Are News Media Biting Hard Enough? Public Watchdog Role Expectations and Performance Evaluations in the Era of Big Tech
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22010902 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexandra Schwinges (0000-0002-1049-2331, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author), T G L A Van Der Meer (0000-0002-7605-2021, University of Amsterdam), R Vliegenthart (0000-0003-2401-2914, Wageningen University & Research) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 949-969 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Digital Journalism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/21670811.2025.2485257 |
| OpenAlex | W4409342607 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 57 |
In the digital age, concerns have been raised about journalism’s watchdog role over Big Tech corporations in particular. Exploring the evolving watchdog role of journalism from an audience perspective, we examine audience expectations and performance evaluations towards news media’s role in Big Tech accountability. Drawing upon a cross-national online survey (n = 2737) conducted in the Netherlands, Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States, Poland, and India, we demonstrate how journalism’s monitorial role towards Big Tech differs from its traditional watchdog role. Compared to the media’s traditional watchdog role, audiences’ higher expectations towards the media’s critical scrutiny of Big Tech go more persistently unfulfilled, highlighting the particularly complex challenge in holding these powerful digital players accountable. These expectation-performance evaluation discrepancies positively correlate with perceptions of the media’s relative role in Big Tech accountability and general media trust. Additionally, we show how discrepancies are associated with traditional news consumption, while social media news consumers’ expectations are more frequently met by their performance evaluations. Overall, our study rehearses the importance scholars, and not least publics, place on the role of news media for Big Tech accountability, and the need to further adapt specialized digital accountability reporting
Big data · Media studies · News media · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Computer Science · Media Influence and Politics · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics
The Institutions Changing Journalism
Reviving the Fourth Estate
Does Audience Skepticism of the Media Matter in Agenda Setting?
Algorithmic Accountability
Comparative Research Methods
Civic and Citizen Demands of News Media and Journalists
Social media and the public interest
Analysing and Assessing Accountability
MainBhiChowkidar (I Am Also a Watchman)
The European AI Act and How It Matters for Research into AI in Media and Journalism
The Political Power of Platforms
Advancing a Radical Audience Turn in Journalism. Fundamental Dilemmas for Journalism Studies
Do political and social accountability arrangements increase citizens’ legitimacy perceptions? A vignette experiment in the Netherlands
Personalization of tech corporations
Comparing Journalistic Role Performance Across Thematic Beats
Perceptions of Media Performance
Audience-Based Indicators for News Media Performance
(Re-)Discovering the Audience
Transparent to whom? No algorithmic accountability without a critical audience
The watchdog role in the age of Big Tech – how news media in the United States and Germany hold Big Tech corporations accountable
Big Tech and News
The American Journalist in the Digital Age
News media trust and its impact on media use
Investigating the Gap between Newspaper Journalists’ Role Conceptions and Role Performance in Nine European, Asian, and Latin American Countries
The Evolving Journalistic Roles on Social Media
Seeing Eye to Eye
Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2015
Enhanced self-regulation
The platform beat
Exploring Media-Covered Accountability of Public Agencies
Investigative journalism and the moral order
Between Rhetoric and Practice
Professional Roles in News Content
Expectations of journalistic actors in the digital age
The Hybridization of Journalistic Cultures
Does News Platform Matter? Comparing Online Journalistic Role Performance to Newspaper, Radio, and Television
Beyond Journalistic Norms
Detached or Interventionist? Comparing the Performance of Watchdog Journalism in Transitional, Advanced and Non-democratic Countries
What Journalists Want and What They Ought to Do (In)Congruences Between Journalists’ Role Conceptions and Audiences’ Expectations
Uneasy Bedfellows
Populist disseminators, detached watchdogs, critical change agents and opportunist facilitators
A reality check
European news media in the decade of digitalisation
Audience expectations of journalism
Worlds of Journalism
Stepping on Toes? Role Dynamics between Journalists and Lobbyists Regarding Big Tech’s Accountability Agenda
Media and public accountability
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |