• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.162-173
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• 2019

The candlelight vigil is a nonviolent collective action by Koreans to communicate with the government. Although they have political goals, candlelight vigils are represented as cultural events. However, despite its importance in Korean society, it is unclear how Koreans perceive the cultural meaning of the candlelight vigil. This study, therefore, investigates the cultural meaning of the candlelight vigil, ultimately aiming to extending the framework for understanding active publics. To this end, this study conducted 47 in-depth interviews with participants of 2008 and 2016 candlelight vigils. The findings showed that the candlelight vigil has cultural meanings of festivity, humor, and self-expression. Theoretical implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.181-188
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• 2009

Hundreds of thousands of South Korean protesters staged candlelight vigils and demonstrations against US beef imports in 2008. The problems, however, went far beyond that of beef imports. The political party veterans, who lost the presidential election, exploited labor unions that were discontent with the economy and ideological student groups to weaken the majority party. In this study, an epidemiological model is constructed with a system of three nonlinear differential equations. The model seeks to examine the dynamics of the system through stability analysis. Two threshold conditions that spread the protests are identified and a sensitivity analysis on the conditions is performed to isolate the parameters to which the system is most responsive. The results are also explored by deterministic simulations. This model can be easily modified to apply to other protests that may occur in various circumstances.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.46
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• pp.108-147
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• 2009

This study explores the news frames on the U. S. beef imports and candlelight vigils covered by the two national dailies such as ChosunIlbo and the Hankyoreh Shinmun; the KwangwonIlbo, a local daily. The news frames extracted based on the models of Iyengar(1987), Semetko & Valkenburg(2000) and other researchers are attribution of responsibility, economic sequences, protest against the authorities, national health and governmental public relations and so on. The result shows that the news reports are consisted of the straight news(75.9%), feature stories(11.7%) and editorials(6.3%). More specifically, there is a comparatively hight ratio of editorials(11.0%) for the ChosunIlbo, feature stories(20.9%) for the Hankyoreh, and the straight news(89.7%) for the KwangwonIlbo. In terms of the news frames stressed by the three dailies, the ChosunIlbo focuses and stresses on the national health(17.8%) and the attribution of responsibilities(10.6%). However, the Hankyoreh have a tendency to stress on the protest against the authorities(31.3%) and attribution of responsibilities(38.4%); the KwangwonIlbo, focuses on the protest against the authorities(38.4%) and the economic sequences(17.9%). Finally, in the case of the main characteristics of the dailies, the governmental public relations frame is found only on the ChosunIlbo that has a comparatively high ratio; the Hankyoreh also has a high ratio of the feature stories on the U. S. beef imports. Even thought the KwangwonIlbo has a high ratio of the economic sequence frame, the ratio of opinion pages, such as editorial and columns, the local newspaper has not spoken up for the potential economic crisis of the local Kwangwon province beef industry, mainly caused by the U. S. import beef.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.27-56
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• 2008

The controversy over the mad cow disease in Korea can be understood as a demonstration of complex and skeptical public sentiments toward the government that were all mixed with expectations, demands, hope and mistrust. The governments decision to resume the import of American beef turned such expectations into mistrust and public hope into nationwide resistance expressed in the form of candlelight vigils. This phenomenon can not be simply explained as a fear of risks. Concerns over mad cow disease were a trigger but they were riot sufficient cause to explain the nationwide controversy involving all the Koreans. It was mad cow disease that triggered a sharp confrontation between the government trying to stick to its decision to resume the import of American beef and the opponents who were not convinced by the government. In fact, this is not simply an issue of a disease. It is rather a complex issue of the acceptance of risks, the consistency of the government policy, trust in the government, and the public consensus on the government policy. In this context, this study analyzes the controversy over the mad cow disease from the perspectives of risk management, public policy-making, and public trust and social consensus-building.