Squeezing out economic news for business news? Changes in economic journalism over the past 20 years in South Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how economic journalism – news about economic issues – has changed over the past 20 years under pressure of the financial crisis experienced by newspaper companies in South Korea. A content analysis of 2442 articles published in South Korea’s three daily newspapers with the greatest circulation showed that between 1994 and 2014 the news topics and sources of economic issues changed significantly. Findings revealed that articles addressing broad issues about the economy-in-general (economic news) that are likely to be of public concern, such as unemployment and government policies, dropped from 53 to 32 percent, while news about individual businesses, which are current or potential purchasers of newspaper advertising, rose from 17 to 30 percent. Likewise, there was significant increase in the use of corporate spokespeople used as news sources, while government and independent spokespeople decreased. An additional source analysis demonstrated that articles about individual businesses highlighted the interests of individual corporations: only 10 percent of news articles about corporations challenged the perspectives of corporations. Findings suggest an imbalance of news coverage about economic issues that may limit the information that the public needs in order to make informed decisions about a wide range of economic issues.

Keywords

Business news economic journalism economic news financial pressure public interest

Introduction

Worldwide in recent years, a massive increase in the amount of economic and business news in the mass media has been observed (Hubbard, 1976; Tumber, 1993). At the same time, economic journalism has been sharply criticized for a corresponding decline in the quality of reporting (Allen and Savigny, 2012; Doyle, 2006; Harro-Loit and Saks, 2006; Hubbard, 1976; Lischka, 2014; Pae, 2010; Picard, 2004). Critics have argued that economic journalism, especially business news about corporations’ management (Hynds, 1980), has been affected by advertisers so that overall tone of news articles is too corporate-friendly (Allen and Savigny, 2012; Doyle, 2006; Harro-Loit and Saks, 2006; Hubbard, 1976; Lischka, 2014; Picard, 2004; Tumber, 1993). These changes are attributed mainly to budget pressures faced by media companies that seek to offset a decline in news subscriptions by pursuing more earnings from advertisers. For example, previous studies on economic journalism have highlighted changes in news content due to the indirect influence of corporate advertisers. Those changes include (1) a positive correlation between corporate advertisements and the number of news stories favorable toward media advertisers (Choi et al., 2011; Pae, 2010, 2012; Tumber, 1993), (2) the blurring of boundaries between advertisements and news articles (Erjavec, 2004; Harro-Loit and Saks, 2006; Kjaer and Langer, 2005), and (3) the effects on news organizations as media companies seek higher advertising profits based on news content (Croteau and Hoynes, 2001; Lischka, 2014; Soley and Craig, 1992). As a result, business news, in general, is criticized because management of news organizations has ‘viewed its business pages as a convenient adjunct to the advertising department’ (Hubbard, 1976: 492).

Although these criticisms have led to substantial research on how business news has changed in terms of quantity and quality, those studies have not examined whether and to what extent business news has affected overall economic journalism: whether news about the economy-in-general may have been squeezed out. Has economic news about unemployment and government policies that have broader implications for society been marginalized? That is to say, research has failed to examine how an over-emphasis on business news about individual firms diminishes more general economic news that the public needs in order to make informed decisions about their economic lives, such as news about inflation, government policies on taxation, and similar topics.

Given that the news media play an essential role in producing an informed citizenry (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014) and that the role of the news media extends beyond the political field, the marginalization of economic news is an important question because the public relies on the media almost entirely for its news about the economy-in-general. Therefore, if the media minimize coverage of economic news, then the public may not be sufficiently informed to make broad-based decisions about their own lives.

In sum, the goals of this study are twofold. The first goal is to examine the extent to which economic journalism in South Korea has changed over the past 20 years, a period from 1994 to 2014. During this time frame, newspaper readership and revenue from subscriptions started to decline, resulting in severe financial pressure on publishing companies that has forced the companies to seek revenue elsewhere (Korea Press Foundation, 2014a). The first goal seeks to understand whether and to what extent news about the ‘big picture’ economy-in-general may have been squeezed out by business news about individual companies. The second goal is to examine the diversity of sources that journalists employ in reporting news about economic journalism. The second goal is viewed as a means to determine whether economic news represents a balanced approach that involves input by government and independent sources or, in the alternative, a distorted approach that favors spokespeople who represent mainly corporate interests. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on economic journalism by highlighting how budget constraints faced by media companies may bring changes in journalists’ news reporting about overall economic matters.

Background

In South Korea, especially during its rapid economic growth, national newspapers have given more weight to news about economic and business issues by publishing articles in special sections of their weekday editions (Hahn and Lee, 2003). During and immediately after the foreign exchange crisis of Asia in 1997, news of economic issues received unprecedented media attention in South Korea with many articles that emphasized potentially alarming concerns. More recently, the growing amount of news has shifted its focus to the success of individual corporations (Lee and Pae, 2013; Lee and Park, 2008). Although the quantity of news about economic issues in South Korea continues to expand, economic journalism is sharply criticized for a corresponding decline in the quality of reporting (Jea and Lee, 2007; Lee and Pae, 2013; Lee and Park, 2008). For example, Pae (2010) found that South Korean journalists are heavily influenced by their editors to report positive information in their coverage of corporations that purchase advertisements in their publications and, at the same time, downplay negative information about those same companies. Choi et al. (2011) revealed additional empirical evidence that shows a positive correlation between corporate advertisements and the number of news stories favorable toward media advertisers.

Furthermore, recent annual reports show that South Korean newspapers are partly owned by individual corporate advertisers that benefit the newspapers’ financial revenue. For example, the total share capital of Seoul Newspaper, JoongAng Ilbo, Hankyung, Digital Chosun, and DongaA.com have been owned or controlled by corporations such as Posco (19.4%), CJ Olive Young (17.59%), Hyundai (20.55%), SK Telecom (7.79%), and Samsung SDS (18.99%), respectively (Korea Press Foundation, 2014b). As of 2013, 56 percent of Korean newspapers’ revenue came from advertisements (Korea Press Foundation, 2014a). Big advertisers that benefit the revenue of media organizations (TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines) were corporations, including Samsung, SK Telecom, Hyundai, and LG (Korea Press Foundation, 2014b).

Literature review

Economic journalism, broadly defined to include news of economic matters (Harrington, 1989), is subdivided for purposes of this study into (1) the economy-in-general (referred to macro-economic news in this study), (2) news of private corporations (also referred to as business news), and (3) news of financial markets – financial news (Manning, 2013). While all three sub-topics are important, the area(s) that receives greater attention at any particular time depends on the social and economic conditions of a society as well as the overall world economy (Barkin, 1982).

Macro-economic news and business news

Among different topics of news articles in economic journalism, news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) is considered important due to its influence on the public’s ability to comprehend their society’s overall economic status and well-being (Blood and Phillips, 1995; Fogarty, 2005; Mutz, 1992). In other words, macro-economic news tells the public what various economic trends mean for the lives of ordinary people. In addition, business news is also perceived to be important because it emphasizes salient characteristics about individual corporations that often influence the public’s evaluation of those companies (Carroll and McCombs, 2003).

With regard to macro-economic news, most scholars have considered mainly whether the media cover the status of the national economy more negatively than the ‘real situation’ and how media coverage influences the political process. Concerns have focused mostly on the extent to which media coverage about the economy – for example, unemployment or inflation – impacts participation in political behaviors, such as voting. For example, negative coverage of the economy is found to play a negative role in the public’s evaluation of incumbents (Mutz 1992; Nadeau et al., 1999). Therefore, much of the literature tends to examine whether media coverage of the economy skews information in a negative direction (Fogarty, 2005; Shah et al., 1999). For example, numerous studies found that the media give greater attention to economic issues when economic indicators are in a worse condition because journalists tend to perceive negative economic news to be more newsworthy than positive news (Fogarty, 2005; Haller and Norpoth, 1997; Hetherington, 1996). Another line of research supports the perspective that economic news, in general, merely reflects the state of the economy without taking a negative or positive direction (Nadeau et al., 1999; Wu et al., 2002).

With regard to business news about private corporations, academic researchers have focused mostly on how advertising distorts media organizations’ decision-making about news value. Scholars are concerned about the growing influence of advertising on news content that results from industrial growth as well as from the increase in media reporting of business content, especially concentrations of business news in special sections (Hubbard, 1976; Tumber, 1993). Due to the decline in newspaper readership and revenue from subscriptions, news organizations have become even more dependent on advertising revenue for their own financial survival. Based on these trends, the examination of content of news articles on business pages is viewed as an effective way to understand the impact of corporate influence on news reporting (Pae, 2010). Therefore, much of the literature on business news has examined whether the growth of advertising influences news topics as well as the manner of coverage (Tumber, 1993). Findings of those studies show that reporting of business news has become more favorable toward corporations (Tumber, 1993), resulting in the production of business news that serves as a large and indirect source of revenue for media companies (Allen and Savigny, 2012; Doyle, 2006; Harro-Loit and Saks, 2006; Hubbard, 1976; Lischka, 2014; Picard, 2004). For example, Lischka (2014) demonstrated that commercial news outlets are more likely than public news outlets to publish obtrusive economic news – for example, articles about employment, consumer sentiment, prices, and income – rather than unobtrusive news articles about macro issues such as economic growth, labor costs, and external trade. Another study conducted about the media in Estonia observed that the boundary between journalism and advertising is intentionally blurred by the design of various formats and techniques that increase the potential for inserting more advertisements among news articles (Harro-Loit and Saks, 2006). Another line of research has shown that the profit maximization goals of media companies tend to pressure journalists to pursue media profit goals in ways that have a negative impact on the journalists’ own professional autonomy (Skovsgaard, 2014).

In sum, most previous research on the effects of advertising revenue on economic journalism has focused on micro issues so that the overall effects of advertising on news about the economy-in-general (macro level) have not been addressed. In other words, those previous studies have considered whether and how profit maximization of the goals of news organizations tends to affect the coverage of particular news articles.

Squeezing out economic news for business news?

While those studies highlight how business news has increased and its impact on the finances of media companies and journalists’ autonomy, little attention has been directed toward how increases in news about individual companies overshadow news of economy-in-general (macro-economic news), leading to the following questions. To what extent do media companies’ profit-making goals change how journalists weigh business news? Is news about the economy-in-general being squeezed out by business news? Or have both news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) and business news increased in parallel? It is an important question because an examination of how economic journalism has evolved over time helps to understand how news organizations construe news value (Erjavec, 2004). For example, Barkin (1982) analyzed the business sections of three major newspapers – that is, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun – between 1931 and 1979 based on five categories that included news of individual firms, news of the national economy, news of the international economy, news for the consumer, and news of professional business communities. The results showed that over 40 years, the importance of news about the international economy and news for consumers increased, whereas changes in news about individual firms were not pronounced.

Newspaper space and the time available for journalists to collect and report news are necessarily constrained. Therefore, questions about whether news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) is being squeezed out are critical for determining whether economic journalism tends to serve the public interest or, instead, is being used as a mechanism to indirectly promote the business interests of news organizations (Doyle, 2006; Harro-Loit and Saks, 2006; Lischka, 2014; Picard, 2004). Although information or news about public affairs is not precisely defined, news about the economy-in-general is commonly understood to be about public affairs that include topics such as unemployment and tax policies. The professional role of the media is considered to encompass news about government policies (Beam, 2003) and that also includes news about civic affairs and the democratic process, in general (Croteau and Hoynes, 2001). In other words, news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) addresses issues of economic matters that relate to all the people, while business news relates more narrowly to information about individual firms.

The first goal of this study is to examine whether and to what extent business news is squeezing out news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) by analyzing news topics and content about economic and business issues published in South Korean newspapers between 1994 and 2014. The prediction is that the financial difficulties experienced by media companies is the primary reason that individual journalists give greater and more favorable attention to current and potential corporate advertisers, based on an underlying motivation to indirectly increase revenues from advertisers that benefit the newspaper companies where the journalists work (Choi et al., 2011; Chong, 2009; Jea and Lee, 2007; Pae, 2010, 2012). Overall, this practice results in individual corporations receiving greater media attention at the expense of macro-economic news of public concern for which there are no funding sources (H1):

H1. Over the past 20 years, with regard to economic journalism, business news that deals with individual corporations increased, whereas news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) that concerns government policy and economic situations decreased.

Because previous empirical research has given consideration to a wide range of sub-topics of economic journalism with little concern to changes over the past 20 years, this study raises following research questions (RQ1, RQ2):

RQ1. Whether and to what extent have sub-topics of news reporting about the economy-in-general changed?

RQ2. Whether and to what extent have sub-topics of business news about individual corporate activities changed?

Sources – representing public interest or corporate interests?

Because previous studies have found that Korean news organizations have given major coverage to individual domestic corporations, this study predicts further that the voices of Korean corporate leadership and experts, who are cited as news sources in overall economic news coverage, increased between 1994 and 2014, whereas the voices of other news sources, such as government officials and economists, decreased over the same period (H2). Analysis of sources is an important topic in journalism research for the reason that sources used in news stories are known to influence the direction of news topics and content (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996). In that regard, Zaller (1992) pointed out that journalists’ reliance on their sources promotes the sources’ world view being transferred to the public. In an analysis of how the British press cover business crime, Allen and Savigny (2012) found that in England business interests prevail over the public interest: The voices of business in newspaper coverage are the highest (45%), whereas the voices of government are the lowest (7%) and the dominant business voices play an important role in decriminalizing activities. Based on findings of that study, an examination of news sources employed in this study opens a window for determining whether economic news and business news have been constructed by the media to serve primarily the public interest or, in the alternative, mainly the interest of business and corporations:

H2. Over the past 20 years, corporate sources in South Korea’s economic journalism increased significantly.

RQ3. Whether and to what extent have the dominant sources cited in macro-economic news and business news changed over the past 20 years?

An examination of which types of sources are chosen also helps to identify ‘promotional news’, which refers to ‘all those texts that have been paid for, have been published in the form of news, and that seek to influence audiences for commercial benefit’ (Erjavec, 2004: 554). In other words, if news articles depend only on sources from particular corporations and their clientele, then those sources may indicate signs of promotion news. By contrast, if news articles include various types of sources, such as independent sources who oppose or challenge views, then it is likely those articles are less likely to be instances of promotional news. Therefore, this study also examined whether increased business news included independent and/or opposing sources as raised by RQ4:

RQ4. Whether and to what extent have business news articles included independent and opposing sources?

Methods and data

This study examined changes in newspaper articles in the field of economic journalism that were published from 1994 to 2014 by three daily newspapers in South Korea. To test hypotheses and research questions posed by this study, a quantitative content analysis was used. The articles were published by Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, and Dong-A Ilbo, which are nationwide broadsheet newspapers with a combined market share of more than 54 percent (Korea Audit Bureau of Circulations (KABC), 2014); therefore, they can be considered to represent the nation’s newspaper market. Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo were established in 1920, and JoongAng Ilbo was found in 1965. As Korea’s leading newspapers, they have been referred to collectively as ‘Cho-Joong-Dong’ (Song, 2007). According to a 2014 report on the Korean newspaper industry (Korea Press Foundation, 2015), Korean print newspapers gain their revenue from advertisements (58.2%), circulation (16.2%), additional business (22.2%), and online content such as news article archives (3.4%). Likewise, Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, and Dong-A Ilbo also rely heavily on advertisements for revenue. There are minor differences in political ideology among the three newspapers, as they are all commonly referred to as politically conservative-leaning outlets (Korea Press Foundation, 2014a).

To determine whether and how coverage of economic matters changed before the Asian Foreign Exchange Crisis (1994) and until recently (2014), three years were chosen for examination: 1994, 2004, and 2014. Those years were selected given that financial pressure on newspaper companies became progressively more severe after the 1997 foreign exchange crisis (Korea Press Foundation, 2014a; Lee, 2013). Ten-year intervals were selected following previous studies that focused on time sequential changes (Choi et al., 2011; Kjaer and Langer, 2005). For each year, four months (February, May, August, and November) were selected to control for seasonal effects, and for each month, one week (from Monday through Friday) was randomly chosen. Thus, for each newspaper and for each year, 20 days were included (5 days × 4 months) so that a total of 180 days were analyzed.

Relevant articles from each newspaper were gathered by original print copy or PDF format on each newspaper’s Internet site. Although digital media technologies have facilitated the growth of online news and have clearly transformed how news is delivered to readers (Kim, 2012; Kim, 2013), only news articles published in print newspapers were included in the analysis, similar to methods used in prior research. Previous studies analyzing changes in news content over a period of years have examined print newspapers from 1960 to 2006 (Armstrong and Boyle, 2011) and 1982 to 2012 (Martins et al., 2013) and, more importantly, have analyzed economic news from the 1990s to the late 2000s (Choi et al., 2011; Lee and Park, 2008). This pattern of research shows that news from print newspapers is still an important indicator in terms of demonstrating climate changes within journalism although the Internet has increased in importance as a news supplier. Moreover, previous studies comparing offline to online news have shown little difference in the topics covered by both platforms (Dai, 2014; Doudaki and Spyridou, 2013; Maier, 2010). Since this study examined economic news coverage in 1994, 2004, and 2014, we tried to be consistent in the sampling frame by acknowledging that the Internet did not play a role as an important news supplier in the 1990s or even in the early 2000s. Thus, based on experience from the previous findings and methodological rationale, this study is based on a content analysis of print newspapers, since readers exposed to online news may receive similar information on specific issues as those who read print newspapers.

All news articles about South Korea’s economic matters published on broadsheet were analyzed, including articles about the sub-topics of business news, the economy-in-general (macro-economic news), financial institutions, and related matters. In sections limited to topics about economic matters, only articles published on the first three pages were included for analysis. The unit of analysis was each article on economic matters. Excluded from analysis were articles that did not include a journalist’s byline and columns that included journalists’ opinions. A total of 2442 news articles were finally employed in this study.

Measurements

News topics: news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) versus business news

Based on previous studies (Barkin, 1982; Lischka, 2014), news articles were identified by the topics covered by each article. News topics were categorized through two steps. First, in order to identify major topics, articles were divided into five categories: (1) the economy-in-general (macro-economic news), (2) business news, (3) market information news, (4) industry information, and (5) others. The dominant major topic of each article was coded.

Sub-topics

Following previous studies (Lee and Pae, 2013; Lischka, 2014), each major topic was divided based on sub-topics (see Appendix 1). Articles about South Korea’s economy-in-general (macro-economic news) were divided into 10 categories: news about economic growth, inflation, employment, tax, trade (export/import), monetary policy, government strategies, construction and transportation, supervision, and others. The second category of business news about individual corporations included six categories: management of corporate (i.e. merger and acquisition, new investment, profits/losses, restructuring, risk-management), product and services, human resources (labor relations), conglomerate-wide activities, interview with top management, and others. Although interviews with top management may not be mutually exclusive with the category of management, this study separated out the category of interviews with top management from management because interviews with top management can function as a ‘pseudo-event’ that intentionally enhances a company’s reputation (Boorstin, 1961; Choi et al., 2011). The third and fourth categories of market information and industry information were coded separately from the first two categories because those topics belong to neither economic news nor business news. Market information news included five sub-topics: stock exchange market, real estate market, interest rate, investment information (e.g. prices of gold), and others. Industry news included three sub-topics of information about at least two corporations: performances and trends in industry, products and services that are related to more than two companies, and others. The total number of sub-topics was 25. The dominant sub-topic of each topic was coded.

Types of news sources

Inspired by previous studies (Lee and Pae, 2013), news sources for each article were coded into eight categories: government, corporate, non-profit organizations, civic voices, foreign sources, analysts, independent experts, and others or none (present ‘1’, not present ‘0’). In the analysis, corporates mean sources from conglomerates (e.g. Samsung, Hyundai, and LG, etc.) and include a variety of voices ranging from top management or corporate owners to operational managers and public relations (PR) specialists. The dominant source of each article was coded.

Independency of source

Based on Erjavec’s (2004) standards for determining ‘promotional news’, this study examined whether each news article about business news included independent voices, opposing voices, and/or a rival company’s voices (present ‘1’, not present ‘0’). Multiple coding was allowed if more than one source was mentioned.

The news articles were analyzed by two trained coders including the authors. The coders received training during three sessions and, as a result, resolved coding inconsistencies with an intercoder reliability test of a sub-sample of 240 articles (9.8%). Intercoder reliability assessed using Krippendorf’s alpha with an above-minimum acceptable level of .80 found scores were .98 for major topics, .81 for minor topics (sub-topics), .90 for types of news sources, .91 for independent voices, .93 for opposing voices, and .95 for a rival company’s voices.

Results

Overview

Among the three newspapers examined, the number of economic news articles published was the highest in Dong-A Ilbo (36.3%) followed by Chosun Ilbo (35.2%), with the lowest being JoongAng Ilbo (28.5%; Table 1). With regard to year-by-year analysis, the number of articles about overall economic matters ranged from a low of 28.1 percent in 1994 to a high of 39.8 percent in 2004.

Table 1.

Overview of the data.

	Newspapers
	Chosun Ilbo	JoongAng Ilbo	Dong-A Ilbo	Total (%)
1994	212	200	274	686 (28.1)
2004	332	285	355	972 (39.8)
2014	315	212	257	784 (32.1)
Total (%)	859 (35.2)	697 (28.5)	886 (36.3)	2442

Squeezing out economic news for business news?

This study predicted that economic journalism in the three newspapers changed over the past 20 years with more attention being directed toward individual corporate news (business news) as a result of increased financial pressure on newspaper organizations (H1). In addition, research questions were raised about changes in the quantity of news sub-topics for the economy-in-general (RQ1) and business news about individual corporations (RQ2).

As Table 2 shows, news articles about overall economic matters (macro-economic news) in South Korea changed significantly between 1994 and 2014 (χ²(10, N = 2422) = 80.77, p < .01). Articles about the economy-in-general dropped (macro-economic news) from 53 to 32 percent, whereas business news of individual corporations rose from 17 to 30 percent. In addition, market information increased slightly from 8 to 13 percent. Therefore, H1 was confirmed.

Table 2.

Economic news and business news on three newspapers over 20 years.

	1994	2004	2014	Total
Economy news	53	42	32	42
Business news	17	23	30	23
Market information	8	13	13	12
Industry information	18	18	19	18
Others	4	4	6	5
Total	100	100	100	100
(N)	(686)	(972)	(784)	(2442)
	χ²(10, N = 2422) = 80.77, p < .01

Whether and to what extent sub-topics about news of overall economic matters changed (RQ1), findings of this study showed there were significant differences (χ²(20, N = 1024) = 96.64, p < .01). Specifically, the sub-topics of employment increased from 1 to 12 percent, while the sub-topic of monetary policies increased from 14 to 19 percent. However, except for those instances, most sub-topics related to the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) decreased between 1994 and 2014. For instance, news articles on trade (export/import) dropped dramatically from 16 to 6 percent. Likewise, articles on government policy regarding economic growth (government strategies) decreased from 22 to 14 percent (see Table 3).

Table 3.

Changes in sub-topics of economic news in three newspapers over 20 years.

	1994	2004	2014	Total
Economic growth	7	13	13	11
Inflation	1	4	1	2
Employment	1	5	12	6
Taxation	14	14	10	13
Trade (export/import)	16	9	6	11
Monetary policies	14	19	19	17
Government strategies	22	11	14	16
Construction/Transportation	12	10	8	11
Supervision	10	9	12	10
Others	3	6	5	3
Total	100	100	100	100
(N)	(364)	(407)	(253)	(1024)
	χ²(20, N = 1024) = 96.64, p < .01

There was also a significant change in sub-topics about business news regarding individual corporations (RQ2). As Table 4 shows, interviews with corporate owners or top management – that is, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) – increased from 16 to 23 percent, and articles about large conglomerate-wide activities (e.g. businesses owned by Samsung) were also more frequently covered by the media, rising from 12 to 20 percent.

Table 4.

Changes in business news of individual corporates in three newspapers over 20 years.

	1994	2004	2014	Total
Management	33	30	25	29
Product and services	28	30	18	25
Human resources	8	8	11	9
Conglomerate-wide activities	12	9	20	14
Interview	16	20	23	20
Others	3	3	3	3
Total	100	100	100	100
(N)	(114)	(225)	(224)	(563)
	χ²(10, N = 563) = 22.23, p < .05

Sources for news of economic matters

This study predicted that use of corporate spokespeople as sources in news of economic matters increased, whereas governmental voices declined as journalists gave more attention to individual corporations (H2). As expected, results found a significant change in sources of news about economic matters in the three newspapers for the three time periods (χ²(14, N = 2442) = 124.16, p < .01). Specifically, corporate sources increased, whereas government sources decreased. From 1994 to 2014, the use of corporate sources rose from 27 to 44 percent, while the use of government sources dropped from 52 to 31 percent (Table 5). Interestingly, analysts who worked at stock companies were the sources most likely used. Therefore, H2 was supported.

Table 5.

Changes in sources of economic news in three newspapers over 20 years.

	1994	2004	2014	Total
Corporate	27	36	44	36
Government	52	40	31	40
Non-profit organizations	6	4	4	5
Civic voices	2	3	6	4
Foreign sources	5	5	2	4
Analysts	1	3	5	3
Independent experts	2	2	4	3
Others or none	5	7	4	6
Total	100	100	100	100
(N)	686	972	784	2442
	χ²(14, N = 2442) = 124.16, p < .01

One of the criteria for judging promotional news for individual corporations is whether news articles depend on vested sources or independent sources. Therefore, how often business news articles included voices that represented independent sources with an opposing point of view or the voice of a rival company was examined. Fewer than 20 percent of business news articles included opposing views or rival company sources, with no significant change over the 20-year period in the frequency of the two types of sources: χ²(2, N = 1061) = 2.01, p > .05 for opposing views, χ²(2, N = 1061) = 4.62, p > .05. In fact, business news articles using rival company sources dropped from 18 percent in 1994 to 13 percent in 2014, not statistically significant. However, use of independent sources, such as market analysts or experts, in business news increased statistically from 14 to 33 percent over the same time period (Table 6).

Table 6.

Source patterns of business news.

	1994	2004	2014	Total
Independent
Including	14	19	33	23
Not including	86	81	67	77
	χ²(2, N = 1061) = 37.32, p < .01
Opposing
Including	12	11	14	12
Not including	88	89	86	88
	χ²(2, N = 1061) = 2.01, p > .05
A rival company
Including	18	17	13	16
Not including	82	83	87	84
(N)	(232)	(427)	(402)	(1061)
	χ²(2, N = 1061) = 4.62, p > .05

Discussion

As pressure on newspaper companies to survive financially has become more severe worldwide, many scholars have suggested that the main threat for the media industry is likely to be economic or business forces rather than political powers (Croteau and Hoynes, 2001; Harro-Loit and Saks, 2006; Pae, 2010; Picard, 2004; Skovsgaard, 2014). In support of that prediction, prior research has shown that the content of newspapers, especially news of economic matters, has changed dramatically as more and more newspaper companies have sought to boost advertising revenue from corporations as a replacement for declining revenue from readership subscriptions (Korea Press Foundation, 2014a).

Under these conditions, this study examines whether and to what extent news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) has been marginalized in favor of business news about individual corporations that is likely to result in greater earnings for newspaper companies. Because the media can determine what the public thinks about the economy and how the public thinks about the economy (McCombs, 2014), a shift in economic journalism from news about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) toward individual corporate interests raises serious questions about a weakening of journalism’s responsibility in a democratic society. In other words, if findings of this study suggest that journalists and news organizations have marginalized macro-economic news about general economic growth, federal budget, and inflation, then the public may have distorted perceptions about their economy. That is, journalists and the media companies may be falling behind in their duty to inform citizens about issues of public importance regarding the economy-in-general, including issues with political ramifications such as unemployment and government policy (Mutz, 1992; Nadeau et al., 1999). To explore that possibility, this study examined newspaper content to determine how topics and sources related to news of overall economic matters changed over the past 20 years (1994–2014).

As expected, results of this study show that over the past two decades South Korean journalists have redirected their attention away from broad national economic issues toward greater coverage of executive management and individual corporations. With regard to topics (H1), articles about the South Korean economy-in-general (macro-economic news) dropped significantly from 53 to 32 percent, whereas business news articles about individual corporations increased from 17 to 30 percent for the three time periods examined: 1994, 2004, and 2014. When it came to macro-economic news, there was a decrease in articles about issues such as economic growth, trade (export/import), government policies on economic matters, and taxation. By comparison, articles about individual corporations (business news), interviews with corporate owners and top management – for example, CEOs – and businesses within conglomerates skyrocketed. These findings strongly suggest that economic journalism in South Korea may have become strongly influenced by potential advertisers because interviews with upper management are considered as leading to news of ‘pseudo-events’ that enhance a company’s reputation (Boorstin, 1961). In fact, Choi et al. (2011) showed that interviews with CEOs had a positive correlation with the amount of advertising space that companies purchased in South Korean media. Interestingly, steep increases in news of individual firms counter earlier trends in the United States where changes in news of individual firms were less pronounced between 1931 and 1979 as reflected by coverage of business news published by three major daily newspapers – The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Baltimore Sun (Barkin, 1982). Especially in the Times, news of individual firms declined from 40 percent of the total in the 1930s to 35 percent in the 1970s.

As business news published in South Korean newspapers increased, there was a similar shift in the selection of sources (H2) as evidenced by a 27–44 percent rise in corporate sources used in economic journalism and a 52–31 percent drop in government sources. While these findings are consistent with previous studies conducted in South Korea (Park and Park, 2015), this study found that stock market analysts used as sources increased from 1 to 5 percent, perhaps reflecting a growing awareness among Korean journalists that analysts have expertise in identifying industry trends that impact the success of particular corporations. Furthermore, increased use of corporate sources in business news suggests that the media indirectly support the interests of individual corporations rather than the public interest. The three criteria for determining ‘promotional news’ – that is, use of independent sources, opposing views, and a rival company’s voices – were rarely found in business news articles. However, with regard to the use of independent sources, there was a significant increase from 14 percent in 1994 to 33 percent in 2014 although the level of frequency was low at 23 percent. These findings about news sources reinforce other indicators that reporting of business news by South Korean newspapers is highly dependent on the voices of corporate sources in which both business firms and newspaper companies have vested financial interests.

Overall findings of this study point to several important implications. News about the economy-in-general (macro-economic news) previously published in Korea’s major newspapers has been replaced by a growing number of articles about individual corporations, a shift that underscores advancement of commercial interests of newspaper companies at the expense of the public interest. This shift has occurred over the past 20 years, strongly influenced by the severe financial difficulties experienced by newspaper companies due to loss of revenue from reader subscriptions. The findings of this study suggest the possibility that South Korea’s major newspapers may have turned to corporate advertisers for financial support and, as a result, may have shortchanged public concerns by marginalizing issues about the economy-in-general.

Because the public expects the media to contribute to the public interest rather than to advance the financial benefits for the newspapers, members of the public who are aware of what is happening may in the future lose trust in the credibility of the news media industry that is the foundation for journalism. In that context, Picard (2004: 55) pointed out,

Newspaper companies, like all firms, have economic self-interests and can be expected to attend to them. Traditionally, however, newspapers have placed greater emphasis on their roles as promoters of public interests and on becoming a trusted institution of society that represented the people.

In other words, this suggests that if the Korean media continue to pursue their own financial interests at the expense of the public interest, then the newspapers may lose public trust that is the foundation for journalism’s credibility among the public.

This study has several limitations. First, comparisons of the periods of 1994, 2004, and 2014 may be considered to lack rationality. However, the purpose of this study is to examine whether and how the financial crises of newspaper companies have affected coverage of news about economic matters before and after the nation’s financial condition worsened due to the 1997 foreign exchange crisis in Asia. Second, changes in topics and sources of news about economic matters may possibly reflect a power shift from the government to the private sector in South Korea that would constitute a marked contrast with the past since the South Korean government, until recently, has actively initiated and driven economic growth. However, that possibility is questioned as news stories about overall industry – that is, industry information – that included more than two corporations did not increase significantly in this study. In addition, this study looked at whether business news represents the public interest or individual corporations’ interests by analyzing sources. Sources used in business news were found to rely heavily on spokespeople for individual corporations rather than for an industry in general. Taken together, observations of this study regarding changes in news topics and sources tend to confirm that shifts in coverage are attributable to accelerated revenue-generating interests of newspaper companies rather than to an ascendancy of the private sector. Fourth, this study examined the influence of financial pressure on newspapers relative to the reporting of news about overall economic matters; however, the content analysis employed by this study cannot examine how and which way the financial pressure influences on news contents. Therefore, future studies may seek to interview journalists who cover economic matters to gain a more reliable perspective. Finally, since this study examined only news published in print newspapers, we acknowledge that news articles published in print newspapers may not precisely represent the overall economic journalism landscape, especially for 2014, given that online news has increased in importance and more news content is being delivered to readers via digital platforms. Although the method employed in this study was based on previous studies that have analyzed print newspapers over the years (e.g. Armstrong and Boyle, 2011; Choi et al., 2011; Martins et al., 2013) and findings of several previous studies have found little difference in news topics between offline and online platforms (e.g. Dai, 2014; Doudaki and Spyridou, 2013; Maier, 2010), future studies may need to include news articles published on both printed and online platforms in order to provide more insight into contemporary journalism climates.

Despite these limitations, this study illustrates how economic journalism has put greater value on individual businesses than on topics of public interest in pursuit of goals that advance the newspaper companies’ own financial efforts to survive in a highly competitive marketplace.

Footnotes

Appendix 1 Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Sungshin Women’s University Research Grant of 2015.

Author biographies

Na Yeon Lee (PhD, University of Texas, Austin) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Communication at the Sungshin Women’s University in South Korea. Her research interests include journalism, political communication, and media psychology.

Kanghui Baek (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is a researcher in the Institute for Communication and Information at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea. Her primary research interests include new media, social capital, and social networks.

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