• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.17 no.8
• /
• pp.80-89
• /
• 2017

Television viewing affects viewers' attitudes and opinions on their political issues. Since the beginning of General Programming TV services in 2011, they are criticized of their politically biased programming. In order to investigate the effect of General Programming TV on voters' behavior, we analyzed whether or not there is a change in the voting behavior of the conservative parties among the areas with high and low TV ratings of general programming TV. Based on the result of 18th presidential election in December 2012, we could not find any difference in voting behavior on the Saenuri party among the areas with high and low ratings of general programming TV channels. However, in the 6th provincial election in June 2014, while the voting shares of the Saenuri party were higher in the areas with high ratings of TV Chosun, Channel A, and JTBC than in those areas with low ratings.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.62
• /
• pp.315-328
• /
• 2013

With a view to grasping how media commercialization is understood and discussed in the media-related academic community, this study compares and reviews other researches on the commercialization process of Korean press. Full-fledged studies have been rarely performed on the history of commercialization, but similar or related studies have been conducted intermittently: One is the commercialization theory in 1933 and the other is the commercialization theory in the late 1960s. Both of them decided Korean press had been commercialized as a strategical option in the midst of political pressure. It gives a clue leading us to understanding on why Korean press shows partisanship which is pointed as one of social maladies. Korean press acquires less economic benefits if they play in the market than if political parties they support or share the same political interest take power, so they are a commercial press as well as a partially partisan press. In this context, commercialization of Korean press is still underway, and genuine commercialization hitting the balance with politicization may have yet to begin.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.63
• /
• pp.5-25
• /
• 2013

Korean society suffers from severe divisions represented by bi-polarization and collapse of the middle class. Intensive demanding on expanding social welfare budget has emerged in accordance with such a dramatic shift. Social consensus moving toward well-financed welfare policy, however, happens to meet political opposition supported by the discourse of fiscal soundness. This paper thus pays particular attention to deciphering the discursive structure in way of understanding how discourses bring public policy into play. For this purpose, news articles about fiscal soundness collected from 8 national newspapers have been analyzed in terms of frame, attitude, perspective and world view. Research results show, first of all, that there exist persistent competition between two frames identified as 'reduced tax with fiscal discipline' and 'increased tax with welfare money.' While the 'reduced tax' frame favors in maintaining tax cut at the expense of welfare budjet, the frame of 'increased tax' supports such arguments as the flexible employment of fiscal soundness and prosperity of national community helped by widening tax revenues. Also did these frames include a number of sub-frames like welfare populism, partisan politics, trickle down effect, tax bonanza for the rich, universal welfare and market over-reactions in order to bolster its logical authority. Media's active taking a part in penetrating supportive frames in line with political stance was found as well. Taking into account both the discursive structure upheld by frames and politics materialized by the media, the authors argue that public policies should be considered more as discourse than fixed reality. Shedding additional light on understanding the interplay among public opinion, policies and media discourse is of another importance for further study.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.289-319
• /
• 2019

Kim Chan-sam's 『世界一周無錢旅行記』 was released in 1962. This was a time when the general public was strongly restricted from traveling abroad. Most of the people lived in 'domestic'. Low development and political upheaval continued. The readership wanted a fantasy, which came out of a desire to escape from the peninsula. So was to become more popular around the popular characters called 'Kim Chan-sam'. Kim Chan-sam had to be a pushover to the public. This figure had to be secular and de-politicized. Above all, ideological bias had to be removed. The book's imaginary geography is the "world as a non-communist state" with a high purity. The Cold War ideology was prevalent throughout South Korean society. Kim Chan-sam knew exactly what he could and could not tell the South Korean reader. He couldn't tell you the reality of my readers not being able to travel abroad. Not to mention a society locked up 'domestic' on the Korean reality. The study analyzes Kim Chan-sam's storytelling strategy. Looking at the meaning of the travel fantasy,agenre of the 1960s, I would like to ask why travel writing in our time is still bound by its past limitations.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
• /
• v.123
• /
• pp.87-110
• /
• 2012

The kitsch was emerged from the people's cultural desire in the conditions of the various duplicating technology, the capital economy system, and the civil revolution in the western modern mass society. But it is underestimated constantly because of the conspicious consumption and the aesthetic inadequacy. Even though some kitsches are elevated to the 'kitsch arts' in the historical description of the modern arts, still the most of kitsches are remained as 'just kitsches' and excluded from the aesthetic research according to the double standard. In this essay, I research for whether anti-kitsch theory is convincing theoretically and practically. Anti-kitsch theory criticizes the kitsch on the basis of the modernist aesthetics, in which the 'fine art' provokes the aesthetic pleasure in the disinterested contemplation. But kitsch purposes for the sensual gratification and the sentimentality. So the anti-kitish theorists conclude that the kitsch is the bad taste. In critically analyzing the argumentation of Greenberg's. Kaplan's and $C{\tilde{a}}linescu^{\prime}s$, I refute the privileged prejudice of the ideal critic. They don't justify the criteria of the classification of 'art'/ 'kitsch'. They supplement the economical and the political grounds for the evaluative theory of the kitsch. But the argumentation of the kitsch is consumed conspicuously and results in the unlettered masses is not sufficient. People produce and enjoy the kitsches in the various ways. People envelope the genres, styles and media of the kitsches and they try to suggest the new horizon of the popular aesthetics. So anti-kitsch theories cannot be accepted because they adhere to the elitism and formalism. The exclusion of the kitsch is the derogation for people's taste. Also they didn't reflect the contemporary cultural practice and the aesthetic needs in the system of post-art. The alternative aesthetics of the kitsch is the topic of my next essay.

• Analyses & Alternatives
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.79-115
• /
• 2022

This study aims to account for electoral choice in the 2020 presidential election by focusing on social identity which forms the basis for core partisan groups. Two views compete to explain the origins of polarization, policy versus party. One emphasizes policy as more influential in choosing presidential candidates. This follows the tradition of retrospective voting theory in which voters' choice rely on government performance. Incumbent president whose performance proves well are rewarded to be reelected. Policy performance is based on measures around distinctive preferences for government spending. Republican Individuals prefer individual responsibility to government support, while Democratic counterparts support government support. Another perspective put an emphasis on the role partisanship which favors in-party members and disfavors partisan out-groups. Interparty animosity plays the key role in determining electoral behavior. This study relies on the Views of the Electorate Research (VOTER) Survey which provides a panel data of several waves from 2011 to 2020. A comparative evaluation of two views highlights three findings. First, policy matters. Policy preferences of voters are the primary drives of political behavior. Electoral outcomes in 2020 turned out to be the results of policy considerations of voters. 53.7 percent of voters tilted toward individual responsibility voted for Trump, whereas 70.4 percent of those favorable views of government support than individual responsibility voted for Biden. Thus effects of policy correspond to a positive difference of 26.4 percent points. Second, partisanship effects are of similar extent in influencing electoral choice of candidates: Democrats are less likely to vote for Trump by 42.4 percent points, while Republicans are less likely to vote for Biden by 48.7 percent points. Third, animosity of Republicans toward Democrat core groups creates 26.5 percent points of favoring Trump over Biden. Democrat animosity toward Republican core groups creates a positive difference of 13.7 percent points of favoring Biden.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.216-227
• /
• 2020

In science and technology diplomacy, major countries actively utilize their capabilities in science and technology for public diplomacy, especially for promoting diplomatic relations with politically sensitive regions and countries. Recently, with an increase in the influence of science and technology on national development, interest in science and technology diplomacy has increased. So far, science and technology diplomacy has relied on experts to find research topics that are of common interest to both the countries. However, this method has various problems such as the bias arising from the subjective judgment of experts, the attribution of the halo effect to famous researchers, and the use of different criteria for different experts. This paper presents an objective data-based approach to identify and recommend research topics to support science and technology diplomacy without relying on the expert-based approach. The proposed approach is based on big data analysis that uses deep-learning techniques and bibliometric methods. The Scopus database is used to find proper topics for collaborative research between two countries. This approach has been used to support science and technology diplomacy between Korea and Hungary and has raised expectations of policy makers. This paper finally discusses aspects that should be focused on to improve the system in the future.