تبلیغات به عنوان پرداخت : اطلاعات معاملات در بازار روزنامه کره جنوبی

The present study attempts to examine how market-driven journalism and a decrease in newspaper readership have affected information subsidy patterns between public relations practitioners and journalists in South Korea. Findings suggest that newspaper journalists have become dependent on information subsidies more than ever before, especially advertising as a payment, which play a significant role in the negotiation of favorable relationships between sources and newspapers. Thus, the study suggests that under the economic constraints that the newspaper industry faces, advertisement as a payment seem to be more influential than the more conventional information subsidies.

Historically, public relations practitioners have disseminated information subsidies to the media to influence media agendas (Gandy, 1982). Berkowitz and Adams (1990) explained that information subsidies are “efforts of news sources to intentionally shape the news agenda by reducing journalists’ costs of gathering information” (p. 82). Typical information subsidies from public relations practitioners include news releases, press conferences, and interviews. Two environmental shifts have significantly changed the types of information subsidy given out in recent years. One is the economic constraint that media organizations have had to endure. Print newspapers are disappearing because of reduced advertising revenues (Marken, 2010). Shutting down and restructuring have become more common solutions for newspaper companies. The second shift is the rapid adoption in the media environment of digital technology. The digital transformation in the media industry has affected the overall news-gathering process and even the relationship between journalists and news sources. The decline in newspaper readership, leading to a loss in advertising revenue, has exacerbated the financial crisis of most of the newspaper industry and caused a significant reduction in news staff (Kirchhoff, 2009). This trend appears to correlate with a decline in investigative reporting, a drop in editorial standards, and an increased dependency on external sources such as information subsidies (Davis, 2000). In South Korea, newspaper subscription rates dropped from 48.3% in 2004 to 29% in 2010 (Korea Press Foundation, 2010). With the rapid growth of internet access, traditional newspaper readers have switched to television broadcasting and media websites to consume news (Korea Press Foundation, 2010). In particular, the advent of free newspapers launched by a number of advertisers in metropolitan areas has worsened the decline of newspaper subscriptions since 2008 (Korea Press Foundation, 2010).

This study examined public relations practitioners’ perceptions of information subsidies in times of economic constraint and changes in the exchange relationship between sources and media representatives in South Korea. From the interviews conducted with public relations practitioners, this study found that changes in the management of information subsidies between sources and the media have stemmed from the financial concerns of media companies and the shift from print to digital technologies. Also suggested was that information subsidies are sometimes supplemented by advertising purchase offers. As advertisers pay for less and less space, newspapers experience a loss in advertising revenue. The interviewees suggested that, in turn, financial concerns compel newspapers to rely not only on information subsidies even more but also on the purchase of advertising space, the latter of which has become a new means of exchange in the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners. As Lee and Berkowitz (2004) found in Korea, in rare cases, public relations practitioners revoke advertising from newspapers if the public relations requests are not met. Also noteworthy is that the conventional role of gate keeping has eroded with the increase of advertising cutbacks. Public relations practitioners have expressed concern that newspaper journalists are more likely to rely on information subsidies that feed advertising revenues rather than information subsidies that are inherently news worthy; this shift in practice clearly indicates a shift in priority.