Access journalism is what the Columbia Journalism Review (2014) defines as providing “insider information from powerful institutions and people.” This is a different kind of reporting — requiring “different skills, different practices, and different sources” that “produce radically different representations of reality” than “accountability journalism.”
American automotive media — particularly at major mainstream outlets such as Automotive News (go here for mini-review) — have mostly engaged in access journalism.
Auto history books written by practicing journalists also tend to be heavily steeped in access journalism. An example is Bryce G. Hoffman’s (2012) book, American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company. Hoffman had exceptional access to Ford management — and the unsurprising result was a puff piece.
A more subtle form of access journalism is when historians become friends with their subjects. This can arguably lead to less critical analysis. An example of that is Patrick’s Foster’s writings about AMC head Roy D. Chapin, Jr. (go here for further discussion).
Do chronically low levels of accountability journalism at least partly explain why U.S. automakers were so slow in their response to increasingly popular foreign automobiles? By the same token, has the current dominance of access journalism given cover to the auto industry’s half-hearted response to contemporary issues such as climate change?
RE:SOURCES
- Columbia Journalism Review; 2014. “The right debate: Access vs. accountability is what matters.” Posted Jan. 2; accessed February 26, 2019.
- Hoffman, Bryce G.; 2012. American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company. Crown Business, New York, NY.
This is an expanded version of a story originally posted April 1, 2019.
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