Social Media and South Korean National Security by Yongho Kim

Author:Yongho Kim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2017-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

Media Frames on Foreign and Security Issues

It is almost impossible to find an “unframed” story. Doris Graber defined the media frame as “reporting the news from a particular perspective so that some aspects of the situation come into close focus and others fade into the background,”13 while Shanto Iyengar defined it as “subtle alterations in the statement or presentation of judgment and choice problems.”14 By framing stories, the media define boundaries of debates by placing a certain case “within a certain sphere of meaning.”15 In doing so, the media influence the screening process of media users in which they perceive, understand and remember a certain incident, thereby affecting and guiding their judgment and responses.16 It is the media-generated version of a debate that draws attention from the public and confers legitimacy upon a particular aspect of reality while “marginalizing” other aspects.17

Robert Entman introduced the most conspicuous comparison of frames by illuminating the difference in American media’s frames over two similar incidents: the Soviet shooting down of Korean Air Lines flight 007, killing 269 passengers and crew on September 1, 1983, and USS Vincennes’ shooting down of Iran Air 655, killing 290 passengers and crew on July 3, 1988. The American media portrayed the former incident as “Murder in the Air,” “A Ruthless Ambush in the Sky,” “Shooting to Kill,” and “Atrocity in the Skies” while constructing a totally different frame for the latter incident by focusing on “Why It Happened” and “What Went Wrong in the Gulf.”18

The South Korean media has demonstrated similar trends. For example, report coverage of a sexual abuse case by a North Korean Olympic official participating in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics showed stark differences before and after the so-called submarine incident. When the North Korean official was charged for physically touching an American child, the South Korean media represented warm inter–Korean relations by employing a frame that molded a sympathetic atmosphere. The media highlighted the differences between American and Korean cultures.19 The Olympics took place roughly four months after Presidents Bill Clinton and Kim Young Sam had proposed the four-party talks in April 16, 1996, at Jeju Island. While the two countries expected North Korea’s participation in the four-party talks, North Korea’s participation in the Olympics could have led to improved inter–Korean and U.S.–North Korean relations.

Two months later when the North Korean official departed the United States in secret, the South Korean media constructed a frame criticizing the illegal departure and the sexually abusive behavior of the official.20 The change in frames was due to the inter–Korean tension heightened by a stranded North Korean infiltration submarine on the eastern coast in September. The South Korean military launched a massive operation searching for North Korean commandos. Sixteen South Korean soldiers were killed and inter–Korean relations became stalemated until North Korea apologized by expressing regrets.

The South Korean media has a strong tendency to portray dichotomous frames of two contrasting concepts: good and bad, conservative and liberal, young and old, rich and poor, ruling and opposition, pro–North Korean and anti–North Korean, protestors and police, or us and them.

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