置入性行銷對新聞專業自主的影響：一個動態觀點的探索

The Impact of Product Placement on the Autonomy of TV Journalists: Towards A Dynamic Perspective

劉蕙苓(Huei-Ling LIU)

《傳播與社會學刊》 16期 (2011/04) Pp. 15-53

https://doi.org/10.30180/CS.201104_(16).0003

摘要

台灣新聞界現階段面對的嚴肅課題是：媒介組織普遍接受新聞置入性行銷時，身為執行任務之新聞工作者，如何在兼具滿足組織目標及維持新聞自主之間取得平衡。本研究嘗試以動態觀點探討置入性行銷對新聞專業自主的影響，深度訪問了30位電視新聞工作者後發現：整體而言，新聞工作者在面對廣告商所欲宣傳的置入式新聞採訪報導時，自主性均受到不同程度影響。其中，「題材選擇」及「被組織指派」毫無自主；「決定採訪對象」及「決定報導長度」擁有小部份自主；「決定新聞重點」及「報導被審查」則自主空間較大。而新聞工作者在執行置入性新聞任務時，會依廣告商主導性及其個人對新聞專業的堅持度，而產生四種不同模式的因應策略：協商、順服、主導、應付。研究顯示，雖然置入性行銷對新聞專業傷害甚深，但記者仍在有限的空間中，以動態的因應策略從廣告商手中爭取自主，並未完全順從與屈服。

關鍵字

置入性行銷 ； 新聞自主 ； 新聞自主策略

並列摘要

Product placement is a growing practice in marketing. It has been defined as a paid product message aimed at influencing audiences via the planned entry of the product into a movie or a TV program. In Taiwan, however, it can also be found in TV news. In other words, advertisers, including the government, pay the TV news organizations to report favorably for them. Product placement has been used in Taiwan TV news production since 2000, and raises an ethical discussion about the detrimental impact it has on professional autonomy. This study examines the impact on the autonomy of TV news journalists who are asked to report news paid for by governments or other enterprises, and how the journalists develop strategies for reporting this kind of news. In adopting qualitative methods, 30 Taiwanese TV journalists were interviewed, and most admitted their autonomy had been limited due to control from advertisers who pay the news organizations. They perceive they have much more freedom to decide which aspects of a news story to report. The journalists also believe they have more autonomy when they are free from the influence of by advertisers. However, they have no freedom to select stories or of refusing to cover paid news; moreover, they feel little freedom when deciding who should be interviewed and how long the news should last. However, this study also found that Taiwanese TV journalists believe they have ways to defend their autonomy when assigned to report a paid news story. This research analyzes them as strategic models of autonomy, and finds that the differences depend on the degree of dominance by advertisers and the insistence of journalists to defend their professional reporting. They include four models: negotiation, domination, accommodation, and carelessness. Most senior journalists possess trump cards to defend their profession and exert power over advertisers. It can be noted that the organization that emphasizes the news profession can protect its journalists, especially junior journalists, from interference by advertisers. This study concludes that autonomy is a dynamic process. Journalists will fight to get more space for reporting even when they have to cover this kind of paid news. Previous research has criticized the journalistic professionalism as reporting dominant ideology. However, our results show that it also offers the opportunity to prevent the violation of others. This study also provides a new angle to look at professionalism in journalism, and its impact.

並列關鍵字

product placement ； autonomy ； strategic models of autonomy