Direct Quotations in Headline and Readers' Perception of Factivity

따옴표 기사제목과 인용에 대한 인식차이

Major news organizations in Korea are often accused of intentionally conspiring to advance conservative agendas under the disguise of unbiased reporting. Critics suspect that headlines are frequently abused for a certain framing effect. The widespread use of direct quotation is cited as one area of the abuse in headlines. The present study is an attempt to determine whether the criticism is based on facts. We conducted two separate surveys. First, the headlines on three major Korean newspapers were compared with those on The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Times. Then, we collected from Korean and English speakers factivity judgements for the sentences containing a direct quotation. The results confirm previous studies that Korean newspapers engage in a heavy use of direct quotation in headlines. Moreover, the results partially confirm the popular perception that the common use of direct quotation is a recent phenomenon in Korea. Finally, the study finds that both groups of speakers consider direct quotations more truthful than factive sentences.