| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 新聞研究所 === 98 === Media market in Taiwan faces market failure today. As TV news broadcast sex, violence and product placement, it is hardly possible for the audience to express their preferences through market mechanisms. For this reason, the economic concept of “external costs” becomes the rationale behind government regulation on the media. Based on the framework of analysis proposed by C. Edwin Baker, this research focuses on six external costs incurred after the TV news is being broadcast, including: First, the quality of public opinion and political participation; Second, the various interactions between the audience members and other people; Third, the abuse of powers to expose and to deter; Fourth, the positive benefits to people or entities who want their messages being spread (product placement); Fifth, the negative effects on those who do not want to attract media attention; And finally, the losses to media sources. Through these six types of external costs, this research aims to explore the internalizing of external costs of TV news in Taiwan and the costs and benefits of governmental regulation on TV news.
Regarding the internalizing of external costs of TV news, I first target and analyze the TV news cases that were penalized by the National Communications Commission (NCC) from 2006 to 2009. The result shows that two types of external costs, namely “the various interactions between the audience members and other people” and “product placement”, are both the most commonly penalized and largely fined cases, with the former surpassing the later. Even though NCC wishes to foster TV news self-regulation by imposing content regulation on them, the media have nonetheless developed counter strategies. In the case of product placement, we see poor self-regulation due to enormous business interests; in other cases, we see “transfer of fine bearer from company to individual journalists or to advertisement clients.” These phenomena challenge the effectiveness of penalties issued by the NCC; furthermore, this shows that the external costs engendered by the TV news cannot be comprehensively taken up by TV news companies.
Regarding the costs and benefits of governmental regulation, the result shows that regulation not only gives the companies more pressure on cost, but also enhances their internal education training and self-regulation. However, any compliance a fine may make, companies themselves still doubt the effectiveness of content regulation, claiming that regulation may lead to incomprehensive information provided to the audience, or may slash the guardian power of the media. Thus, this research suggests the NCC should reveal every voice records internal meetings. Besides, this research also provides indices for the NCC to reassess the range of fines in the future.
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