A Reconsideration of the Role of Local Media in the Process of Media Ecosystem Change

A Reconsideration of the Role of Local Media in the Process of Media Ecosystem Change

This study aimed to find solutions to the problems that Korean local mass media have been facing by analyzing the viewpoints of local communities and their citizens, such as reducing locality and competitiveness in the new media ecosystem environments. To this end, by employing the snowball sampling process, a series of in-depth interviews with nine local media specialists including professors, media activists, and NGO leaders, were conducted. The topics and specific questions of the interviews included the journalistic value and role of local mass media and the future prospects for the local media. During this process, keywords, texts and dialogues from the majority of answers of the interviewees were analyzed. Based on these in-depth interviews, results of the study showed that the local media must sustain their inherent and essential roles and duties. Along with adapting to a digital media ecosystem, local media should positively accept participation in or interference from local people to exude their positive values. By expanding the scope of local media into a composite of local communication platforms, it would help the local media stop their own decline by evolving to satisfy the needs of the residents. In conclusion, local media was best defined as an entity that promotes mutual understanding through a close solidarity with local people who are self-sufficient and proactive in the concrete field of their community, rather than as an object of government policy and mutual benefit. Subsequent mass research is now needed that will require further quantitative and qualitative analysis to supplement the methodological limitations of this study.

This study aimed to find solutions to the problems that Korean local mass media have been facing by analyzing the viewpoints of local communities and their citizens, such as reducing locality and competitiveness in the new media ecosystem environments. To this end, by employing the snowball sampling process, a series of in-depth interviews with nine local media specialists including professors, media activists, and NGO leaders, were conducted. The topics and specific questions of the interviews included the journalistic value and role of local mass media and the future prospects for the local media. During this process, keywords, texts and dialogues from the majority of answers of the interviewees were analyzed. Based on these in-depth interviews, results of the study showed that the local media must sustain their inherent and essential roles and duties. Along with adapting to a digital media ecosystem, local media should positively accept participation in or interference from local people to exude their positive values. By expanding the scope of local media into a composite of local communication platforms, it would help the local media stop their own decline by evolving to satisfy the needs of the residents. In conclusion, local media was best defined as an entity that promotes mutual understanding through a close solidarity with local people who are self-sufficient and proactive in the concrete field of their community, rather than as an object of government policy and mutual benefit. Subsequent mass research is now needed that will require further quantitative and qualitative analysis to supplement the methodological limitations of this study.