ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Spanish media system that is increasingly becoming an important research object in the context of online media accountability studies. Media accountability is thus based on the need of holding news companies responsible for their activity in the social sphere as part of the professional self-regulation afforded to them. The efficiency of traditional self-regulation principles, such as ombudspersons and ethical codes, has been questioned by media practitioners, scholars and the public alike in many countries. News organisations over Europe are developing new accountability instruments on digital media, as audiences increase their monitoring activity on journalists and the media. In Spain, media accountability systems are slowly taking advantage of the Internet and Web 2.0 tools. Spain’s economic crisis has undermined the implementation of new accountability tools in many newsrooms, due to budgetary and personnel constraints. The Spanish experience provides scope for reflection on the obsolescence of the ombudsperson as an instrument of accountability.
