No abstract

This study examines how shame, a psychological mechanism suppressing the violation of social norms, is reflected in the news. The results of a content analysis of the South Korean ferry disaster news stories demonstrate that shaming wrongdoers commonly appears in the news stories exposing wrongdoings. It is shown that the news media shame more often when the wrongdoings are confirmed, described in detail, their negative influences are mentioned, or punishment for them is expected. Anger against wrongdoers was the emotion most closely linked to shaming. Our results also demonstrate that shaming is more frequently activated in the Internet media. Especially, vicarious shame felt by some Koreans about other Koreans’ wrongdoings often showed up in the Korean news. Our results provide evidence that vicarious shame and its elements, like guilt, reappear intact in the news. Overall, we suggest that, through the functions of shame, wrongdoings are exposed; identity image of wrongdoers is degraded; lessons about norms are given; mediated scandals are mass-consumed; and, therefore, some of the ethical and commercial characteristics of the news are formed.

A content analysis of coverage of a Korean public health crisis from September 1999 to December 2000 explored four hypotheses regarding how major social actors were depicted within two national newspapers, Chosun Ilbo, a conservative daily, and Hankyoreh, a more liberal, youthoriented daily. The findings failed to support any of the four hypotheses. The coverage of major actors tended to range from unfavorable in Hankyoreh to equivocal in Chosun Ilbo. The study suggests that (1) the depiction of social actors was different between leading Korean news organizations and (2) a one-dimensional, broad characterization of the Korean news media's alleged biases over time was difficult to validate. The study also implies that a tendency to uniformly characterize the depiction of social actors by all national news organizations is difficult in Korea and, perhaps, in similar cultural contexts.

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This case study explores why South Korean journalists overlooked allegations of scientific misconduct against South Korean scientist Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and even indirectly defended him in 2005—6. Nineteen journalists, who covered Hwang’s story for five of South Korea’s leading daily newspapers, were interviewed. The interviewees added insights about the news coverage of the Hwang scandal not identified in previous literature, such as the difficulties among journalists to suspend their personal disbelief about the criticisms and evidence against Hwang. The findings suggest the news judgments that occurred in Korean newsrooms during the Hwang scandal reflected a socially constructed process of negotiation among news media professionals and between journalists and scientists. The findings also suggest it may be best to consider journalistic mores within a multidimensional framework that includes journalistic perceptions of socio-cultural norms, internal newsroom standards for evidence, newsroom competence and training, normative journalism ethics, news gathering techniques, perceived dissonance and professed risk avoidance.