Hoofdstuk 4 in Mediamonitor. Mediabedrijven en mediamarkten 2012-2013 De Mediamonitor heeft als taak om concentratiebewegingen van mediabedrijven in kaart te brengen en na te gaan in hoeverre de pluriformiteit en de onafhankelijkheid van de media in gevaar komen. In dat kader wordt in dit rapport uitgebreid stilgestaan bij de ontwikkelingen op de regionale dagbladenmarkt. Om de context te schetsen is lector Massamedia en Digitalisering Piet Bakker gevraagd in een gastbijdrage de algemene ontwikkelingen op de dagbladenmarkt in de afgelopen decennia in kaart te brengen.
News media in The Netherlands show great variety in the extent and ways, in which they realize media accountability online in terms of actor transparency, product transparency and feedback opportunities online. It is suggested that even those news rooms that seem to adhere to transparency and public accountability still need to explore the functionality and application of media accountability instruments (MAI). Both in terms of potentials and pitfalls, news rooms need to consider about what they want to be transparent and in what ways. To the extent that online innovations are visible, traditional news media seem to experiment, as is the case with newsroom blogs or the project of hyper local journalism Dichtbij.nl, part of the Telegraaf Company. Various news media have on-going projects on audience participation, online applications and distribution models. However, since many projects merely aim at finding new applications, processes, platforms and business models, it remains to be seen assess whether projects are indeed reasonably innovative and feasible at the same time. The development of an online and therefore immediate, archived, personalized and interactive context, offers practical and ethical challenges to Dutch journalism. These challenges bring shifts in its role and responsibility to society. It means that changes occur in what journalists are accountable for, as well as ways in how they are accountable. The Dutch media landscape lodges various professional accountability instruments like the press council and both profession-wide and news media specific codes of ethics, but some of these instruments receive only moderate support. Proactive openness is more an exception than the rule and may well be a distinctive indicator for quality journalism. Although news media often acknowledge the importance of media accountability offline and online, they often lack the resources or courage to use them or have different priorities. This ambiguous position may indicate that in relation to media accountability online, Dutch news media are between hope and fear: that it will either improve their relationship with the public and fuel professional quality, or ask too much of resources with too little benefit.
Deze studie onderzoekt hoe toonaangevende Nederlandse nieuwsorganisaties – de Volkskrant, NOS Nieuws en RTL Nieuws – zijn omgegaan met de toenemende kritiek op hun functioneren in een veranderend medialandschap en in hoeverre de genomen maatregelen ook daadwerkelijk worden toegepast in de journalistieke praktijk. De resultaten laten zien dat het nieuwe verantwoordingsbeleid, vooral bij de Volkskrant en NOS Nieuws, vooraf van bovenaf, door de hoofdredactie, werd geïnitieerd, terwijl de journalisten ter redactie meer terughoudendheid betoonden. Niettemin bestaat er het besef dat door een combinatie van online-technologie, commerciële concurrentie en maatschappelijke veranderingen de journalistiek diepgaand verandert, en het publiek meer serieus genomen moet worden.
