Namnamgaldŭng - Partisan Media Framing of Political Polarization in South Korea

Abstract

This article investigates how mass media in South Korea frame political polarization. As an extreme form of political conflict political polarization is characterized by antagonistic and divisive effects on politics and society. In South Korea, political polarization is not only negatively affecting its democracy in general but also inhibiting domestic consensus on rapprochement and reconciliation towards North Korea in particular. This is reflected in depicting political polarization as namnamgaldung or South-South conflict referring to two ''Souths'' - progressives and rightist-conservatives - polarized in their position regarding how to deal with North Korea. Based on the empirical analysis of newspaper editorials in 2016 this article argues that a partisan framing of South-South conflict in the media is contributing to what the term supposedly is purely describing - political polarization.