Ombudsman y lectores activos. La interacción en torno a la calidad periodística

Dolors Palau-Sampio; Juan Francisco  Gutiérrez-Lozano; Josep Lluís Gómez-Mompart

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2016-1149

Authors

Dolors Palau-Sampio University of Valencia http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9051-0239
Juan Francisco Gutiérrez-Lozano University of Málaga http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6572-135X
Josep Lluís Gómez-Mompart University of Valencia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5170-8787

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2016-1149

Keywords:

Quality, Ombudsman, International Press, Credibility, Active Readers

Abstract

This article examines the role of the ombudsman in ensuring journalistic quality and dealing with complaints from active readers. Methodology: Based on a qualitative and quantitative methodology, about two hundred articles published in nine international newspapers of recognized trajectory have been analyzed. Results and conclusions: The study shows a variety of models of performance, both for the topics they focus on, as well as how they present or justify the answers to active readers. The ombudsman is shown more as playing a diplomatic role that moderate the debate or become a valid interlocutor with the readers rather than a guarantee to ensure the effective compliance with the journalistic quality criteria or to question the editorial decisions.

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Author Biographies

Dolors Palau-Sampio, University of Valencia

Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Valencia. Bachelor’s and PhD degrees in Journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (PhD with distinction, 2008). Professor of journalism at the University of Valencia since 2000. Editor of the Levante-EMV newspaper for nine years. Author of more than 40 book chapter and journal articles about journalistic genres and styles, journalism narrative, journalistic quality and cybermedia. Guest researcher at universities in Germany, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Chile and Argentina.

Juan Francisco Gutiérrez-Lozano, University of Málaga

Full Professor of Journalism at the University of Malaga. Bachelor’s degree in Contemporary History (1995) and Journalism (1998) and PhD degree in Journalism (2003). Winner of the RTVA award for Best Doctoral Thesis, for his work on television memory in Andalusia. Leader of three national and regional research projects. Author of El encendido analógico (“The analogue switchover”) (2014) and La televisión en el recuerdo (“Television in memory”) (2006). Co-editor of La comunicación social durante el franquismo (“Social communication during the Franco regime”) (2002) and La calidad periodística (“Journalistic quality”) (2013). Contributor in A European Television History (2008), Transnational Television History (2012), Popular Television in Authoritarian Europe (2013) and After the break: Television Theory Today (2013). Member of the editorial board of ‘VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture’, where he co-edited the number of “TV Formats and Format Research: Theory, methodology, history and new developments” (2016).

Josep Lluís Gómez-Mompart , University of Valencia

Professor of Journalism at the University of Valencia (UV). Bachelor’s degrees in History and in Journalism, and PhD degree in Information Sciences (with Distinction). Winner of the Best doctoral thesis in journalism prize awarded by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Professor in the University of Valencia since 2000, when he launched the bachelor’s degree programme in Journalism, which he currently coordinates. Former Professor of Journalism, former Director of the Journalism Department and former editor of the Anàlisi. Quaderns de Comunicació i Cultura journal at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Former President of the Association of Communication Historians. Former director of the “Content production and dissemination” section of the Spanish Association of Communication Research (AEIC), where he is the current director of the Working Group on “Journalism and quality information”. Author of 50 articles published in indexed journals, sixty book chapters and ten books. Visiting professor at about 15 European and American universities. Professional journalist in newspapers, magazines and television for fifteen years.

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