A Comparative Analysis of South Korean Newspaper Coverage on Climate Change: Focusing on Conservative, Progressive, and Economic Newspapers

Abstract

This paper compares and analyzes the contents and sources of news articles on climate change in three major South Korean newspapers between 2007 and 2008. Chosunilbo, Hankyoreh, and Maeil Business were selected as subjects for this study because these three newspapers are representative of the conservative, progressive, and economic newspapers in South Korea, respectively. The key questions asked in this paper are as follows: 1) How do these selected newspapers portray climate change? 2) What kind of sources do they cite, and how do these sources differ? 3) What kind of solutions do the newspapers recommend in dealing with climate change? South Korean press has handled the climate change issue largely from a prognostic frame, placing emphasis on reports concerning policy determination and mitigation policies. The most frequently cited source in all the newspapers was the government. There were differences in the emphasis of each newspaper, however: The conservative newspaper and the business newspaper both supported the policy of sustaining capitalistic economic growth while maintaining existing economic and social structures. The progressive newspaper called for active reduction in the amount of GHG emissions and took a critical position on high-risk and big technologies such as nuclear power generation.