Beyond the official regulatory bodies for broadcasters and self-regulatory bodies for newspapers and online journalism, a degree of media scrutiny and monitoring is conducted by a range of non-governmental organizations, academic units and online groups. Across news organizations themselves there are examples of self-monitoring and correction, media “beats” within some titles, and indirect scrutiny of media behaviour. Though there has historically been a degree of reluctance among newspapers to closely scrutinize their peers, when high-profile media stories break they tend to be covered with prominence.
Among NGOs, the National Union of Journalists plays a significant role in scrutinising and campaigning about the business practices of news organizations, while several campaigning organizations monitor media behaviour and campaign for regulatory reform of parts of the newspaper industry, and several units at academic institutions provide research including dedicated content analysis of the news media (see Section E6 above).
The news media themselves have in the past been accused of failing to report on wrongdoing at other titles, an accusation levelled at newspapers in the years before the 2011 phone-hacking scandal finally reach public attention (Leveson Inquiry, 2012b). Certain legacy print titles, such as the Guardian and Private Eye have dedicated media correspondents and columns, though other similar units elsewhere have been discontinued in recent years (such as the closure of Buzzfeed UK’s political journalism department in 2020, which often scrutinised the news industry). The BBC engages in self-monitoring with its Newswatch programme, has a weekly Media Show on Radio 4 that scrutinises the industry, and an element of indirect scrutiny of news media is provided by late-night and early-morning newspaper review programmes on the BBC and Sky News.
