• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.27
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• pp.93-122
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• 2004

An examination of the previous works regarding the concept of "fairness" in the journalism revealed that the concept is widely used but remains inadequately defined. Furthermore, there is much less agreement about the characteristics defining "fairness" in the literature. Thus it has often caused disagreement among people who have different political perspectives in the judgment about any media coverage. I suggest a reconceptualization and extension of the construct "fairness" in order to reduce the ambiguity and conflicts in the judgment of fairness among people. Most importantly, drawing on the concept of "autonomy," I attempt to fill in the gap in the model of "fairness." According to the logic of "autonomy," the "fair" press can not exist without the freedom of the press. In other words, all external/internal constraints, which intrude on the freedom of the press, encroach the "fairness" of the press. Thus, the freedom of the press is necessary condition for the fairness in the journalism. However, the freedom of the press is not enough to realize the fairness in the journalism. It needs the sufficient rendition, which is the "autonomy" encompassing the ability of news organization, journalists, and audiences that they resist to any constraints against neutral value. Consequently, the emphasis on the "autonomy" which keeps neutral value perspectives will contribute to reshape the framework for evaluation of "fairness" in journalism.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.36
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• pp.42-77
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• 2006

As a term 'Media Big Bang' will appear, the media is extending explosively. But actually it is appearing the paradoxical phenomenon which journalism meets a crisis. If the purpose of journalism is 'to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing', the crisis of Journalism directly brings about the result which damages audience welfare. Consequently the preceding task which defends the public good of journalism is accurately to get at the root of the substance which brings about the crisis of Journalism. In this paper, the principle and basic ethics of Journalism was theorized on the concept of truth and fairness, how about Korean journalism was answered to the standard is analyzed. With the result it was confirmed Korean journalism does not defend even truth and fairness about important agenda to be solved today. It was recognizes the substance which brings about the crisis of Journalism is 'the crisis of basic ethics', and was presented a an alternative proposal. It was introduced the research of 'Committee of Concerned Journalists' in the United States, and proposed the effort which is saved journalism with organic combination of Korean academic world and journalist' group.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.38
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• pp.183-210
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• 2007

The study tried to explore ordinary people's press fairness concept being neglected by the mainstream of fairness research thus far. With empirical standpoint, this study first investigated (un)fairness concept held by general audience, and then compared it with existing ones long suggested by experts such as scholars and media workers. Also, the study examined audience's concept construct in terms of its characteristics and implications. A systematic sample of 300 adults in Seoul was interviewed and their answers (instances of press unfairness) were analyzed and categorized. The most serious problem in fairness, they pointed, was that the press's not neutral. Also, truth and balance were importantly raised as a press problem with regard to fairness. The result showed press ethics and commercial morals could be a significant element for people's view on press fairness. These elements are new to the literature and heuristic regarding how to approach toward fairness issue in our society. The study also discusses the implications of other findings.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.171-181
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• 2014

As the use of mass media in modern politics grows, its influential power is getting larger than before. Therefore, fairness of broadcasting is identified as a very important factor in the current law. In particular, whether the mass media has balanced attitude toward election issues has been a critical point, which maked the current law have separate provisons to deal with it. As for the fairness and bias, most existing studies had focused on how long the media dealt with the specific political issues, which leads to only quantitative analysis. Also, most analysis of the contents had been based on very personal judgement and evaluation of researchers rather than following the criteria which is based on scientific method. This study introduced the AHP analysis method to compare the quantitative data and qualitative data altogether, which aims to develope the indicator for weighted measures and measurement of the fairness. Research findings reveals that each broadcaster has, MBC was highly biased and KBS and SBS followed that. Compared with existing studies regarding the political fairness of the media.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.46
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• pp.323-353
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• 2009

Press (un)fairness has been a social issue in Korea. The previous research focused mainly on the suggestion of fairness norms, principles, concepts, and definitions. Also, the research tried to measure the degree of fairness by analyzing press contents. This study attempted to overcome the media- and source-oriented approach proposing ordinary press consumers' perspectives. The study posited that one's fairness judgment would be greatly influenced by his or her preexisting attitudes on issue. Based on social judgment theory and hostile media perception framework, the research expected 'assimilation' bias for attitudinally congruent group and 'contrast' bias for attitudinally incongruent group. An $3\times3\times2$ experimental design was employed to test the theoretical predictions. The results found assimilation and contrast bias for strong attitude groups who read one-sided and two-sided messages. The results also implied hostile media perception occurred by selective categorization. Also the difficulty and limitation of traditional fairness judgment and media-centered approach was discussed.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.62
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• pp.244-263
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• 2013

There have been enormous social impacts on many areas, including science journalism, since the so-called "Hwang Woo Suk" incident. Although wide demand for better science journalism has been aroused since then, but it is hard to find an evidence to prove we have reached the point. This study examines how major Korean newspapers report Unidentified Flying Objects in order to test if the level of science journalism had been elevated. As results, still it is a long road ahead to achieve the goals because most reports were taken from the international news agents or from the witnesses rather than scientific researches and analyses; terminologies used in the stories were ambiguous; follow-up stories were rare, the sources were usually pseudo-scientific, wanton errors in basic facts and coherence, and other problems were found. It could be suggested that the dependency on supplied news to be reduced, journalists who understand both science and journalism are required, inner regulations on science reporting to be established, correct quotations and fact-checks to be accomplished, fairness to be maintained within the boundary of normal science.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.658-673
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• 2011

This paper examined some problems of media coverage of religion by analyzing a television documentary. The SBS-TV documentary "God's way Man's way" aired in 2008, critically presented the basic Christian doctrine. The producers of the program estimate that protestant churches in Korea have become an established power, which has influence on a societal and political level. Therefore the producers believe that they have the right to criticize that power, especially because its doctrine about salvation leads to serious conflict with other religions, for example, Islam. This program portrayed the doctrine of Jesus as a story borrowed from ancient myths. Consequently, there were harsh protests from the Korean Christian milieu, especially protestants. The author agrees that it is important for the media to critically cover the activities of religious institutions and the behaviors of religious people in the civil society. However, if producers of a documentary want to introduce controversial doctrines of one religion to an audience, they should present the orthodox ones with alternatives or opposing ones, according to the principle of objectivity and fairness of journalism. Since every religion has its mysterious doctrine that cannot be proven by science and reason, journalists should not criticize the sacred part of religion. This paper suggested some ethical points to the media, children of Enlightenment Age, when they cover the religion including its doctrine and mysterious parts.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.137-147
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• 2014

The study aims at exploring motivation, rationale, and values in twitter users' retweet behavior. It proposes that diffusion of message is based on the complex interactional relationships among attributes of original message, user's rationale, and values. Based on a pilot study, we constructed a total of 34 questions asking message attributes, motivation, and values of retweeting. Then, twitter users participated in an online survey, in which they evaluate their own 5 retweet messages based on the constructed questions(5 messages ${\times}$ 34 questions = 170). Then, a factor analysis is done in order to see the dimensions of the concepts in retweet behavior; and understand how message attributes, motivations, and values are inter-related with each other. The main factors extracted were: (1) public fairness, (2) fun and playfulness, (3) communal help, (4) news and information, etc. Factor 2 and 4 show the traditional journalism characteristics; while factor 1 and 3 do alternative journalistic values. The latter may work as a rectifying factors for traditional journalism; however, backfiring mechanism for group polarization. In addition, (1) users' internal identities, (2) communal unity and (3) belongness were identified as rationales and values for retweet behavior.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.21
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• pp.147-175
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• 2003

This study is primarily concerned with the criteria for choosing a legitimate state plaintiff in cases involving a states request to media for a right of reply. Interpretation of the right of reply itself is different from country to country because of different constitutional views and systems in each state. Unlike the United States, the constitution of the Republic of Korea does not expressly prohibit the making of laws adversely affecting freedom of the press. Accordingly, in Korea freedom of the press may be restricted through legislation within certain limits and the right of reply is not incompatible with the spirit of the constitution. An analysis of relevant law makes it clear that the particular agency aggrieved should initiate the suit rather than the Justice Minister. The idea that the Justice Minister should assume the role of plaintiff in all state cases seems to stem from flawed interpretations of provisions in the Law Governing Registration of Periodicals and the Law Governing Litigation Involving the State. Even though each state agency has the right of reply, it should be cautioned not to abuse it as the states frequent involvement in litigation may bring on unnecessary misunderstanding and have a chilling effect on the media. The right of reply does not always imply that a certain media report in question is wrong and the media should be sanctioned for it. The right of reply is basically intended to help the general public make an informed judgment on issues presented in the media and insure fairness and balance.