Local Media and the State: Financial Aspect of Interaction

Abstract

The article defines the trends in the interaction between the state and local media in the financial aspect, predicting further development of this interaction. The object of the study was the local media of Irkutsk region - the executors of contracts of state authorities in the period 2020–2022. The study analyzed the dynamics of the volume of public procurement and the cost of covering the activities of regional authorities in the local media; the main mechanisms of state support for local media were identified; the structure of public procurement in various types of local media was determined; studied the dynamics of prices for local media services; the main genres of coverage of the activities of regional government bodies in local media are identified; predicted changes in the structure of public procurement for coverage of the activities of public authorities in the local media. The research methods were the traditional analysis of scientific literature on the problem of research and reports on the execution of the budget of the Irkutsk region, registers of regional government contracts, comparison, generalization, and analogy. The study found that the share of network media in the structure of contractors for covering the activities of regional government bodies is gradually increasing, while traditional media (radio, television and print media), on the contrary, is declining. At the same time, the cost of local media services is growing every year. The authors concluded that in the foreseeable future we can expect a decrease in the amount of funds allocated to cover the activities of public authorities in local media, primarily in print media, which may lead to the elimination of this.