe).

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