Panel "Self-Regulation, Trust and Compliance": Regulating the behavior of public service broadcasters: a cross-country comparative analysis of News Ombudspersons as agents of trust

The rapidly changing media ecosystems and the unprecedented access and exposure to a wide variety of news sources call for increased scrutiny of audience consumption habits and the ways in which media organizations are managing their relationships with the public. Scholars emphasize the importance of News Ombudspersons in generating trust in media reporting, increasing journalistic performance and organizational credibility. Audience advocates, News Ombudspersons are at the forefront of the discussion on the media organizations´ self-imposed contracted accountability and responsive measures undertaken with the aim to enabling public participation in media governance processes. This paper introduces a comparative analysis of the self-regulatory mechanisms within public media organizations across 13 European countries, focusing on the Office/Service of the Ombudsperson as institutional actors in charge of a) protecting the public interest, b) safeguarding the credibility and legitimacy of public service broadcasters, and c) restoring the institutional reputation and trust in today´s converging media environment. This study aims to fill in the gaps in prior research by applying a qualitative framework developed using indicators derived from political communication and media management scholarship, including self-regulatory processes, complaints management mechanisms, election, reporting procedures, checks and balances, roles, visibility, and transparency of News Ombudspersons. The central research question is: how do Ombudspersons fulfill their role as agents of trust, contributing to safeguarding the democratic values associated with the public service mission of public broadcasters in times of information disorder? The countries selected for the analysis represent three types of media systems: Polarised-Pluralist (France, Spain, Italy), Democratic-Corporatist (Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands), and the Liberal media system (the United Kingdom and Ireland). Data were collected from multiple publicly available sources. Results reveal cross-country variations. Further research is needed to assess the role of media audiences as relevant stakeholders in media governance processes.