Comparative Analysis on Newspaper Editorial Related with Environment -Focusing on the 6-Daily Newspapers-

환경관련 신문사설 비교 -6대 일간지를 중심으로-

The purpose of this paper is to analyze media companies' editorial viewpoints regarding environmental issues. Not only do newspaper editorials provide a variety of environmental information, but also they make it possible for the public to form an opinion and to establish communication channels regarding environmental issues. With this in mind, this paper analyzes the changes in environmental reporting over the past two decades. The newspaper companies started writing more frequently about the environment from early 1980s. To show this, I analyzed environmental articles written in the six main news-paper companies: Chosun, Donga, Hangerae, Kyunghyang, Hankook, and Munwha from 1999 to 2004. For this study, the articles have been complied by using the Korean Integrated News Database System (KINDS). Also the data has been sorted according to year, subject, and ty the company of origin. The total number of the environmental articles posted on these six daily newspapers from 1999 to 2004 is 729 and these represent 2.59% of the total articles. Hankook-Ilbo was the company that handled the most of environmental articles followed by Hangerae, Munwha, Kyunghwang, Chosun, and Donga. The major topics of discussion were environmental development and water quality issues. The number of the environmental related articles increased in 1999 and 2000, but then decreased from 2001 to 2003. Again the number increased in 2004. Interestingly while the number of articles covering the environment increased from the 1980s and into the 1990s, the number of articles decreased from 1999 to 2004 as the post-IMF period seems to have suppressed interest in the ecological issues despite the economic growth that followed. With the change in media coverage people have begun to recognize environmental issues as having social impact. As a result the people have begun to take such issues more seriously and take more active role in effecting environmental policy. Thus it is important that the media presents it's stories in an object manner to insure that the public is properly informed.