The concepts of media accountability, media criticism and media governance are analysed and discussed in a Swedish setting; how they relate to each other and interact. This is achieved by using various methods – a survey to editors, analy- ses of parliamentary debates, interviews, direct observation and document stu- dies – in studying different stakeholders, media representatives and governance conditions in Sweden during the last 70 years. The findings point in a direction of dynamic complexities with a central role for media criticism. The type, level and intensity of media criticism may affect the functioning of the media governance structure and is a vital part of the media accountability process. The media governance structure – which in addi- tion to media criticism is influenced by international conditions, technological developments and political factors – may in turn affect the media accountability process. In this process, media representatives aim to defend obtained positions of societal influence, achieve and maintain positive PR and enhance editorial quality at the same time. Media criticism may start a substantial media accountability process if the discontent is widespread and not countered by market approval or political iner- tia. The process is facilitated if the critique is connected to more than one frame of accountability and if stakeholders see opportunities for dual objectives. Very strong and widespread media criticism may be difficult for media organizations to neglect. The accountability process in Sweden has become less dependent on corpora- tive negotiations between organized interests and political assemblies. Instead, two other tendencies seem to have emerged: on the one hand a possibility for media organizations to favour such accountability processes that they are able to control, and on the other hand the rise of a rich variety of sometimes short-lived accountability instruments that may develop for specific occasions and are difficult to control.

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The media have a great responsibility to communicate more science to improve public understanding of science to help them make sense of their world. The aim should be to popularize scientific ideas and to create a better understanding of how science is daily altering lifestyles and culture. Scientific literacy is an important element of an all-round educated person, and the media need to fill whatever blanks have been left by his or her formal education. The function of the scientific journalist is to transform scientific ideas and results into a form that other groups can understand. This transformation is as much an intra-scientific as well as an extra-scientific matter, and the forms that such communication take and the consequences for intellectual development vary according to the sort of field involved, the audience addressed and the relationship between them. This transformation process must not affect the truth status of scientific knowledge, but it obviously changes the form in which this knowledge is expressed. Scientists need to unveil the secrets of nature, and need to explain to the public that science is always incomplete and incremental, that knowledge is imperfect. Communicating with the media is becoming an obligation, and popularizing of science is becoming an integral part of the professional responsibility of practicing scientists. This overview indicates that there is a need for scientists to increase their communication skills and activities across a broad field and for journalists to increase their understanding and training in science.

Sex trafficking, the fastest growing form of human trafficking, exacerbates among the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized women and girls. News media, as powerful social institutions, have the potential to shape opinions and attitudes towards critical issues (Sobel 2014). So how does two of the most internationally influential newspapers report about the sex trade? Seeking answers, I study sex trafficking news articles published from January 2019 to February 2020 by The Guardian and The New York times about the sex trade in the context of the highly mediatic Epstein case. From a media justice and feminist perspective (see Fraser. 2009; Silverstone. 2007; Couldry. 2013; Friedman and Johnston. 2013) I design an explanatory sequential mixed method study. In the first stage of the study I conduct a quantitative content analysis of 74 articles to explore wether the Epstein case may be reflected in the reporting on sex trafficking, more generally in the amount of coverage and its content. In the second stage of the study I conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on a smaller sample of 6 articles, to gain insights into how are victims, perpetrators and patriarchal power abuses in the sex trade discursively constructed. The findings emerging from the study provide empirical evidence to suggest that: (I) marginalized women have unequal accesses to media recognition and representation in the studied sample. (II) These articles tend to underrepresent and misrepresent victims and survivors, their voices and experiences while prioritizing male, powerful and privileged ones. (III) The studied articles contain discourses that legitimize patriarchal views of sexual violence and slavery.

Conflicts between the mining industry and traditional communities have been challenging indigenous peoples’ rights and endangering the environment around the world. The purpose of this study is to gain a broad perspective on the role of media representations in framing (or misframing) justice (Fraser 2009) and in reflecting (or not) media responsibility (Silverstone 2017) when reporting such events. Although recent studies have analysed news media coverage of environmental conflicts from a similar theoretical approach, few studies have addressed this inquiry through narrative analysis. Particularly, considering cases from both developed and developing countries, different media ecologies (mainstream and alternative), and scales of production and distribution (national and international). This is the gap that motivates this study. The material consists of 54 articles from diverse new media sources that have reported on two contemporary mining conflicts: the Renca mining reserve in Brazil, and the Gállok/Kallak iron mine in Sweden. The analysis focuses on how the narrator conducts the stories by mapping and comparing the structural and discursive patterns found in the material. The findings show that, in both cases (Brazil and Sweden), the majority of narratives are grounded in Western-centric perspectives that tend to misframe justice. In contrast, the results suggest that fairer and more responsible narratives are the ones told from an absolute local (Cavarero 2012) perspective.