Ende, Tibbe (2026) Who Watches the Government? Local Media and their WatchdogFunction in Dutch Municipalities. Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).
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Abstract
This study examines how well local media in The Netherlands perform their watchdog function, and how this ability differs across municipalities of different population sizes. While the decline of local journalism and the rise of ‘news deserts’ are well documented, existing research is predominantly quantitative, dated in the Dutch context, and rarely compares those who control with those who are controlled. To address this gap, six semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with local journalists and politicians across four municipalities selected on population size and urbanity, and analysed through inductive coding. Two distinct forms of the watchdog function emerged: a ‘classic form sustained through investigative journalism, and a collective form sustained through social cohesion. Smaller municipalities rely more on social cohesion, whereas larger ones depend on the classic form their media struggle to sustain. Mid-sized municipalities struggle most: too large for strong cohesion, yet too small to fund investigative journalism. Finding no outright news deserts, the study concludes that desertification risk in smaller Dutch municipalities may be lower than population-based models predict
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Name supervisor: | Zee, T.J. de |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2026 10:02 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Jun 2026 10:02 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/790 |
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