Contracting and quasi-market as a form of interrelations between state and media in Russian regions

Abstract
Mass media are not only sector of the economy but also important social institute. However, commercial logic of media companies leads to «under representation» of socially significant topics. Contractual relationship between state and regional media are investigated in this article. Research sample includes informational contracts (N = 5209), signed between state clients and media companies in 2011–2014 in 12 Russian regions. Involvement of commercial media into such contracting relations let us suggest the existence of quasi-market. Within this quasi-market functions of public sector are performed by market mechanism. However, in comparison to «traditional» models of quasi-markets, described in the literature, some peculiarities were revealed in Russian regional media markets. Among them: end users’ failure to influence on the distribution of the contracts between mass media; difficulties to assess effectivity of contracts’ performance; distribution of contracts depending on the loyal relations with state clients; regional inequalities and transformation of the journalists’ role in the society.

Keywords
media market, Russian regions, public sector, quasi-market, contracting, public media



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