Who controls newspapers' political perspectives? Source transparency and affiliations in Korean news articles about US beef imports

By empirically investigating the political orientations of three conservative and two progressive newspapers in Korea, this study examined the source usage of these papers regarding the US beef imports issue. Results showed that while progressive newspapers took a more negative stance in reporting U...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian journal of communication 2010-12, Vol.20 (4), p.404-422
Main Authors: Lee, Gunho, Koh, Heungseok
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beef
Conservatism
conservative and progressive newspapers
Export-import trade
Journalism
Korea
Meat industry
Media
News
Political influences
political orientations
Progressivism
Right and Left
source affiliation
source transparency
South Korea
Transparency
U.S.A
United States
US beef imports
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Summary:By empirically investigating the political orientations of three conservative and two progressive newspapers in Korea, this study examined the source usage of these papers regarding the US beef imports issue. Results showed that while progressive newspapers took a more negative stance in reporting US beef imports than conservative ones, both papers together used sources that are more transparent more frequently compared to less transparent sources in order to build their political perspectives. At the same time, the information from more transparent sources was generally provided by more credible source categories in terms of source affiliations. These results imply that, regardless of political stances, Korean newspapers might have followed the journalistic norms that suggest using more transparent and credible sources than less transparent and credible ones. However, the authors also stress that conservative and progressive papers would have framed the story by purposely selecting favorable informants for their respective political stances, even if they originate from more transparent and credible sources, as ways of pushing for their own viewpoints.
ISSN:0129-2986
1742-0911
DOI:10.1080/01292986.2010.496859