The Reader as Watchdog

The press' role in society often is likened to that of a watchdog over a society's institutions of power, but in more recent years, as the public has become more dubious of the press' ability to adequately keep watch in a profit-oriented culture, the question has become, "Who's watching the watchdog?"

In a model democracy, everyone should function as a journalist and a watchdog over all the other journalists who are out there. That's how you'd get a pure marketplace of ideas. And the new edition of Online Journalism Review outlines how the Sunlight Foundation is helping ordinary readers take up the cudgel of press criticism.

Ellen Miller is the executive director of the organization. It teaches ordinary citizens how to become journalists who can cover the federal government without relying on the professional media. The article in OJR is an interview with Miller on the Sunlight Foundation and the promise of citizen reporting.