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Understanding News Media Policy in Vietnam: An Economic Analysis of Government Intervention in a State-Run News Market

Nguyen, Huyen Thi Ngoc
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604655590816716

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Journalism (Communication).
In Western world, government intervention via media policy is supposed to help correct market failures such as the existence of external cost/benefit on third parties, the lack of public goods, or the abuse of monopoly power (Rolland, 2008; Hoskins et al., 2004; Picard, 1989). In communist nations, government intervention is more often viewed as to protect political ideas (Lee et al., 2006; Silverblatt & Zlobin, 2004; Siebert et al., 1978). However, in the post-communist era, communist governments were steered towards a market economy with a socialist orientation, leading to the ambiguity of their media policies’ goals and subsequently, their policy outcomes. In this study, I choose to analyze media policies in Vietnam, a still communist nation, to understand its current policy goals and to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy on news quality and financial performance of Vietnamese press organizations. The study is done based on Freedman’s (2008) definition of media policy, normative analyses and the public interest theory outlined by Hoskin et al. (2004), and financial commitment model developed and tested by many media economists (Lacy, 1989; Martin, 2003; Lacy & Martin, 2004). Three research questions are asked as following: (1) What changes in press laws have occurred in Vietnamese history in terms of Freedman’s identified key policy tools, such as regulations regarding ownership, subsidies, taxes, advertising and content restrictions?; (2) Can the current, state-run news media policy be justified on the grounds of market failures according to the economic theory of government intervention?; and (3) How do news organizations perform under the current news media policy, assuming the positive relationship between media competition, as a result of changes in market structure, and media performance, including financial performance and news quality? A qualitative document analysis of 270 legal documents drawn from the Ministry of Information and Communication Archive is used to identify elements of the news media policy, while an economic analysis is used to determine its actual goals, following up with 7 in-depth interviews and a survey of 31 news organizations to fully evaluate policy effectiveness. As a key finding, Vietnam experienced significant changes in seven news media policy tools after the economic reform in 1986, leading to the growth and flourishing of media business in the next 30 years. This happened in tandem with the Communist Party’s constant fear of losing the control over political news. Not surprisingly, the leaders of state-run media did not aim to correct market failures while drafting journalism and journalism-related legal documents, partly due to the lack of economic background and mostly due to the desire to keep the press as a powerful propaganda tool. Despite that, domestic news organizations and media scholars have quietly supported most of the current policy tools due to their perception of previous policies’ economic benefits in late 90s and early 2000s. I find these benefits were actually the outcome of technological advances and market factors that slipped out of the tight political control. More studies need to be done to build a more robust framework for identifying national media policies and thoroughly evaluating policy outcomes. Also, a larger sample of news organizations needs to be collected to better assess policy effectiveness on financial performance and news quality.
Hugh Martin (Committee Chair)
372 p.
Journalism
state-run media; news market; media policy; government intervention; media economics; Vietnamese journalism; economic analysis; financial commitment theory; subsidies; taxes; content restrictions; socialization of the press; mergers; media diversification

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Nguyen, H. T. N. (2020). Understanding News Media Policy in Vietnam: An Economic Analysis of Government Intervention in a State-Run News Market [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604655590816716

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nguyen, Huyen. Understanding News Media Policy in Vietnam: An Economic Analysis of Government Intervention in a State-Run News Market. 2020. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604655590816716.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nguyen, Huyen. "Understanding News Media Policy in Vietnam: An Economic Analysis of Government Intervention in a State-Run News Market." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604655590816716

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1604655590816716
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.