Public Voices Muted in Economic News: A Content Analysis of Public and Elite Sources in South Korean Newspapers

Kanghui Baek,Na Yeon Lee

doi:10.1177/2158244020935097

Abstract

This study explores the extent to which public and elite sources are used in economic news. A content analysis of the economic coverage of three major South Korean national newspapers published between 1994 and 2014 found that elite sources were more prominent in South Korean economic news. More important, although public sources increased slightly in the economic news over three time periods (1994, 2004, and 2014) within a period of 20 years, they were still less common than elite sources in daily life–oriented economic news. This study suggests that the lack of coverage that cites public sources may not reflect the interests and perspectives of the general public (the nonelites).

Highlights

The voices that are presented in the news media are crucial channels of information for the public
This study examined the extent to which public and elite sources were used in economic news published by three South Korean newspapers in three time periods (1994, 2004, and 2014) within a period of 20 years
The difference in the use of elite sources was even greater between the same years (M = 1.39, SD = 0.84, in 2014; M = 1.03, SD = 0.43, in 1994). These results indicate the possibility that public voices provided by the media to readers—especially in the daily life– oriented economic issues on policy, such as employment and taxes, more or less increased within a period of 20 years, but those voices remained muted in South Korean economic news compared with the more frequent presence of elite sources

Summary

Introduction

The voices that are presented in the news media are crucial channels of information for the public. Research on source selection has found that news coverage of economic business and finance overwhelmingly favors elite or institutional sources in general to the exclusion of public sources, including, for example, ordinary citizens and leaders of civic organizations (Davis, 2000, 2005; Doyle, 2006; Knowles et al, 2017; Strauß, 2019; Thompson, 2013). This practice of source usage in economic journalism may result in a “self-referential” information system that relies heavily on small and privileged elite sources (Strauß, 2019). Advancing that line of research and supplementing an empirical evidence concerning source selection in economic news, this study explores the use of public and elite sources

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Conclusion