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Media Ombudsmen: A Critical Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Frank S. Palen
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Abstract

This article summarizes a decade of comment on the most common form of “media ombudsman” in the United States and Canada, the newspaper action line. Widely adopted after 1965, action lines were expected by journalists and newspaper owners to play a significant role in increasing social justice, improving the commercial viability and public image of the press, and reforming the news business. The picture of social problems and proposed solutions presented in the printed columns reflects a reformed version of traditional newspaper populism. However, the available evidence suggests that the characteristics of the people who complain to action lines, as well as the economic, bureaucratic, and ideological forces within media organizations, prevent the fulfillment of the promise of social justice implicit in populist rhetoric. Instead of aggressive defenders of the rights of “John Q. Public,” action lines are primarily passive referral services which transmit complaints to traditional public and private authorities. Action lines attract a great many users not only because they promise practical assistance in settling disputes, but also because a response from the newspaper is a significant form of personal recognition and a confirmation that one's problem is legitimate. However, the unsystematic way newspapers process disputes assures that the column is unlikely to have much effect on the institutional sources of chronic grievances. The article concludes with a comparison of action lines to the use of the media by “moral entrepreneurs” to increase the impact of reform movements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , Spring 1979 , pp. 799 - 850
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

*

Special thanks to Professor Marc Galanter of the University of Wisconsin Law School, without whose encouragement, advice and considerable patience this seven-year project would never have been completed. Thanks also to Professors Richard Abel of UCLA Law School and John M. Thomas of the State University of New York at Buffalo for their helpful comments on earlier drafts, to David Beal of the Milwaukee Journal for permitting me to use his masterful thesis, to Michael Mattice of the California Bar for his comments and for allowing me to quote from his unpublished manuscript, and to B.K.S., who would have enjoyed it.

This is a revised version of a report prepared for Marc Galanter's study of “Legal Regulation and Self-Regulation in American Social Settings.” Preparation of the manuscript was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, courtesy of Marc Galanter. All opinions and conclusions are the responsibility of the author.

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