Failing Institutions, Whistle‐Blowing, and the Role of the News Media
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21497450 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emanuela Ceva (0000-0002-4422-7667, Université de Genève Geneva Switzerland), Dorota Mokrosińska (0000-0002-5522-6491, Leiden University Leiden The Netherlands, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 377-392 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Applied Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0264-3758 • E-ISSN: 1468-5930 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/japp.12476 |
| OpenAlex | W3092583351 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
The article discusses the normative grounds for recognising a watchdog role to the news media as concerns the dissemination of information about an institutional failure menacing a well‐ordered society. This is, for example, the case of the news media’s role in the diffusion of whistle‐blowers’ disclosures. We argue that many popular justifications for the watchdog role of the news media (as a ‘fourth estate’; a trustee of the people’s right to know; expert communicator) fail to ground that role in some unique feature that makes the news media special as concerns the performance of the role. We offer an alternative argument that shows how the watchdog role of the news media shares a justificatory ground with the role that any member of a well‐ordered society has in terms of a general duty of answerability in the face of institutional failures. Although this duty does not bear only on the news media, we concede that in some contingent circumstances, the news media might be better positioned to discharge it and, therefore, to initiate corrective actions of institutional failures effectively and conscientiously. However, the establishment of the news media’s responsibility in this sense is an empirical, not a conceptual or a normative matter
Business · Duty · Fourth Estate · Journalism · Law and economics · Media relations · News media · Normative · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Law in Society and Culture · War, Ethics, and Justification
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |