Ways to rescue "watchdog" media.

• Position: Mass Media - Brief article

The emerging field of computational journalism offers hope for preserving the "watchdog" role of the media, an essential element in the healthy functioning of democracy, declares a report released by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University, Durham, N.C.

The report identifies four target areas for helpful innovation: more efficient data-analysis tools to allow reporters to discover patterns; a digital "dashboard" for journalists and open-source software reporting tools to spot anomalies in everyday information; new watchdog roles for readers; and collaborative research with social scientists, medical personnel, and others.

"Holding public officials accountable is an essential role of the news media," stresses James T. Hamilton, a coauthor of the report and director of the DeWitt Wallace Center. "Citizens need to know how well their government is handling its responsibilities in order to engage in the political process in a meaningful way. By using algorithms to...