지방자치단체의 지역신문 지원조례 추진에 관한 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is, by analyzing the current situations and problems of regulations of supporting local newspapers which is recently carried out by various local governments, to seek for desirable directions for its future improvement. There are two main reasons for the discussion on the necessity of enacting regulations of supporting local newspapers by various local governments. One reason is based on the legal and institutional dimension following the enactment of “the special law of supporting the development of local newspapers”. The other one is based on the recognition that the stimulation of local media is closely related to the development of local autonomy and regional development. This study emphasizes on two issues. First, in order to improve local newspapers’ competitiveness and connect it with regional development, what would be the content and intention of the regulations? Second, by the premise that local newspapers represent public interest, what is the current situations and differences in promoting regulations of supporting local newspapers by different regions?By examining previous studies that analyzed the reason for the crisis of local newspapers and identified the means of improving competitiveness by strengthening local ties, and studies that emphasize the necessity of enacting regulations or laws of supporting local newspapers, this study is to secure academic grounds for the necessity of enacting regulations of supporting local newspapers by local governments as a complementary measure for “the special law of supporting the development of local newspapers” that was established in 2004. For this, the criteria of this analysis are set to be the content and intention of regulations related to local newspapers. We specifically examine the support for audience and readers as a new audience -centered potential journalism, and covered the responsibility of public interest, sustainability of independence,budget operation of publicity activities, establishment of funds,improved standards of selecting newspapers, and scope of supporting media. The result of this analysis shows that there are differences by various local governments in the titles of regulations, composition and recommendation method of committee members, operational plans of executive offices, scope of supporting media,responsibility of local government, establishment of funds, support for audience and readers. The desirable direction in promoting the regulations of local newspapers is to reflect local characteristics and local people’s will, and to improve competitiveness so that it should become the public place to discuss or speak for the will of local people. That is, in order to strengthen audience-centered support, this study proposes the establishment of reader-centered “subscription subsidy policy”, increasing support for reporting “excellent local news”, politically independent operations,foundation of “autonomous committee” that has no relationship with local powers, establishment of funds, operations of “independent executive offices”. In summary, regulations related to local newspapers should aim to restructure distorted market structure of local newspapers,become a reform plan to normalize the functions of journalism,contribute to the normalization of local newspaper market. In this sense, regulations of supporting local newspapers should include audience-centered support plan and carry out in-depth review of the plan. Thus it is important to create a common understanding within local society about the necessity of the regulations of supporting local newspapers.