• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.81
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• pp.189-224
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• 2017

The case of 'Paik Jong-moon's Taped Conversation,' has presented "an important and serious challenge to the freedom of the press and democracy" in South Korea. Nevertheless, this case has not been reported by the mainstream news media. It has also been forgotten without a proper fact-finding or investigation by regulatory agencies, like The Foundation for Broadcast Culture, The Korea Communications Commission, or The National Assembly. This study aims to examine why the above has happened through in-depth interviews of reporters and TV producers, senior journalists, former and incumbent commissioners of the broadcasting regulatory agencies, and experts of the industry, as well as literature research. Here, I present three answers. First, I found two reasons the mainstream press has ignored this incident. 1) It serves for political interests instead of reporting truth. 2) Public broadcasters' watchdog role has been neutralized. Second, regulatory agencies like The Foundation for Broadcast Culture, The Korea Communications Commission and The National Assembly are ruled by political tribalism. The ruling party's members of the National Assembly and these agencies were reluctant to investigate allegations surrounding Paik Jong-moon, such as illegal dismissals, illegal intervention in programming or production, illegal recruitment and illegal business deals. That's because they considered CEO Paik an ally. Using their majority power, they have rejected the request from opposition-affiliated commissioners or from opposition lawmakers to investigate the allegations. Third, there were no alternative forces within the public broadcasters to unveil the truth. In conclusion, the legal and institutional shake-up of corporate governance is urgently needed for public broadcasters and broadcasting regulatory agencies.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.56
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• pp.175-193
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• 2011

This study explored how South Korean newspapers covered North Korea's second nuclear test in May of 2009. Findings show that South Korean newspapers mostly reported North Korea's nuclear experiment in relatively negative tones. Their coverage mainly focused on the influences of nuclear threat from the North on the military, political and economic areas in South Korea. However, the media's agenda settings and frames were not similar in terms of each paper's political and ideological inclination. Whereas the progressive papers, such as the Hankyoreh and the Kyunghyang Shinmun, recognized that the current nuclear issue in Korean peninsula is getting worse because of South Korea's rigorous pressure on North Korea, the conservative papers, such as the Chosun Ilbo and the Donga Ilbo, see that the deadlock between North and South mainly comes from the system malfunction of North Korea. To prevent the current impasse, the left-side papers emphasized to develop the six-party talk in dealing with North Korean issue, while the right-wing papers paid attentions to the West's sanctions on North Korea and ensuring national security.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.446-458
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• 2018

The media is not just a means of conveying social reality, but is also a political economic subject that restructures social reality. The perceptions and attitudes of the people who read the news can be influenced by the content and direction of the media. Therefore, it is very important to understand and discuss the characteristics of news coverage produced by media. In the case of issues closely related to economic benefits rather than general socio-economic issues, more objective arguments and confirmation of facts are required. In this study, we tried to understand how real estate policy, which is one of the major political and economic issues of S. Korean society, is covered in the media. After analyzing media coverage, we concluded that it was somewhat unreasonable to look at facts about real estate policy objectively and make realistic alternatives, because the framework and attitudes expressed in the articles varied by newspaper.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.64
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• pp.59-84
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• 2013

It has been 10 years since KBS first broadcasted TV program for the purpose of expanding mutual criticism among Korean mass media. This study conducted a content analysis of KBS episodes for the last 10 years. Through the content analysis, this study explored what the program had showed us in the aspects of 'the subject of criticism', 'the ground of criticism', 'the attribution of criticism'. The content analysis could show meaningful results to the study of media criticism, because it not only provides a meta-analysis of the problems Korean mass media have had for the last 10 years but also examines the program has been consistent in the regard of criticism fairness. The result of this study showed that has pointed out the practices of unfairness, political bias and superficial and shallow reporting as the most critical problems the Korean mass media have. Also, the result showed that had not been consistent in the regards of 'the subject of criticism', 'the ground of criticism', 'the attribution of criticism'. While the program mostly focused on the problems of political bias and unfairness in the early stage, the focus of criticism moved to the problems of sensationalism and superficial reporting laster. This study discussed that the change of criticism might have a relation with the change of KBS governance.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.135-143
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• 2022

This paper aims to grasp what propensity users have in their ideology from the comments in the Web Portal News and the Press Website News. Through these analytical results, the political propensities of not only the Web Portal News and the Press Website News but also the voters who use these news media could be grasped. The collection of data necessary for this study has been made from the comments of 174 news stories for about 90 days before the election day. For the analysis, T-test has been used in order to compare Naver News with Daum News, the Minjoo Party of Korea with the People Power Party, and the Press Web Site News with Naver News. As a result of the analysis, the comments of Naver News took the higher percentage in the positive writings about the candidates of the conservative party. but, in contrast, those of Daum News in that percentage were higher about the ones of the progressive party. Accordingly, it can be found that Naver News is mainly used by users with the politically conservative propensity, while Daum News is mostly used by those with progressive one.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.52
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• pp.135-153
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• 2010

Dong-a Ilbo tried to assume leadership of opinion in preceding the movement against the trusteeship as a mouthpiece for the Han-Min Party. Dong-a Ilbo was to try to promote the atmosphere of anti-trusteeship=anti-communism=anti-Soviet Union, distorting the decision of a conference of three foreign affairs ministers in Moscow. It was not an incorrect report, but the false report. As a result, the formula of an anti-trusteeship=anti-Soviet Union=anti-communism=patriotism, and a pro-trusteeship=pro-Soviet Union=pro-Communism=traitor was formed. And the important problems of land reform and pro-Japanese‘ clearance were missing. Historically, political newspapers had appeared in the periods of very important political change. Political newspapers played a role as mouthpiece for political party or group. Dong-a Ilbo was such a political newspaper. It was that Dong-a Ilbo tried to change the social atmosphere in preceding the movement against the trusteeship as a mouthpiece for the Han-Min Party. And history was distorted.