• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.726-738
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• 2016

This study selected the Marine Corps camp accident in 2013 as its subject and analyzed it in order to explore the relevance of media framing on discourse on the safety of outdoor experience activities. Data were collected from search sites provided by news coverage data from March 26, 2010 when the sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan occurred in South Korea, which had seen a surge in Marine Corps experience camps, to July 21, 2013, a few days after the Marine Corps camp accident. Data about a total of 211 cases 138 cases before the Marine Corps camp accident, and 73 cases after the accident were inductively analyzed. According to the results, news coverages on the Marine Corps camp were largely divided into positive framing that glamorized outdoor experience activities before the accident and negative framing after the accident. To put it concretely, the framing before the accident tended to glamorize outdoor experience activity as the best educational program which helped the participants to enhance their patience and sense of independence through boot camp experience, thereby increasing their self-esteem and arousing their cooperative spirit as members of society. However, after the accident media framing tended to publicize insensitivity to safety. The media framing characterized by dualistic coverage is considered to be an obstacle to the spread of safety culture, which is required in South Korean society. Therefore, media need to maintain more cool-headed and objective attitudes when reporting news.