This study analyses press treatment of the Korean chaebols from 1989 to 1993. A review of the scholarly literature found that the chaebols were very powerful, but were widely disliked and distrusted by members of the Korean public. As well as controlling many Korean businesses, the chaebols influence the media industries through direct and indirect control. With such influence, and their effort to improve their image after the Seoul Olympics, the researcher expected rather favourable images to be reported in the selected press. A total of seven foreign and domestic newspapers and magazines were selected for the study, which represented various ownership and readership characteristics. Hypotheses were established on the basis of the evidence in Chapters 1 and 2 of the power of the chaebols, and of their recent concern to improve their public images. Quantitative content analysis was then used to investigate significant differences in each selected source in relation to the resource dependencies of the selected newspapers and magazines. Each source was compared and analysed to investigate its distinctiveness and their dependencies due to limited resources. Also, some qualitative content analysis was incorporated to further investigate the ways the Korean chaebols were reported. The research found that rather unfavourable images of the chaebols were often reported in the press, both Korean and overseas. They were favourably described as a contributor in developing in the Korean economy, but were unfavourably described as socially destructive. Our results often contradicted our hypotheses. Also, some significant difference and similarities of reports about chaebols were found especially between the Korean and non-Korean press. The more complex situation revealed by our results was addressed using Turow's(1984) Resource Dependency Theory. Overall, the study supported the more complex picture put forward by the Resource Dependency Theory rather than the somewhat simplistic view that sees ownership as the main influence on media outlets.

La tratta di esseri umani è un crimine che ha attratto progressivamente l’attenzione dei media negli ultimi anni, durante il consolidamento delle politiche anti-tratta internazionali e nazionali. Il dibattito accademico sul ruolo dei media nell’ambito della tratta è esiguo e uno degli argomenti d’interesse è costituito dall’impatto delle politiche pubbliche sui contenuti mediatici. È questo il contesto nel quale s’inserisce la ricerca, il cui scopo è investigare se le misure legislative nazionali anti-tratta possano influenzare la copertura a mezzo stampa della tratta di persone in un Paese. A questo scopo, sono state formulate sei ipotesi, verificate attraverso l’analisi di quattro quotidiani di stampo conservatore e liberale in Italia e Regno Unito dal 2000 al 2010: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian. Il test delle ipotesi è avvenuto tramite la content analysis, i cui risultati sono stati validati da interviste in profondità. L’analisi dei dati ha rivelato che la relazione tra l’agenda legale e quella della stampa è risultata essere positiva nei dieci anni di riferimento. Pur presentando dei limiti, questo studio può essere considerato come un passo verso la comprensione di come i giornali affrontino il tema della tratta e di quali fattori influenzino le loro scelte. / Human trafficking is a crime today widespread which has attracted media attention in recent years during the consolidation of anti-trafficking policies at international and national level. The academic debate on the role of the media within the context of trafficking in human beings (THB) is scant, and one of the issues concerns the impact of public policies on media contents. This is the context in which the research has been framed, its aim being to investigate whether national anti-trafficking measures shape the coverage and the representation of THB by a country’s press. Six hypotheses are formulated, and they are verified by examination of four conservative and liberal broadsheets published in Italy and the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2010: i.e. Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian. The application of content analysis, with the validation of in-depth interviews, contributes to testing the hypotheses. As regards the data analysis, the relationship between the legal agenda and the press agenda appears to have been close during the ten reference years. Notwithstanding its limitations, this study can be read as the first stage in understanding how newspapers approach the issue of trafficking and what factors may influence their choices.