This week I participated in a conference about “media accountability systems” (or MAS) at the University of Kalmar, Sweden. MAS covers all kinds of ways that media organizations, editors and journalists can be held accountable by the wider society for what they do. The “systems” range from the well-known – self-regulatory ethics rules and guidelines, councils that handle complaints from the public – to the less widespread institution of readers’ ombudsmen, and further to media journalism, media-critical blogs, organizations working for the interests of media “victims” etc.

One of the most interesting presentations was held by Steven A. Smith, the editor of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. Smith was one of the editors working on and defining civic journalism (or public journalism) in the 1990s.

Smith has introduced a whole range of measures at the newspaper to increase transparency about how journalists and editors work – how they choose and report on stories, how they present them etc. The goal is to involve readers in the newsmaking decisions and to engage more directly with the community. The most radical or at least original of these initiatives is the webcast of daily news meetings. Sort of like letting readers (and competitors) move close to the newspaper’s crown jewels, right? Other web initiatives include inviting bloggers to discuss the paper’s coverage. I’ll return with more on Smith’s ideas in a later post.

Several readers’ ombudsmen from some of Denmark and Sweden’s most influential media held presentations and debated their experiences. Recurring themes: readers react very positively when they can get in touch with a real person at the media. As simple as that. Often their job is to explain how reporters work. For example the pro et contra of difficult ethical questions. News decisions are often plainly difficult to understand for the audience. “Many see journalists as powerful – as decisionmakers. Therefore there’s a lot to gain in credibility for journalists who dare to enter into a dialogue,” the ombudsman of Swedish Television (SVT) Claes Elfsberg said.

At the Danish newspaper Politiken the readers’ editor Lars Halskov invites bloggers to review the paper. Seven bloggers alternate over a period of two months.

Several of the ombudsmen and -women said that the clearest effects of their work could be noticed within the media organizations themselves. Journalists gradually become more aware of the audience and the need for real dialogue.