pension333: Open government and the media: Q&A with Richard Sambrook

Involving the media in fulfilling the objectives of the Open Government Partnership may not be comfortable, but it can be effective

Ahead of the Open Government Partnership Summit 2013 we spoke to Richard Sambrook, professor of journalism at Cardiff University, about the relationship between the media, civil society organisations and government representatives.

What is your involvement with the Open Government Partnership (OGP)?

I have no direct involvement with the OGP. I was asked by Omidyar Network to convene a global media council to write a working paper on the relationship between the media and the OGP. The council was formed in March and consists of people with a range of experience, platforms, and from diverse geographies. They also have differing levels of familiarity with the OGP. We have produced a working paper in time for the summit with a number of recommendations and there is now a session in the afternoon of the first day to discuss these issues between media, civil society organisations and government representatives.

A global survey by the media council suggests that many journalists have not heard of the OGP. Did this finding surprise you?

I think if journalists have reported on the open government movement or are closely involved in trying to obtain data and information from governments they are likely to have heard of the OGP. But if that is not the heart of their work, it is not surprising they haven't heard of it. However, the information released by governments affects the lives of everyone - so whatever beat a journalist covers, the OGP should be of interest. It is disappointing that so few journalists are aware of the OGP and what it is trying to achieve.

What factors have contributed to this low awareness?

To date, civil society organisations and governments have led the work of the OGP and I don't think they have thought very hard about the role of the media or how to engage them. It seems obvious to me that the media can have a crucial role to play in explaining government information to the public and engaging them ? however, not all media organisations are interested, or have the data handling skills to really deal with much of the information released. In addition, I think there is a lack of trust and familiarity between all three constituencies ? government, civil society and the media. If we can build some mutual understanding of how each sector works and what they are trying to achieve I think a lot of progress could be made.

What can be done to increase awareness surrounding the work of the OGP?

Our working paper suggests that the OGP has a major educational initiative to raise the profile of the work and achievements to date. We suggest an online resource centre with some educational tools (best practice in handling data for example) and crucially some developed case studies of how open government has led to greater accountability or improved the lives of citizens. At the moment, there is too much theory and not enough practical examples or good stories about the benefits of open government.

Why is it important that the media are involved with the OGP?

Open government has been defined as transparency, citizen engagement and accountability. The media can obviously have a crucial role in engaging citizens in the performance of government based on more transparent information. Holding power to account is also a core role for the news media. So, if news organisations can recognise that open government produces information and stories of direct relevance and value to their readers and audience, they can play a crucial role in fulfilling the objectives of the OGP ? because they share many of the same objectives. However, media organisations will ask the difficult and awkward questions which in the first two years of the OGP have to some extent been allowed to rest while the partnership grew and took shape. So involving the media to a greater extent may not be comfortable ? but it can be effective.

Richard Sambrook is professor of journalism at Cardiff University

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Adam Davidi

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/nov/01/open-government-media-richard-sambrook

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