Learn what it means to function as a watchdog, how to choose what kind of watchdog to be, and how to function effectively in your chosen role. Show
If your dog functions as a watchdog, it’s often because you want some level of protection from intruders, fire, or other forces that might do you harm. A watchdog organization can provide that same kind of protection to a community and its members. By gathering and publicizing information and – sometimes – taking direct action, it can expose and address issues related to health, economic security, the environment, community quality of life, and the public interest. This section will discuss what it means to function as a watchdog, and provide some guidance for both choosing what kind of watchdog to be and how to function in your chosen role. What is a watchdog?In the context of this section, a watchdog is an individual or group (generally non-profit) that keeps an eye on a particular entity or a particular element of community concern, and warns members of the community when potential or actual problems arise. Watchdogs may be concerned with anything from the actions of a single individual to the policies of several national governments. They may monitor one issue or many; their concerns may be local or global...or both. Just like actual watchdogs, watchdog individuals and organizations vary in what they do. For some, just sounding the alarm is the goal. Others might try to use their information actively to stave off problems. A few will actually tackle problems head-on, entering into lawsuits or other pitched battles with individuals or institutions that they see as threatening to the public interest or the well-being of the community. While some watchdog organizations concentrate solely on that function, many have other purposes as well, and include the watchdog role as only one of the things they do. The watchdog role overlaps with that of the advocate, but the thrust of most advocacy is the advancement of a cause or the improvement of conditions for a particular population or geographic area. The express purpose of watchdogs – the reason they’re called watchdogs – is protection. Watchdog organizations and individuals are like sentries. They keep an eye on powerful forces – governments and particular government bodies and agencies, corporations, organizations, institutions – to make sure that their operations and actions don’t cause harm or conflict with the public interest. When they find that conflict, they may act as whistle-blowers, exposing illegal or other negative actions or practices to public view, and expecting that that exposure will bring about the appropriate measures as a result of a public outcry. Alternatively, some watchdogs may lobby, engage in direct action of some sort, or go to court to stop actions or reverse conditions that endanger or otherwise harm the community or its members. Examples of watchdogs can range from the small-town resident who attends and takes careful notes at every selectboard and town board meeting to the big-city school reform organization that has a presence at all school committee and subcommittee meetings. Some individuals or organizations might monitor a single corporation to ensure that it doesn’t illegally spew pollutants into the environment or discriminate in hiring. Others might keep a close watch on a state government agency or the state legislature to guard against any decisions or practices that are inconsistent with the good of the public. On a larger scale, organizations like Common Cause, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists,Greenpeace, and Corporate Watch keep tabs on the ethics and practices of the U.S. and other federal governments, on global corporations, or on environmental issues worldwide. There are watchdogs that address consumer issues, health, the qualifications of members of various professions, fairness in the media, discrimination in such areas as housing, and numerous other topics. In short, you might be a watchdog on the local, state, federal, or international levels; you might monitor almost any issue; and you might direct your attention to almost any individual, group, organization, sector (business, government, education, etc.), or institution that has some effect on the physical, social, economic, or political well-being of the community, the state, the nation, or the world. Given all that, what kind of watchdog should you be? That depends on several factors.
Common sectors/entities that watchdogs monitorGovernment There are watchdog organizations monitoring government at all levels, from that local school board mentioned above, right up to national governments and the United Nations. In the US, for instance, the Congressional Accountability Project keeps an eye on the activities of members of the US Congress and the Congress as a whole. The Government Accountability Project looks at the US government as a whole. At the local level, government monitoring might be simpler. We’ve already mentioned the possibility of keeping watch on the local school committee. Other local watchdogs might be concerned with the zoning and/or planning boards, the board of health, the sewer commission or water resources board, the capital planning committee – any local government entity, in fact, since all of their decisions are funded by taxpayers’ money and affect the whole community in some way. Corporations and business Watchdogs may observe the whole business arena, pay special attention to specific areas within it (technology firms, for instance), or focus on the activities of particular corporations. Corporate Watch and the Corporate Accountability Project publicize the doings of multinational corporations. Media In the US, there are media watchdogs – many of them – at both ends of the political spectrum. FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), tries to keep the media honest from the liberal side. The Media Research Center is its conservative counterpart. There is another type of media watchdog whose concern is freedom of the press. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based organization that highlights threats and violence against journalists and a free press around the globe, is one example. Its function is to publicize the plight of journalists who have been arrested, threatened, brutalized, or killed in the course of trying to report the truth, and to promote freedom of the press around the world. The environment Environmental watchdogs abound around the world, from global organizations like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth International to local groups like the Millers River Watershed Council in central Massachusetts and the larger, Toronto-based Lake Ontario Keeper. Many of these groups, like Greenpeace, engage in direct action (to the point where, several years ago, the French government, in a fury over Greenpeace’s attempted disruption of its atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, sank the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior.) Others, like the Sierra Club, use advocacy and legal action to protect the environment and to further environmental aims. Some are focused on a single issue – clean air, endangered species, or recycling – while others, like the Sierra Club, address the range of environmental issues. Human rights With the United Nations’ publication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and its establishment of the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights, which became the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2006, and then with the founding of Amnesty International in the early 1960’s, the modern human rights movement came into being. There are currently many organizations acting as human rights watchdogs around the world. The determinedly non-political Amnesty International continues its work on behalf of prisoners of conscience. Human Rights Watch, which grew out of the Helsinki Accords on human rights in the 1970’s, calls attention to human rights violations worldwide. Physicians for Human Rights USA and its international counterpart use the access and knowledge of physicians to call attention particularly to human rights violations involving physical abuse and torture.
Hate groups In the U.S., the Southern Poverty Law Center publishes a regular intelligence report on the activities of groups that target others for violence specifically because of their beliefs, their ethnic or racial backgrounds, or other characteristics for which they aren’t responsible. Among the more than 600 organizations SPLC monitors are the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, and various black separatist groups and white-supremacist militias. American freedoms and civil rights Both progressive organizations, such as People for the American Way, and conservative ones like American Values and the Christian Coalition act as watchdogs to protect what they see as the core American values. The debate over what constitutes those values is still so volatile, more than two centuries after the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, that groups from all corners of the political universe – from anarchists, progressives, and liberals on the left to centrists to conservatives, libertarians, and authoritarians on the right – feel that they are threatened enough to merit a watchdog stance. Public safety The National Safety Council does research and issues reports and information to the public on such areas relating to public safety as health and medicine, fire prevention and preparedness, accidents, emergencies and disasters, and driving. Consumer affairs Consumer watchdog groups like the Better Business Bureau and Better Business Bureau For Charities and Donors, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a U.S. government agency, try to make sure that consumers have access to products and services that are safe, reliable, useful, and reasonably priced. They issue warnings, for instance, about toys that are dangerous to young children, and their early protests are responsible for the now-common labeling practice that explains why a particular toy might be dangerous to a child below a certain age. Consumer groups in the US have also alerted buyers to genetically engineered and irradiated food, telephone sales swindles, and unsafe appliances. The general public good Common Cause and the Ralph Nader-founded Public Citizen cover the gamut of public issues. They monitor government, business, the environment, and any other areas where the public interest is threatened.
Why act as a watchdog?There are obviously a number of reasons why you or your organization might want to act as a watchdog. Most of them have to do with doing the right thing and serving society, but the first one we list here is probably the most powerful, and the one behind most watchdog activity.
In other words, the preservation of democracy depends upon its powers being exercised by all citizens. If they don’t seem to have the knowledge and information to exercise those powers, then the solution is to make sure they get that knowledge and information. A good part of a watchdog’s duties is to perform that function.
Who should act as a watchdog?There are watchdog organizations – Amnesty International is a good example – that were founded specifically for that purpose. There are others – the Sierra Club, for instance – that were founded for, and still fulfill, other purposes, but serve a watchdog function. In fact, any organization that has an agenda should include being a watchdog as one of its roles. Some organizations and individuals for whom acting as a watchdog at least some of the time might be appropriate include:
When should you act as a watchdog?As with most policy-related activities, functioning as a watchdog is something that should be done constantly by nearly everyone. But just as there are people and groups who might be more effective as watchdogs than others, there are times when watchdog activity is particularly appropriate and useful.
How do you act as a watchdog?Now that you’ve decided you want to be a watchdog, and determined what kind of watchdog you want to be, what’s next? Quite a bit, as it happens. Being a human watchdog isn’t as easy as being a canine one. There’s very little sleeping in the sun or barking at the garbage man. You have to know a great deal about the issue and the entities you’re concerned with, be constantly vigilant for information, and then do something effective with that information once you have it. Do your researchThis isn’t a single step, but an ongoing watchdog function. Watchdogs are researching constantly. It’s the one part of the function that never has a clear end. Learn everything you need to know to be able to explain and discuss the background and history of the issue(s), situation(s), and entities that you’re concerned with If you’re going to be an effective watchdog, you have to know when a piece of information is important, and what it means. That means being totally familiar with:
Gather the facts about the current state of the issue, and/or about the current policies and practices of the entities you’re concerned with This step may call for several different types of data-gathering:
Build a network and cultivate sources As is often emphasized in this chapter, direct contact with other people often leads to the best information. It’s obviously important to get to know whistleblowers within government, business, or organizations who can give you the inside story, but there are others who may be equally good sources. Legislative aides, people who simply work in a particular corporation or facility, people who are affected by the issue at hand or by the actions of the entity under scrutiny, and experts in the field may all have important knowledge to share with you. You may not know or have access to any of these sources directly, and that’s where networking comes in. Friends or colleagues may have direct or indirect connections to those you want to contact. Someone you interview may be willing to vouch for you and introduce you to someone else important to your investigation. Build your network as wide as possible – you never know who might prove important. It’s absolutely crucial to respect your sources and their limitations. They, not you, may be risking something – their jobs, their professional reputations, their political careers – by talking to you. Don’t overuse them, and don’t ask them to jeopardize or compromise themselves unless it’s clear they’re willing to. Above all, don’t do anything yourself to jeopardize or compromise them without their permission. Not only do you risk losing them as sources, but you violate their trust, and you have no ethical right to do that unless it would avert something much more important – deaths or serious injuries, a public health disaster, unnecessary war, a totalitarian takeover. Even in such situations, you should tell your sources what you’re going to do, so they can protect themselves to the extent possible, if necessary. Decide what you’re going to do with the information you haveInformation is useless unless you do something with it. Depending on what kind of watchdog you are, you have several choices: You might still be asking yourself what kind of watchdog you should be. How do you make that decision? There are a number of criteria, many of them discussed earlier in the section. In brief, you might consider the following:
Nothing If you’re a watchdog, this may not seem like an option: gathering and spreading information is your function, after all. There are times, however, when sitting on the information, at least temporarily, is the best course of action.
Go public Through the media, share your information with the public. You may hope for specific consequences from this, but you may not have the resources or the organizational mandate to allow you to do more. If you do have the capacity for more, other possibilities for going public are issuing reports (which, if you’re well-respected, will probably receive media coverage as well); holding public hearings or meetings; and staging public demonstrations.
Use it as leverage There are many ways in which information can be used to obtain a desirable result:
Take official action That action may be to file a complaint – with government or industry regulators, with the Better Business Bureau or the Chamber of Commerce, with a professional organization – in order to bring official sanctions to bear. The official action may be within your own organization or group – picketing, a demand for negotiations, a boycott, etc. Or the official action may be within the court system, and involve initiating a lawsuit.
The four possibilities for using the information you have could be likened to how an actual watchdog operates. In the first case – sitting on the information, at least temporarily – you, as a watchdog, know someone’s approaching, but you’re still lying on the rug and not telling anyone else what you know. In the second case – going public – you’re barking to warn others, but not taking any action. In the third instance – using your information as a lever – you’re standing up and growling to let the intruder know that he’s in some peril if he doesn’t watch his step. And in the final case – taking official action – your teeth are in his leg.
Keep up your watchdog stance for the long termNo matter what kind of watchdog you’re able or choose to be, one thing is certain: you have to continue the practice. Things may run relatively smoothly as long as people know you’re watching. If you stop, it’s likely that the situation will soon return to the way it was before. The whole point of acting as a watchdog is that you’re always there and always vigilant. You never know where the next threat may come from, or what form it may take. It’s your job to anticipate it and let people know...indefinitely. In SummaryThere are all kinds of watchdogs: those that do nothing, those that simply warn, those that protect, and those that attack. What kind of watchdog you or your organization should be depends on your resources, your philosophy, the nature of your cause and the entities you’re monitoring, your opponents, your goals, and whether you’re most likely to be effective if you take action. Those same factors will, in large part, determine why you act as a watchdog:
While anyone may act as a watchdog at any time it seems necessary, there are people and organizations that are particularly suited for the job, and occasions when it’s particularly appropriate. Good candidates for watchdog status include organizations concerned with the issues or entities in question; people affected, or organizations that represent them; relevant professional organizations; organizations that represent the public interest; organizations and individuals concerned with the economic consequences of policies, practices, and actions; protectors of minority interests; and those concerned with maintaining democracy. Good times to fulfill the watchdog function come often:
In order to be an effective watchdog, you have to conduct research constantly. That research should include learning absolutely everything you can about the issues and entities you’re concerned with; gathering information about the current state of affairs, and the current policies and practices of entities; and building networks and cultivating sources of information. Once you have useful information, you have to decide what to do with it. You really have four options, corresponding to the four kinds of watchdogs described at the beginning of this section: you can do nothing; you can go public, through the media and/or public meetings and other methods; you can use the information as a lever to pry favorable concessions or actions out of an entity, or to encourage action on an issue; or you can institute official action – a complaint, a strike or boycott, a lawsuit. Deciding which course to take – either in general or in a given situation – depends on what the issue lends itself to, what others are doing, where your real strengths are, your resources, and how you can have the greatest impact. Finally, to be truly effective, you have to keep at it forever. If you can accomplish all this, you should be able to help protect your community (or the larger society, depending on your scope) from unscrupulous or incompetent government officials and agencies, corporations, organizations, institutions, or interest groups, as well as encouraging the resolution of problems and issues. In what circumstances does the media perform the role of public watchdog?In what circumstance would the media be performing the role of public watchdog? The media warn the public of illegal or unethical government actions.
How does the media acting as a watchdog influence the government quizlet?In its role as watchdog, the media decides which issues need public action. Thanks to the media's influence, people don't need to pay attention to what's going on. Newspapers, TV, Radio, Internet.
What is an example of the watchdog function of journalism quizlet?Watchdog journalists, such as those included in the White House Press Corps, sort through the information released by the government, think critically about the central message, and ask tough questions of White House representatives and congressional leadership.
What does it mean for the news media to be the watchdog of government quizlet?What does the watchdog function of media include? Monitoring and assessing governmental outcomes and officials.
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