Abstract

This chapter discusses several patterns of media accountability, as a process influenced by stakeholders with different expectations and colliding interests. To clarify the issue, the chapter presents three main cultural-cognitive definitions of journalism: public interest watchdog, instrument in the hands of power holder, and profit generator. It discusses them using the concepts of horizontal, voluntary accountability toward peers and society and vertical, compulsory accountability toward owner and public authorities. Research results from two international projects, MediaAct and Digital News Report, indicate that journalists in Europe face an accountability overload, while multiple definitions of journalism are imposed on the same newsroom. In addition, communication professionals have to solve a fundamental paradox: The state is the principal source of legal accountability. Yet, in regimes with autocratic tendencies, media workers have to refuse any delegitimizing patronage from the power holders, in order to protect public interest and democracy.