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COLUMN
The Meaning of the G20
Seoul Summit 2010
COVER STORY
Korean Media Overview
General Trends in the Korean Press in 2010
Overview of Korean Broadcasting
Landscape of New Media Industry in Korea
A History of Koreas Media
Korean Media List
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Tendentiousness of Korean Journalismand the Problem of the Distinction between
Facts and Opinions
A Study on Press Arbitration System in South Korea :Focusing on its Functions of Conflict Resolution
and Reinforcing the Role of Mediation
ISSN 1976-1686
Volume. 42010 no.2
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[ Column _The Meaning of the G20 Seoul Summit 2010 ]- Bae In-joon
[ Cover Story_ Korean Media Overview ]
General Trends in the Korean Press in 2010
- Shim Jae-chul
Overview of Korean Broadcasting
- Yoon Suk-nyoon
Landscape of New Media Industry in Korea
- Hwang Yong-suk
A History of Koreas Media
- Chong Chin-Sok
Korean Media List
[ Research Articles ]
Tendentiousness of Korean Journalism and the Problem of
the Distinction between Facts and Opinions
- Rhee June-woong
A Study on Press Arbitration System in South Korea
: Focusing on its Functions of Conflict Resolution and Reinforcing the Role of Mediation
- Kim Yung-wook
[ Reports ]
Comparison Analysis of News Coverage Attitudes
of Domestic and Foreign Media toward the Korean Economy
- Ban Hyun
Latest Key Issues surrounding North Korea
- Chang, Dong-woo
Korea-EU Journalist Seminar
- Jung Eun-joo
14
8
20
27
43
52
71
98
128
135
Volume. 42010. no.2
contents
3
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2 Korea Journalism Review
COLUMN
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3Volume. 4 2010 no.2
COLUMN
The Meaning of theG20 Seoul Summit 2010
Bae In-joonExecutive Editor, The Dong-A Ilbo
Existing international groups the G7 and its expanded version, the G8 (with Russia
as a new member) tried to tackle global issues such as the nancial crisis, but quickly faced
serious limitations. The G20 summit was created in 2008 largely because the United Statesand other industrialized nations finally acknowledged the drastically changed reality. The
bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 sent an un-
precedented shock throughout the economic and nancial sectors across the globe, prompt-
ing the formation of the G20 summit.
The rst four G20 summits were held in G7 countries: the United States, Britain and
Canada. The rst meeting took place in Washington D.C. of the United States in November
2008, right after the global financial crisis broke out. The second conference was held in
London, Britain, while the third and fourth took place in Pittsburgh, in the United States,
and Toronto, Canada.South Korea is one of the 12 emerging economies that were included in the Group
of 20. Koreas hosting of the G20 summit in November 2010 is a striking symbol that the
emerging economies are no longer playing second fiddle. The Seoul G20 Summit is now
expected to highlight that the group embraces not only the G7 and the EU but also the 12
emerging economies.
Before the G20 summit was rst held in 2008, some members of the G7 claimed that
20 member nations for the group is too many, expressing their intention to exclude Korea
and other countries. But elitism and exclusivism are anachronistic, and much less helpful for
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5Volume. 4 2010 no.2
North Korean people to crushing poverty and starvation.
In contrast, South Korea has pulled off industrialization and democratization on the
principles of free democracy, market economy and free trade. This success is a rare miracle,
and almost unheard of among the countries that had formerly been colonized by imperialist
nations. About a century ago, the Western people described Korea as a nation of no hope.
But South Korea overcame the Japanese colonial period, the division into two nations, pov-
erty and the destruction of the Korean War to become a nation of prosperity and wealth.
South Korea is now a model country for many developing countries which want to pull
themselves out of poverty.
Many foreigners are aware of the modern history concerning Korea. The Madrid Club,
a group of former government heads and administrative chiefs, held a meeting in Seoul on
September 1-2, 2010, and adopted a statement saying that Koreas experience in economic
growth will be a useful reference for developing nations which plan to map out their devel-
opment strategy.
Koreans take pride in the rapid economic growth dubbed the Miracle of the Han
River, as well as in the countrys time-honored spiritual and cultural heritage. Under the
nations founding myth, Korea was founded 4,300 years ago by Dangun. And during the Jo-
seon Dynasty, which preceded modern Korea, King Sejong invented Hangul, a unique writ-
ing system, in 1446. Hangul is a scientic, expressive and beautiful writing system. The Jo-
seon Dynasty also exhibited a high level of science and technology around the 15th century,
which is a historical fact often cited by Koreans as a proud achievement. From ancient times,
Koreans have valued courtesy, academic endeavor and spiritual culture. Nobel prize winnerand Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore called Korea the Lamp of the East, and China re-
ferred to Korea as the Courteous Country of the East. After all, Korea and Koreans did
not spring out of barbarity into civilization overnight.
The Korean Peninsula, with its rich history of civilization and culture, has two political
systems: One in the South is prospering, and the other in the North is stuck in abnormality.
The main reason is their different political systems. If North Korea gives up on its outdated
communism and hereditary monarchy, and integrates into South Koreas liberal democracy,
the Korean Peninsula will once again serve as a region contributing to the peace and pros-
perity of the world. I sincerely hope presidents and top policymakers attending the SeoulG20 Summit have a deeper understanding of Korea and the Korean Peninsula.
Nothing is more important than hosting the Seoul G20 Summit successfully. As host,
Korea should exercise its leadership and coordination skills in setting the agenda for the
members. Deputy nance ministers and deputy governors of central governments got to-
gether in Seoul on September 4-5 to check out the key agenda for the G20 summit in No-
vember. At that meeting, participants discussed the G20 framework for a sustainable and
balanced growth and possible ways to reform the international nancial institutions and set
up a nancial safety net. The topics will be reviewed and elaborated further at the G20 Fi-
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6 Korea Journalism Review
COLUMN
nance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting to be held October 22-23. And the
topics are likely to be utilized for the Seoul G20 Summit, slated for November 11-12. The
nal agendas are expected to be nalized within October.
Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, visited South Korea in
early September to discuss the Seoul G20 Summit agenda. WTO is scheduled to report the
progress of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) to top policymakers at the summit.
G20 summits are primarily used as a venue for discussing pending economic challenges,
but the scope of discussion is now expanding into politics and security issues. The Seoul
G20 Summit, I hope, will contribute to promoting peace in Northeast Asia and the Korean
Peninsula. For the summit meeting to become a key vehicle for exploring global agendas,
not only the economy but also other issues such as politics and security should be discussed
at the meeting. Furthermore, a new proposal about the future of the G20 summit should be
made so that it can move forward on a fresh impetus after the Seoul meeting.
However, it remains unclear whether the G20 summit can produce a consensus about
issues that require international cooperation in the aftermath of the latest nancial crisis. If
the G20 summit continues, the participating countries should feel the need for it together
while taking steps not to sideline other non-member countries. The combined economic
power of the G20 members accounts for more than 85 percent of the global GDP, but the
number of countries outside the G20 but included in the United Nations is 172. Korea,
which hosts the forthcoming G20 summit, should make efforts to reect the positions of
other developing and poverty-stricken nations as a country that is in a transition from a de-
veloping nation into an advanced one.Equally important is consensus-building about the agendas at the summit. As the 20
member nations have different views due to the complicated conict of interest, an agree-
ment requires a fairly high level of diplomacy of the hosting country.
If a Seoul Initiative or Seoul Agenda is to be announced after the participants work out
all the obstacles and take productive measures, the summit will be surely deemed an initial
success. A Seoul Initiative or Seoul Agenda would set a new milestone for the global econ-
omy, Koreas national status and brand value will also get a signicant boost. For Korea, the
summit will provide a great opportunity to change Korea Discount, a negative image linked
to the security factor of North Korea, into Korea Premium. Therefore, Korea is in no po-sition to forgo this make-or-break chance.
Some of the various topics to be discussed at the summit could use Koreas unique
experience. For instance, the stake repositioning in the International Monetary Fund is a
tricky issue that involves the conict of interest among the participating countries, but Ko-
rea might be able to suggest a compromise that meets the demands of both the advanced
and developing nations. Setting up a nancial safety net is also an issue that can incorporate
Koreas experience in overcoming the 1997 nancial crisis in a short period of time. Koreas
success story can be fodder for inspiration when it comes to the economic development
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7Volume. 4 2010 no.2
of developing and other poverty-stricken nations. Korea is the one and only country in the
world which has shifted from a country receiving aid to a country offering aid. In this re-
gard, Korea will be able to provide a model of self-reliance instead of a simple aid model
without hurting the pride of other developing countries.
Another essential element for the success of the Seoul G20 Summit is to ensure secu-
rity. There are many international conferences marred by illegal rallies or cyber-terrorism.
The third World Trade Organization ministerial meeting held in Seattle is remembered as an
infamous event, as it was seriously undermined by a large group of demonstrators. The G8
summit was held in Genoa, Italy, in 2001, but the meeting suffered seriously as more than
150,000 anti-globalization demonstrators staged strong protest rallies. The 2003 World Trade
Organization ministerial meeting was also canceled as a Korean farmer and activist commit-
ted suicide in protest of the opening of the farming industry.
It is feared that anti-globalization activists are likely to stage illegal rallies at the Seoul
G20 Summit in November. Illegal and violent demonstrations could derail Koreas efforts to
upgrade its international status and national brand image. In a worst-case scenario, such neg-
ative development could hurt the countrys overall image. The Korean government should
take every measure against illegal demonstrators and cyber terrorists by working closely with
the immigration department and related authorities. Close cooperation with other countries
to prevent terrorism is also in order.
In consideration of the risk factors, the Seoul G20 Summit is no blessing. A closer look
at the details of the event shows that the summit meeting is a burden and obligation at a
national level. Although the summit does not require investment in new stadiums like theOlympics and World Cup nals, Korea could lose a lot if the event turns out to be a failure.
But we do not need to worry too much. I strongly believe that Korea will focus its national
resources effectively and pull off a successful hosting of the summit.
I recommend that heads of state and rst ladies of the G20, as well as other partici-
pants enjoy the beautiful autumn of Korea and visit a number of places where the countrys
time-honored tradition and culture are well preserved. I also recommend traditional Korean
cuisine, which will certainly provide an once-in-a-lifetime experience to the G20 participants.
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9Volume. 4 2010 no.2
became democratized after the Peoples
Power of 1987, the National Assembly has
amended the media law several times and
attempted to tear down the wall that had
blocked many media groups from entering
the television industry. Finally, the Grand
National Party has proposed a new law to
allow more competition in the media indus-
try in 2009, and the current Lee Myung-bak
Administration implemented a new media
policy to support Korean media groups to
have global competitive advantage.
After Korean mass media were merged
and consolidated pursuant to the Basic Press
Law, only 25 daily newspapers remained in
South Korea in the 1980s. Among them, six
newspaper companies were located in the
Seoul metropolitan area and they were dis-
tributed nationwide. Their circulation size
was about 700,000 copies each.
Approximately 30 years later, more than
100 dailies are published across the countryin South Korea. The so-called Big Three
newspapers, including the Dong-A, Chosun,
andJoongAng dailies, claim to publish over
two million copy each daily. Nevertheless,
the total household subscription rate of the
Korean newspapers has dropped almost
half over the last 10 years. More than 10
dailies around the Seoul metropolitan area
are currently circulated nationwide while thenewspaper circulation has decreased across
the nation. Seven economic and financial
dailies are published in South Korea, indi-
cating that economic and business newspa-
pers are ourishing in the country, especially
through and after the Asian nancial crisis
of 1997.
For the last 30 years, the Korean press has
been democratized, while the competition
in the newspaper industry for survival has
become keen and severe. They are attempt-
ing to overcome this sort of prot-declining
crisis and adjust to the new media environ-
ment in the open and capitalistic society.
The Korean press has certainly entered the
multi-media era in which media convergence
has been technologically feasible.
This article will review and highlight cur-
rent issues and recent developments of the
Korean press in 2010.
1. Act for Guarantee of Freedom
and Functions of Newspapers
(the new Law on Newspapers)
After the amended Law on Newspapers was
passed by the National Assembly in June
2010, license guidelines for selecting new
comprehensive-program and all-news Cable-TV channels have been prepared through
debates in various public forums. On Sep-
tember 17 of this year, the Korea Com-
munications Commission (KCC) approved
the basic plan for the selection guidelines of
cross-media ownership. Detailed guidelines
for selecting comprehensive programming
and all-news Cable-TV channels will be
finalized following November this year. Ifthe guidelines are smoothly implemented
and the interested stakeholders and media
groups accept those guidelines, the KCC
will choose a number of newspaper com-
panies and grant them licenses to launch
comprehensive programming and all-news
digital TV channels. Further, the new Law
on Newspapers has abolished the ban that
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10 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
prevents the cross ownership of newspaper,
news wire and broadcasting companies in
terms of share and stake purchase.
However, there have been various spec-
ulations that the government does not
have a strong volition to implement this
law and thus will not make a final deci-
sion on the final winners of the license.
As a matter of fact, there has been a delay
even in implementing the new media law.
The KCC has been slow in this process
of selecting the possible beneciaries of
business licenses.It is widely known that such ve major
newspaper companies as Dong-A Ilbo,
Chosunilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, Maeil Business
Newspaper and Korea Economic Dailywill
apply for the licenses. The KCC appears
to be straddling the fence, most likely be-
cause the government needs to deal with
those newspapers appropriately.
These newspaper groups have wagedaggressive campaigns to win the licenses
for the sake of their survival in the media
market. Because of this keen competi-
tion, the KCC seemed to have decided to
employ the approach of absolute evalu-
ation, which means that every candidate
who meets the requirements can qualify
for the license for cross-media ownership.
By this logic, it is also possible that theKorea Communications Committee may
not grant joint ownership to any news-
paper companies by arguing that they are
not able to meet the absolute guidelines.
The following question is thus left to be
resolved: what are the criteria for the ab-
solute evaluation guidelines?
The policy objective for granting the
joint-ownership license to newspapers
companies for the comprehensive pro-
gramming channels has been to promote
the content industry in order to make the
Korea media group globally competitive
and to help the society more free and
open to the diverse opinions in the public
sphere. It remains to be seen whether the
KCC will achieve these police objectives
by allowing the newspaper companies to
start comprehensive-program digital TV
stations.
2. The New Requirement of the
Audit Bureau of Circulations
Verification for Government
Advertising in Newspapers and
Magazines
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) of
South Korea is a circulation-auditing organi-zation. It audits circulation, readership, and
audience information for newspapers, mag-
azines, and other publications publicized by
its members. The ABC provides credible,
verified information critical to the media
buying and selling process by conducting
independent, third-party audits of print
circulation, readership and Website traffic
activity.Historically, Korean newspaper companies
have not participated in the ABC verifica-
tion of their readership size. Accordingly,
there was no way of exactly knowing about
how many copies they print each day and
what percentage of them are paid-circula-
tion.
The Lee Myung-bak Administration an-
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11Volume. 4 2010 no.2
nounced last year that newspaper companies
must become members of the ABC and
report their circulation size to the ABC in
order to secure government advertising in
their publications.
This directive issued by the Prime Minis-
ter on October 6, 2009 became effective in
January 2010. Due to this new requirement,
newspaper companies have joined the ABC
verication of their circulation size. In 2009,
among 238 members only six newspapers
including the JoongBu Maeil, Jeonbuk Ilbo,
Nongmin Shinmun, Metro,AM7and joined
the verification process. Further, 23 maga-
zine companies also joined the verification
process last year.
This figure has increased significantly
to 208 newspapers this year. In 2010, the
number of newspapers which have joined
the ABC verication includes 97 dailies and
111 weeklies. Among them, 33 newspapers
including economic and business dailies aredistributed nationwide and 58 dailies are
distributed in the local and regional commu-
nity. Six dailies have been distributed free of
charge in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Yet there have been unresolved issues
regarding the ABC new standards of paid
subscriptions. The ABCs new amendment
denes paid-newspapers as those subscrip-
tions requiring 50% of the monthly priceof subscription. Previously, if the paid sub-
scriptions were 80% of the monthly price,
then they were recognized as paid-newspa-
pers. The ABC argued that the new rate of
paid subscription must be lowered since the
general public tends to read the newspapers
based on bargain prices due to the aggres-
sive marketing of newspaper companies.
Local sellers of newspapers also operate
independently from the newspaper compa-
nies and they offer discount prices for new
subscriptions.
3. The Recovery of Newspaper
Readership and Advertising
Revenue
Amid sweeping structural changes within
the print media industry, the overall media
environment has grown unfavorable to the
off-line newspaper sector. The rapid rise of
other media outlets such as the internet and
mobile phone has reduced the profit mar-
gins of the print media. In order to survive,
this nearly antiquated medium must com-
pete with new media to secure the media
users attention and advertising revenues.
A biannual survey in 2008 by the Korea
Press Foundation revealed that only 36.8%of Korean households subscribed to newspa-
pers, evidencing a continuous drop. The Ko-
rean households newspaper subscription was
69.3% in 1996, just one year before the Asian
nancial crisis. Since then, this rate has been
continuously dropped to 36.8% in 2008.
This years subscription has not yet been
compiled by the Foundation.
As the statistics indicate in Table 1, how-ever, the rate dropped continuously from
69.3% in 1996 to 52.9% in 2002 and to 40%
in 2006. In particular, subscription rates for
the younger generation have declined sig-
nicantly; only 25% of readers in their 20s
and 29% of those in their 30s subscribe to
newspapers these days.
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12 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
Table 1 : The Decline of Newspaper Subscriptions in South Korea
Year 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Subscription Rate (%) 69.3 64.5 59.8 52.9 48.3 40.0 36.8
*Source: Korea Press Foundation
The newspaper industry is facing a deep-
ening crisis at the sales level as well. In
2009, advertising revenues for newspapers
dropped by 9.5% to 1.50 trillion Korean
won from the year before. In 2008, advertis-
ing revenues was 1.66 trillion won, indicat-
ing a 6.9% drop from 1.78 trillion won in
2007. The advertising figure of 2010 has
not been reported yet.
Nevertheless, the Korean economy is
recovering rapidly from the recent global
recession in 2008 and followed by increased
advertising revenues for newspapers. One
of the surprises in the Korean newspaper
industry is the fact that none of the major
dailies have gone bankrupt thus far, although
the nation went through several times of sig-nicant economic troubles. More to it, cable
TV networks and online media experienced
a noticeable growth in their advertising rev-
enues while the world suffered from the Wall
Street-led economic downturn.
4. Law on Supporting the
Development of LocalNewspapers
This special law effective for limited time
has supported the local newspapers, which
would have gone down if they had not re-
ceived outside aids. The National Assembly
extended the effectiveness of this law until
the end of 2016. Since this law was tempo-
rary, it would have terminated on June 10,
2010 if there were no extension. Locality
is one of the important characteristics in
the diversity of news and public opinions.
This law aims to provide local newspapers
with financial relief through various indi-
rect measures including upgrades of gate-
keeping and news production. It also offers
local journalists an opportunity to improve
their professionalism through educational
programs, as much as help them to adjust to
the new technological media environment.
Meanwhile, the members of the Committee
for the Development of Local Newspapers
have completed their second terms, and the
new members will handle the third term of
the Committee.
5. Korean newspapers
development of the Online News
Applications for Smart Phones
The Korea Online Newspaper Association
(KONA) began providing its own portal
news to smart phones and has made its ap-plication available to the Galaxy S smart
phones since May 28, 2010.
The Galaxy S, a new mobile product from
Samsung Electronics, has competed with
the Apples iPhone. As a kind of old media,
Korean newspapers admit that they have
been losing their battle with portal news
sites powerlessly for the last 10 years.
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13Volume. 4 2010 no.2
When the new smart phone was intro-
duced to the market, they became vigilant
and paid special attention to the new media
development. In keeping this point in mind,
the KONA has developed the news applica-
tion for smart phones called On News and
made it pre-installed in the basic application
menu of the Galaxy S.
The KONA members are the dot.com
companies of the following off-line newspa-
pers: The Kyunghyang Daily News, Kukmin
Daily Newspaper, Dong-A Ilbo, Maeil Busi-
ness Newspaper, Seoul Shinmun, Segye Times,
Chosunilbo, JoongAng Ilbo , Electronic Times,
Hankook Ilbo, Hankyoreh, and Korea Eco-
nomic Daily.These dot.com companies have
not been successful in competing with news
portal companies such as Daum, Google,
Naver, and Yahoo. These daily newspapers
are attempting to charge small fees for the
users of the On News application. Never-
theless, it is not certain whether this busi-ness model of On News will be successful
in the smart phone market.
CONCLUSION AND
SUGGESTIONS
The year of 2010 has been special to the
Korean people. It has been one hundredyears since Japan colonized Chosun, the
Yi dynasty of Korea. This year is also the
sixtieth anniversary of the outbreak of the
Korean War in 1950. As noted in the intro-
duction of this article, 30 years have passed
since the new military government passed
the Basic Press Law and set up the barriers
separating the media industry sectors from
each other. Since then, both Korean daily
newspapers and broadcasting companies
have grown tremendously, in tune with the
fast development of the Korean economy
for the last 30 years.
During this 30-year period, the Republic
of Korea has experienced two periods of
economic downturn. The rst was the Asian
nancial crisis in 1997; the second, the Wall
Street-led global recession in 2008. South
Korea has been successfully overcoming
these economic hardships. Meanwhile, the
Korean newspaper industry has stagnated
and its profit margin dropped significantly.
Its business loss will be larger than any oth-
er sector of the Korean economy. Never-
theless, there appear to be positive signs that
Korean newspaper industry is recoveringwith higher advertising revenues and getting
ready to ght back in the new media envi-
ronment. As the barriers are abolished in
Korean media industry, Korean newspapers
will find new avenues for advancements.
They hope to flourish again by adjusting
to the new media environment. Thus, right
now, many stakeholders are vigilantly watch-
ing the nal result of the battle for obtain-ing the joint ownership license of the com-
prehensive programming digital channels.
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14 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
Overview of Korean Broadcasting
Yoon Suk-nyoon
1. Current Korean Broadcasting
Environment
The Korean broadcast ing indust ry has
confronted new challenges after the new
government was launched in 2008. The new
government established the Korean Com-
munications Commission (KCC) to regulate
the both broadcasting and telecommunica-tion fields, after simultaneously abolish-
ing the Korean Broadcasting Commission
(KBC) and the Ministry of Information and
Communication.
The new government initiated the reorga-
nization of the government agency respon-
sible for broadcasting and communications
policies and regulations, recognizing the fact
that the boundary between the broadcast-ing and communications sector had been
blurred. The KCC allowed newspaper busi-
nesses can own broadcasting companies,
and also opened the broadcasting industry
to the conglomerates and foreign enter-
prises to strengthen the global competitive-
ness of Korean broadcasting industry. The
Korean National Assembly amended the
broadcasting and newspaper act in July 2009
to allow new capital and businesses to en-
ter the broadcasting industry. The Korean
broadcasting industry has become a very
competitive market after the amendment of
the regulation.
In 2008 and 2009, the Korean broadcast-
ing industry suffered from the global eco-
nomic crisis and its revenues and profitsdecreased sharply. Many broadcasting com-
panies recorded losses.
The Korean broadcasting industry pro-
vides various services including terrestrial
broadcasting. Each broadcasting sector has
secured enough subscribers and they strive
to achieve more penetration by providing
good quality contents.
1) Terrestrial Broadcasting
The Korean television broadcasting sys-
tem has maintained multiple public broad-
casting companies and one private company
since 1987. There are 24 public television
Yoon Suk-nyoon
professor, Department of Mass communication, Gwangju University
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15Volume. 4 2010 no.2
stations, including KBS, MBC, EBS and
local networks. In the private sector, there
are 15 local TV stations including SBS, and
many specialized broadcasting stations in-
cluding religious and transportation stations.
The total revenue of the Korean terrestrial
broadcasting stations was $2.85 billion in
2009. Its total number of employees was
about 13,800.
Korean Broadcasting System (KBS),
wh ich is Koreas representative public
broadcasting system, received the call sign
HLKA from ITU in 1947 after liberation
from Japan. KBS has been growing since its
conversion to the public broadcasting sys-
tem in 1973. Now KBS operates 2 terrestrial
TV channels and 1 satellite TV channel, and
7 radio channels. It also operates 4 terres-
trial DMB channels. The revenues from this
in 2009 were $1.15 billion, and the number
related employees is about 5,200. KBS also
owns and operates 18 local networks, and5 cable program providers. The president
of KBS is selected from the 11 committee
members whom are appointed by the Na-
tional Assembly. The terms of the president
and committee members are 3 years. Anoth-
er public broadcasting system for education
is EBS (Korea Educational Broadcasting
System). In 2009, EBS operated 1 terrestrial
TV channel and 2 satellite TV channels and1 radio channel. EBS also operates 1 terres-
trial DMB channel.
MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corpora-
tion) is a different type of public broadcast-
ing station. As of 2009, MBC operates 1
terrestrial TV channel and 3 radio channels.
MBC also operates 2 terrestrial DMB chan-
nels and 1 satellite DMB channel. The rev-
enues in 2009 totaled $560 million. If MBC
includes its 19 local networks revenues, the
revenues increased to $860 million. The
number of employees is about 3,100 includ-
ing local networks. MBC also owns and
operates 5 cable program providers and 4
subsidiary companies. The president is ap-
pointed by 9 committee members whom
are selected by the National Assembly.
The terms of the president and committee
members are 3 years, the same as KBS.
SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) is a
private terrestrial broadcasting system and
2010 is its 20thanniversary year. As of 2009,
SBS operates one terrestrial TV channel
and one radio channel, and also has 9 local
networks. The revenues in 2009 were $480
million. The number of employees is about
850. SBS also owns and operates 6 cable
program providers and 8 subsidiary compa-
nies. The biggest shareholder is SBS Hold-
ings.The other broadcaster is iTV/FM, an
independent private network covering
Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.
The terrestrial broadcasting systems
broadcast 19 hours per day on weekdays,
and 20 hours per day on weekends. The
viewer shares of the all terrestrial broadcast
programs total 56%, and this percentage are
decreasing every year. Because of the rapiddevelopments of paid broadcasting services,
terrestrial broadcasting systems position
is threatened. The terrestrial broadcasting
companies are trying to finish the transfer
to digital broadcasting by December 2012.
2) Cable Broadcasting
Cable television services started in 1995.
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16 Korea Journalism Review
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Cable broadcasting is provided to 15 million
homes in 2009 in Korea. The penetration is
not competitive with any other broadcasting
service sector. The number of digital cable
subscribers reached 3 million in early 2010.
In the early period of cable broadcasting
the businesses struggled to gain subscribers
because of the competition from the relay
operators (RO). However, after the lifting
the regulations in 1999, the number of sub-
scribers has increased explosively over the
last 10 years. The lifting of the regulations
allowed the vertical integration of system
operators (SO) and program providers (PP),
and also allowed horizontal integration be-
tween PPs and MPPs (multiple program
providers). MPPs and MSOs are integrated
to MSPs to control the cable industry. CJ
Media is an example of a huge MSP in the
cable industry.
Five to six MSOs control the cable indus-
try including T-Broad, which owns morethan 20 SOs. There are 103 SOs and over
200 PPs in Korea. Cable System Opera-
tors (SO) are divided into 77 areas and they
provide triple-play services (TPS): broad-
casting, Internet, and VoIP services. Cable
SOs compete ercely with IPTV to provide
bundled service discounts. Digital cable
service enlarges their paid service fields to
VOD and data broadcasting, too.The SO and PPs total revenues in 2009
exceeded the revenues of terrestrial broad-
casting companies. The revenues showed
the high status of the cable companies in
Koreas contemporary broadcasting indus-
try. The size of the cable industry is ap-
proximately $2.93 billion. If home shopping
channels revenues are included, the cable
industry revenues increased to $4.4 billion
in 2009. The number of employees in SO
is about 5,300, PP is approximately 5,800,
and home shopping channels is about 3,300.
The total program share of the cable chan-
nels have increased every year, and are set to
exceed the shares of the terrestrial broad-
casting channels in near future. Superstar
K2, the latest popular program from the
Mnet cable channel, garnered a viewer share
of 14% in September 2010. This was a new
record in cable channel history, and is one
example of the popularity of cable chan-
nels.
3) Satellite Broadcasting
Satellite broadcasting service started in
Korea in 2002 with a single consortium.
They had struggled to attract subscribers
in the early days because of the insufcient
participation of the terrestrial broadcasting
channels and program providers. However,they provided digital broadcasting services
and the service became known to every-
body, and they gained many subscribers.
Since 2006 they have gained more than 2
million subscribers, and the satellite broad-
casting system has spread to people who
live in island and mountain areas. In many
of those areas, cable and terrestrial broad-
casting services are not available becauseof the geographical barriers. There are 2.5
million satellite broadcasting subscribers
as of March 2010. The revenues in 2009
were $340 million, and they have enjoyed
a surplus every year since 2006. With this
level of subscribers and revenues they can
survive in the paid broadcasting industry.
They have increased the number of HD
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17Volume. 4 2010 no.2
channels since 2008, and will provide 72
HD channels by the end of 2010. They
have VOD and data broadcasting services,
too. The growth of digital cable penetration
in rural areas is slow, and satellite broadcast-
ing targets a niche market by providing HD
channels in rural areas. They also provide
a 3D-only channel too. By providing these
differentiated services they enhance their
image in Koreas paid broadcasting market.
4) Digital Multimedia Broadcasting
SK Telecom and a Japanese joint venture
company launched satellite DMB (Digital
Multimedia Broadcasting) service in May
2005. Satellite DMB is a type of mobile
broadcasting service which is broadcast to
mobile devices such as mobile phones, car
navigation systems, and PMPs. Paid sub-
scribers can receive one premium channel,
25 video channels and 16 audio channels.
Even though they have secured more than2 million paid subscribers they have still
struggled with large decits.
Regular terrestrial DMB services were
launched in the Metropolitan area in De-
cember 2005. The existing terrestrial
broadcasting companies (KBS, MBC, SBS)
provide 3 channels and the remaining 3
channels were assigned to the new entrants.
The broadcasting areas are divided into 6local areas, and 3 terrestrial broadcasting
companies can provide DMB services in
each area except Seoul and its surrounding
area. Since then, the service has expanded
rapidly based on being free of charge and
the provision of handsets bundled with
mobile communications services, reaching
21,553,000 in cumulative sales by the second
quarter of 2009. There are no subscription
fees with terrestrial DMB. Revenue sources
come from commercials only. With this
profit structure all terrestrial DMB service
providers have recorded a loss every year
since launching the service. The commercial
revenues have not met the DMB service
companies expectations.
The KCC has prepared various regulatory
plans, such as a transition to paid services
and DMB 2.0. However, such attempts have
not worked so far. The possibility of prot
does not seem high enough compared to
the prevalence of DMB devices.
5) IPTV
With the enforcement of the IPTV Busi-
ness Act by the National Assembly in April
2008, a systematic basis for the commer-
cialization of IPTV was established. Subse-
quently, in November 2008, the era of IPTV
began as KT transmitted real time broad-casting through IPTV for the first time in
Korea. SK Broadband and LG Dacom also
started to provide real-time IPTV services
in January 2009.
The average number of IPTV channels is
84 as of 2009, and IPTV operators provide
various specialized channels such as educa-
tion, health, tourism and military channels.
With the entering of the big 3 telecom-munication companies to the broadcasting
industry the existing paid broadcasting com-
panies can confront extreme competition
with IPTVs.
Both cable and IPTV companies compete
to provide various bundled services, such as
triple play services.
The number of Korean households that
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18 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
subscribe to IPTV exceeded 2.4 million as
of September 2010, including VOD based
IPTV subscribers. The fact that the number
of subscribers surpassed 2 million meant
that IPTV has settled down quickly as a new
platform, and the convergence of broad-
casting and communication brought some
results in real terms.
6) Internet and Smartphone Service
Koreas high speed Internet service is
known as the best in the world. There were
more than 16 million high-speed Internet
subscribers as of 2009. The high speed In-
ternet penetration percentage is 85%. Even
the number of high speed mobile Internet
(WiBro) subscribers exceeded 310,000.
Lately mobile Internet service areas (WiFi
Zones) have been expanded to provide the
people with mobile Internet services. KT
and SK Telecom increase the mobile Inter-
net service area with fast speed.With the introduction of the iPhone at
the end of 2009 the smartphone industry
has exploded, with an expected 6 million
subscribers in less than a year. This figure
means that 15% of all mobile phone sub-
scribers are smartphone users. Thousands
of smartphone applications have been de-
veloped in the domestic smartphone market.
And many experts expect the smartphonewill dominate the mobile phone industry in
the near future.
2. The Future of Korean
Broadcasting Industry
The Korean broadcasting industry con-
fronted a new environment in 2009. The
terrestrial broadcasting companies cannot
maintain their dominant positions. Instead,
other paid broadcasting sectors have en-
larged their power in the industry, including
cable TV, satellite TV, and IPTV. Countless
broadcasting platforms and multi-channels
have emerged with rapid development of
broadcasting technology. However, the ad-
vertisement revenues for the broadcasting
industry have not grown to level expected
by the industry. The Korean National As-
sembly passed media related acts in July
2009 that could shake the all sectors of
Korean broadcasting. Newspaper compa-
nies can now own broadcasting companies,
which was strictly prohibited before. Korean
broadcasting markets are even open to the
conglomerates and foreign capital, and ver-
tical and horizontal integration is possible
after the new broadcasting acts.
In 2010 the broadcasting industry in Ko-rea is experiencing a continued reshuffle
in various sectors. For example, telecom-
munications companies, conglomerates,
newspaper companies, and foreign capital
can enter the broadcasting industry. M&As
between media companies, the introduction
of media-reps to the advertising sector, and
the advent of general PP channels and news
PP channels will accelerate the change ofKoreas broadcasting industry in 2010. The
existing terrestrial broadcasting companies
and new companies will enter extreme com-
petition for viewers and subscribers.
Exports of Korean broadcasting pro-
grams have shrunk since 2007. The exports
revenue of Korean contents have stopped
at $100 million. The related departments
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19Volume. 4 2010 no.2
expect a repetition of the Korean Wave, but
a regain of the popularity of Korean broad-
casting contents overseas does not seem
easy with the slump in domestic broadcast-
ing industries. With this in mind the KCC
and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tour-
ism are preparing various plans to support
the broadcasting, gaming, animation, movie
and K-POP industries gain global competi-
tive power.
Many broadcasting advertising regula-
tions have been alleviated to strengthen
the competitive power in the broadcasting
contents industry. Indirect advertisements
such as PPL and virtual advertisements are
allowed in broadcasting programs. The ad-
vent of new media reps will secure sources
of revenue to make good quality broadcast-
ing programs. Domestic and foreign capital
can bring big media conglomerates into the
broadcasting market. Financial support from
domestic and foreign countries can make
creating high-quality programs possible, and
these programs will be globally competitive.
Korean broadcasting companies are ex-
pected to become global competitive power
by producing high-quality content. Appro-
priate broadcasting regulations and policies
should be prepared at the proper time to
make this goal possible. Broadcasting should
not be dependent solely on the marketplace
or private sectors to guarantee the diversity
of public opinion and public interests. The
Korean broadcasting industry should try
to provide diverse broadcasting services to
audiences, and related government depart-
ments should also make the regulations and
policies to assure fair competition between
broadcasting service providers.
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20 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
Landscape of New MediaIndustry in Korea
Hwang Yong-suk
1. The Competition and Growth
of New Media Industry
Korea is described as a state-of-the-art
country in terms of its Information Com-
munication Technology (ICT) and rapid
introduction of advanced communication
technologies (See International Telecom-munication Union (ITU), 2009 & Korea
Information Society Development Institute
(KISDI), 2010). The convergence of broad-
casting and communication has enabled a
variety of digital media platforms and ap-
plications to be distributed more easily in
Korea. The convergence has also increased
competition within the existing media and
communications industry, and formedcombinations of consumer use patterns dif-
ferent from those found in the traditional
media and communications environment.
Coupled with the governments policy
support, the convergent media industry is
becoming the driving force of Korean eco-
nomic growth. Broadcasting and telecom-
munication sectors contributed 10.4 percent
to GDP in 2009, up from 9.2 percent in
2006 (Korea Communications Commission
(KCC), 2010, p. 6).
1) Industrial Development of
Emerging New Media Technologies
While broadcasting and communication
have been integrated into the convergentmedia and caused the traditional broad-
casting service market to slow, the market
for new media including IPTV (Internet
Protocol TV), DMB (Digital Multimedia
Broadcasting), and WiBro (Wireless Broad-
band) has emerged. For instance, the wire-
less market increased up to 6.5 percent of
the annual average rate between 2005 and
2009 (KCC, 2010, p. 7). As competition notonly between traditional media and emerg-
ing new media platforms and applications
but also across these new media platforms
and applications occupies a prominent place
Hwang Yong-suk
Associate professor, Department of Mass communication,
Konkuk University
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21Volume. 4 2010 no.2
in the history of digital era in Korea, atten-
tion should be paid to the current develop-
ment of new media technologies for market
share.
IPTV
IPTV combines Internet networks with
broadcasting content, enabling users not
only to watch real-time and time-shifted
broadcasting programs but also to enjoy
data, audio, text, and graphics on IP broad-
band networks (KISDI, 2010). In 2007, the
penetration rate of Pre-IPTV service was
only 2.8 percent and placed seventh among
the top 21 countries (KISDI, p. 58). As
of December 2009, the number of IPTV
subscriptions reached 1.74 million (KISDI,
2010). The Korea Communications Com-
mission (KCC), a regulatory body for broad-
casting and telecommunications, actively
supported a variety of content provided via
IPTV, such as information-oriented chan-nels providing live educational TV shows,
and programs about defense, agriculture
and sheries, public health, and tourism, to
help secure a larger subscriber base (KCC,
2010, p. iii).
DMB
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)
service publicly used in two types of ter-restrial DMB (T-DMB) and satellite DMB
(S-DMB) allows transmission of real-
time broadcasting and video-on-demand
programming by providing users with mul-
timedia content through portable terminals.
As of June 2009, the distribution rate of
T-DMB devices was about 20 million, and
reached 40 percent of the population, while
the rate of S-DMB devices was about 2 mil-
lion (Lee et al., 2010). The KCC also sup-
ported a wider and better coverage of DMBreception as well as the advancement of
next-generation DMB technologies (KCC,
2010).
2) Competition with Existing Media
There is a tendency for IPTV to be char-
acterized as the substitute for cable TV,
while DMB tends to be portrayed as the
alternative to mobile phones. Despite thelack of a fully established communication
network, IPTV and DMB, which transmit
multimedia content, have the potential to
prevail over existing media in the near fu-
ture. Cable TV, with an 86 percent penetra-
tion rate in households, now overshadows
IPTV due to subscriber base, broadcast-
ing stability, and channel competitiveness
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22 Korea Journalism Review
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(KISDI, 2010, p. 75). Nonetheless, the cable
TV industry is operated by relatively small
companies and faces stiff competition from
IPTV operators. The major telecommunica-
tion companies Korea Telecom (KT), SK
Broadband, and LGU+ all provide IPTV
services.
Meanwhile, although the mobile tele-
phone market is saturated, indicating a 98.5
percent subscription rate, mobile communi-
cations services are increasing the amount
of data they bring to customers through the
introduction of a wide range of tariffs and
pricing schemes in order to keep customers
loyal to the network (KISDI, 2010). Be-
cause of these actions, both types of DMB
service would compete not only with each
other but also with mobile telephony for a
share of the market. The DMB industry is,
therefore, applying alternative revenue mod-
els, such as promotion of advertising effects
and interactive services, to counter its rev-enue shortfall (KISDI, 2010).
3) Current Trends and Prospects
In its attempt to accelerate the technologi-
cal integration of broadcasting with tele-
communications, the new media industry
will work to create an appropriate revenue
model and will look to gain revenues from
web-based 2.0 app licat ions, convergedbroadcasting and communications media
such as IPTV and DMB, and a wide range
of content creation.
Because these services noticeably fall be-
hind existing media services such as cable
TV and mobile phone services, they cannot
help but consider differentiated prot meth-
ods such as bundled package services, add-
on services, and search link services. For
example, the diffusion of DMB devices was
successful in terms of sales and the amount
of investment in infrastructure, but rev-
enues from programming and advertising
are still low. As another example, IPTV op-
erators succeeded in gaining content from
major terrestrial broadcasting networks
KBS, MBC and SBS which had expressed
different positions on the direction of IPTV
development from the selected telecom-
munication companies. Despite securing the
content, IPTV still has difculty in supply-
ing it because content providers are under
pressure from cable TV and major terres-
trial broadcasting networks.
From the aspect of building infrastruc-
ture, the saturated market of traditional
broadcasting and telecommunications, in-
cluding the mature household broadband
connection rate, may force broadcasting and
telecommunications companies to pioneer anew market for new media services (e.g., IP
TV 2.0, defined as a mobile version of IP
TV) and invest a great amount of money in
renovating the infrastructure (e.g., the ultra
broadband convergence network, UBcN).
From the aspect of subscriber base and
diverse content creation, Hwang and Yang
(2009) expect that the increasing penetration
of IPTV would enhance users consump-tion patterns based on the segmentation of
content by genre. This is also relevant to
DMB. Although consumers attitude toward
IPTV and DMB services, which are unfa-
miliar, may be one of the factors slowing
the diffusion, subscription rates of both
services are expected to increase this year
(KISDI, 2010).
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23Volume. 4 2010 no.2
4) Outlook of New Media Policy
A key reason to adopt a new media policy
is that the convergence of broadcasting and
telecommunications contributes to national
economic growth.
Accordingly, the new media policy has
been driven by nurturing the intensive eco-
nomic environment to induce competition
among all the networks providers, service
providers, and content providers and accel-
erating the digital transition on a ubiquitous
basis in order to compete for the global
dominance. The Korean government and
KCCs initiative for such growth gives an
impetus to the modification of laws and
regulations associated with new media,
policy making for new media business, and
infrastructure investment for nationwide
coverage.
As part of efforts to generate great mo-
mentum, the KCC suggested a plan for
establishing UBcN, which allows usersto transfer data at 1 gigabyte per second on
the xed line network and at 10 megabytes
per second on the wireless network (Kim,
2009).
The key reason to build up UBcN is to
reinforce the massive IP network that inte-
grates the extensive broadband and mobile
networks, which is only 7 percent of the IP-
based fixed-line telephony network (Kim,2009). Another example is that KCC took
the lead in modifying laws associated with
new media such as amendment of the In-
ternet Multimedia Broadcasting Business
Act to support IP TV service, the media
reform law, and the amendment of the law
for press arbitration to reorganize the web
market of the news industry.
2. Issues and Regulations of
Online News Media
Although online news media led the power
shift in the industry when it hit the market,
changes to regulations and policy making of
the new media industry will also have an im-
pact on the news media industry as a whole.
As newspaper readership declined, news-
paper publishers continuously complained
about the news aggregation services pro-
vided by Internet portals and search engines
such as DAUM, NAVER, and Yahoo Ko-
rea. Issues of online news media have been
raised mainly in relation to the exclusive dis-
tribution that Internet portals enjoy through
the news aggregation service and the resul-
tant news market concentration of Internet
portals and their editorial rights over news
stories posted on their websites.
1) The Growing Role of InternetPortals
Reading news online has become one of
the major activities to Internet users, and
Internet portals and search engines have be-
come the main channel of news consump-
tion. According to a survey conducted by
Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA)
(2009), getting information and data (89.7%)
is the most common task among online ac-tivities. The survey results also revealed that
34.7 percent of participants over 12 years
old go online for details about information
acquired from television, newspaper, or ra-
dio, and that this percentage accounts for
the highest use rate of participants other
multimedia usage on the Internet (KISA,
2009).
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24 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
Internet users considered TV (92.3%) as
the most important information channel,
followed by the Internet (89.8%), while
non-users of the Internet considered TV
(98.9%) as the main information channel,
followed by interpersonal channels such
as family, friends, and co-workers (94.8%)
(KISA, 2009). In parallel with such usual use
patterns of news- and information-seeking
behavior, news and information provided
by online media and Internet portals have
increased. As of 2009, the number of web
publishers and online media ofcially regis-
tered with the local government amounted
to 1399 more than three times as many
registrations as in 2006 (Hwang & Yang, p.
11). The quantitative expansion of online
media and the change of news consumption
patterns to online media rather than newspa-
pers have given online media and portals an
important role.
2) Issues and Problems of Online
Journalism
The increasing role of Internet portals
and search engines in distributing news
stories has brought about a dispute over
whether online news companies should be
operated under the umbrella of the media
reform law. The prolonged debate around a
revenue model and prot-sharing policy be-tween Internet portals and traditional print
media mirrors the fierce rivalry between
Google and the print media in the USA.
Behind the debate, the two rivals held
different positions on the issues of online
journalism and its legal restrictions. Portals
and search engines argued that they did not
create news stories, just published them
from corporate partners.
Accordingly, they protested that the im-
plementation of the same legal sanctions as
other news outlets is likely to make unrea-
sonable demands of their services as con-
tent providers. They also maintained that
they would make it possible to enforce a
self-regulation system. Print media pointed
to Internet portals and search engines as the
main contributors to their sharp decreases
in revenue and numbers of subscriptions.
Furthermore, changes to the external in-
dustrial environment have forced newspa-
per publishers to switch to new business
methods and practices, such as investing a
large amount of money in upgrading online
versions of their own websites. Newspaper
publishers pointed out several problems
that arise from portals and search engines
carrying news stories: 1) overexposure of
news stories from specic news sources, 2)
editorial rights over news stories, 3) unbal-anced composition and choice of news
stories carried on the main page or the news
front page of portals in question, and 4)
using sensational headlines to get attention
(Hwang & Yang, 2009, p. 129).
Despite prolonged arguing from the dif-
ferent positions, regulatory policy associ-
ated with portals and online news outlets
has been legitimatized through the mediareform law and amendment of law for press
arbitration.
The underlying principle of the regula-
tory policy is an increasing demand on the
portals public responsibility for social out-
comes and consequences. But these legal re-
strictions are likely to regulate Internet por-
tals more strongly by imbuing Internet news
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25Volume. 4 2010 no.2
services with the role of the press. These
legal restrictions also reect the shift of the
legal mechanism to a more open environ-
ment of news and information distribution
from the closed one that was in favor of
Internet portals. Moreover, from the market
viewpoint of the news industry, the web
market is considered an arena for conicting
interests, between newspapers as news pro-
viders and Internet portals as information-
mediated providers.
3) Regulatory Policy and Legal
Sanctions Associated with Internet
Portals
Under the media reform law, which passed
through the national assembly in Septem-
ber 2009, web-based online news outlets
including Internet portals are held to the
same legal restrictions as print media and
broadcasting companies. Online news media
are able to strengthen journalistic integrityby adhering to stricter editorial standards
and ethical codes of conduct. Consistent
with the new media policy, the legal restric-
tions are also likely to contribute to raising
the competitive environment for news and
information in the web market arena, with
portals market concentration reduced.
However, the application of stronger
legal sanctions to Internet portals and notto print media could be problematic. For
example, some provisions include such
stricter sanctions on Internet portals as 1)
being accountable for the arrangement of
news stories and being open to the stan-
dards used in making the arrangement, 2)
agreeing to revise a news story if the news
source indicates it needs to be revised, and
3) making an obvious distinction between
posted comments and news stories (Hwang
& Yang, pp. 147-8). Consequently, it may be
unfair to force Internet portals to adhere to
these compulsory provisions on top of the
terms they already adhere to in the condi-
tional contracts they make with corporate
partners.
In addition, under the amendment of the
law on press arbitration, which was passed
in February 2009, web-based news outlets
assume the same legal and public respon-
sibilities as offline news outlets if disputes
arise because of news stories posted on
their websites. This law is based on the iden-
tication of news reports of news produc-
ers and news distribution of information-
mediated providers. Under this law, victims
damaged by a specific news story can re-
quest a correction as well as a right of reply.
In conclusion, because of the officially
authorized changes, information-mediatedproviders are regulated under the legal
framework as traditional media are. The le-
gal applications confer on Internet portals
the role of the press the enhancement
of social responsibility due to dramatically
increased readership, the editorial control
over news stories posted on their websites,
and the function of agenda-setting and
its influence on public opinion formation(Hwang & Yang, pp.129-131). However, the
uniform application of the law, regardless
of whether Internet portals serve as content
providers, may greatly undermine the au-
tonomy of service providers.
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27Volume. 4 2010 no.2
A History of Koreas Media:Fighting Against Japanese Colonialismand Then for Democracy and Freedom
Chong Chin-sok
1. Port Opening and Emergence
of Newspapers
Until the mid-19th century, Korea was the
least known and visited country for the
West (G.N. Curzon, Problems of the Far East,1894). With the number of Westerners visit-
ing Korea increasing prior to and follow-
ing its port opening in 1876, many books
informing Westerners of Korea were pub-
lished. Korea, nonetheless, was a forbidden
land (Ernest Oppert, 1880) and a hermit
nation (W.E. Griffis, 1882).
Books written by Westerners described
Korea as a country falling behind the civi-lized world and alienated from the interna-
tional stage. American astronomer Percival
Lowells portrayal of Korea as the land of
morning calm (Chosun, The Land of Morn-
ing Calm, 1885), has settled down as the
most friendly idiom symbolizing Korea.
The Morning Calm, an English missionary
journal the Anglican Church published and
distributed to many countries from July
1890 to October 1939, played the role of a
public relations ambassador on behalf of
Korea. The adoption of the land of morn-
ing calm as the catchphrase of the poster
publicizing the 1988 Seoul Olympics origi-nated from Lowells book and the Anglican
Church journal.
Major world events attracting global atten-
tion to Korea were the Sino-Japanese War
(1894) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904).
In the wars waged by their neighboring
powers, the Koreans were pitiful victims,
unable to act as the master of the Korean
Peninsula. The Western press in generalmerely described detachedly the sights of
the oppressed people being trodden under
the hooves of foreign cavalry.
Newspapers acted as a window through
Chong Chin-sok
Emeritus Professor, Journalism & Communications,
Hankuk University of Foreign studies
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28 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
which the people of the hermit kingdom
could look at the world. They also per-
formed the role of a textbook teaching the
public the cultures, political systems and
social phenomena of advanced countries.
Inaugurating the Office of Culture and
Information (Bakmunguk), the Chosun
government inaugurated the Hanseong Sunbo
(Hanseong is one of the old names of
Seoul and Sunbo means a paper published
on every 10th day) on October 31, 1883,
the first-ever newspaper of Korea. As the
Orient observed the lunar calendar dividing
a month into three parts - the early, middle
and last parts, the paper was published every
ten days.
Koreas first newspaper came into being
when the country began to open itself un-
der pressures from world powers. Beginning
with the conclusion of a friendship treaty
with Japan in 1876, Korea concluded similar
treaties with a number of Western countries,namely with the United States in 1882, Brit-
ain in 1883, Germany also in 1883, Russia in
1884 and France in 1886. Japan and Western
powers scrambled for concessions in Korea,
which lacked experience in negotiating with
foreign countries.
Newspapers began to root themselves in
a tense situation in which the fate of the
country was at risk. They started with thedual missions of enlightening the public by
positively accommodating advanced coun-
tries cultures and ideas on the one hand,
and safeguarding the nations tradition and
independence against foreign aggression on
the other. In the West, newspapers gradually
developed over a long period of time after
starting with the mission of conveying in-
formation needed for daily lives. Undergo-
ing the process of forming public opinions
and increasing political inuence, they were
able to maintain the format of joint-stock
companies, in which they could manage
themselves independently on readership
fees and advertising revenues. But the pri-
mary function of Korean newspapers was
to reform society by helping awaken the
public and offering them knowledge. They
had little perception of making ends meet
in management.
2. Hanseong Sunbo and
Hanseong Weekly Published
by Government
In its inaugural issue, the Hanseong Sunbo
declared that its mission would be to report
the land area, the size of the population,
the racial or ethnic makeup, the scale ofarmament, as well as the history, literature,
culture and all other aspects, of every nation
on earth with the aim of promoting the
wellbeing of our people and safeguarding
our national sovereignty for a long time to
come.
Following about a year-long publication,
the newspaper had to suspend its issuance
in December 1884 when the Ofce of Cul-ture and Information, where it was printed,
was burnt down in the coup detat of 1884.
The government launched the Hanseong
Weekly, an improved format, in February
1884, however. The weeklys publication was
suspended in July 1888 due to nancial dif-
culties. The nations rst newspaper made a
remarkable achievement by conveying wide-
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29Volume. 4 2010 no.2
ranging news on foreign culture, history,
politics, geography and economy as well as
introducing scholarly attainments overseas.
But the governments budget shortage and
the small size of its readership forced it to
close down.
The social and economic conditions were
not mature enough to ensure the indepen-
dent management of a newspaper.
After the Hanseong Weeklywent out of ex-
istence, the nation saw eight years pass with
no newspaper. During that interval, Japa-
nese began to publish the Chosen Simbun, a
commerce-oriented Japanese language paper
published in Incheon, a port city and gate-
way to Seoul. Chosen is the Japanese pro-
nunciation of Chosun, the name of Korea
at the time. North Korea still uses Chosun
as its name. The paper was launched on Jan-
uary 28, 1890. What Incheon was to Seoul
can be compared to what Yokohama was to
Tokyo. In the 19th century, Yokohama was afoothold for Japans foreign trade. Its a city
that published Japans first newspaper and
home to the Newspaper Museum, estab-
lished by the Japan Association of Newspa-
per Publishers.
The Chosen Simbun, swimming with the
tide of Japans accelerating invasion of Ko-
rea, expanded its strength and developed
further and further. Moving its head ofceto Seoul, the daily continued its publica-
tion until 1942. Preceding the Chosen Sim-
bunwas the Jinsen Keijo Kakushu Shobo, a
biweekly commercial journal published in
the Incheon-Seoul area that evolved into a
weekly, an every-other-day paper and then a
daily.
Japan pushed ahead with its invasion of
Korea mainly through four means - military
might, diplomacy, economics and the press.
The Hanseong Sinbo, inaugurated on Febru-ary 16, 1895 in Seoul with secret funding
from Japans foreign ministry, was the first
output of its invasion policy. A bilingual dai-
ly in Korean and Japanese, the paper started
to argue in favor of Japans conquering of
Korea. Japanese assassins who conspired in
the assassination of Queen Min used the
papers ofce as their secret base of opera-
tion.Following the Russo-Japanese War, Japan
published a number of Korean-language
newspapers and used them as news outlets
publicizing its invasion on the one hand,
and induced papers published by Koreans
to follow the tone of argument friendly to
Japan by employing repression and appease-
ment policies simultaneously on the other.
the Hanseong Sunbo
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30 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
3. The First Private Newspaper
It was the Independence Club (Dongnip
Hyeophoe) that spread the enlightenment
movement in the latter half of the 1890s.
Playing the pivotal role in the drive was
the Independent(Dongnip Sinmun), a pri-
vate newspaper inaugarated by Soh Jae-pil
(Philip Jaisohn: November 28, 1863-January
5, 1951), a pioneer of the enlightenment
movement, on April 7, 1896. The English
version of the Independent,which Soh Jae-
pil published alongside its Korean version,
was the first newspaper that informed West-
erners of fresh news about Korea and cor-
rected mistaken notions about Korea.
Soh Jae-pil, studying Chinese classics
while young, passed the highest-level state
examination to recruit ranking ofcials dur-
ing the Chosun Dynasty. But he went to
Japan in May 1883 to study the Japanese
language at Keio Gijuku (Keio Academy),
a private school run by Yukichi Fukuzawa,
for six months. He then entered Doyama
Army Academy in or around November
and undertook military education. He was
commissioned an officer upon returning
home in late July 1884. On December 4 that
year, Soh Jae-pil took part in the coup detat
masterminded by radical reformists Kim
Ok-kyun and Pak Young-ho. With the coup
aborted, he emigrated himself to the United
States by way of Japan. His family members,
condemned as traitors, were either executed
or poisoned themselves to death. At the
time he was 19 years old.
Unable to return home, Soh Jae-pil stud-
ied on his own in the United States where
he was a stranger and had no relatives.
Completing the secondary school, he wasadmitted to Columbian Medical College in
Columbia, from which he graduated with
honors in 1892. In June 1890, he became
the rst Korean acquiring American citizen-
ship and assumed the American name Philip
Jaisohn. In June 1894, he married Muriel
Josephine Armstrong, a daughter of George
Buchanan Armstrong, the pioneer of the
American railroad postal service. In themeantime, the political situation at home
changed. With a pro-Japanese cabinet set up
in the Reform of 1894 (Kabo Kyongjang),
those who took part in the 1884 coup and
exiled themselves abroad were pardoned.
Soh Jae-pil returned home to publish the In-
dependent.
The Independenthad an absolute impactthe Independent (Dongnip Sinmun)
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31Volume. 4 2010 no.2
on the history of Koreas media. The Han-
seong Sunboand Hanseong Weekly. published
by the government, modeled themselves
after Japanese papers and mostly reprinted
stories written in the Chinese press. They
lacked the function of criticism. Until then,
Korea had no access to the Western press.
The model of the Independentwas Ameri-
can newspapers. Soh Jae-pil, educated in
the United States and being an American
citizen, had no need to heed the restrictions
imposed by the Korean government. The
Independentpromoted freedom of the press
and democracy and exercised the function
of criticism. It demonstrated that a news-
paper could manage itself independently
on readership fees and advertising revenues,
without relying upon any polit ical group.
The Independentinuenced Koreas modern
political history as well by playing a signi-
cant role in expanding and promoting the
enlightenment of the public and the enlight-enment movement.
The Independents critical function and
resistance spirit against external aggres-
sion have remained the tradition of Koreas
media. The Independentprovided the theory
and direction of the enlightenment move-
ment and fullled the role of protecting the
national interests. From the perspective of
the history of Koreas media, its merit infacilitating the emergence of private news-
papers is highly evaluated. The news media
has observed April 7, the date when the
Independentwas inaugurated, as newspaper
day since April 1957, a representation of
the intent of Korean journalists to inherit
the spirit ofthe Independent. A sense of con-
fidence that newspapers can be managed
on readership fees and advertising revenues
alone, fostered by the Independent,prompted
many newspapers to emerge later. The Inde-
pendent facilitated newspaper development
in Korea.
4. Methodist and
Presbyterian Newspapers
Christianity also contributed to the develop-
ment of the media greatly. Methodist and
Presbyterian missionaries began to pub-
lish newspapers about the same time. The
Methodist Mission, equipped with printing
facilities, inaugurated the Christian Advocate,
a weekly printed exclusively in the Korean
alphabet, Hangeul, on February 2, 1897. Its
publisher Henry Gerhard Appenzeller (Feb-
ruary 6, 1858-June 11, 1902) came to Korea
in 1885 and contributed toward developing
the nations education and the press.Opening Pai Chai Academy in 1887, he
launched Western education in Korea. He
assumed the editorship of the Korean Reposi-
tory, a monthly in the English language, in
1895 and assumed the acting presidency of
the Independentin May 1898, when Soh Jae-
pil returned to the United States. The Pres-
byterian Mission inaugurated the Christian
News on April 1, 1897, with Horace GrantUnderwood (July 19, 1859-October 12,
1916) serving as the publisher. Underwood
also contributed greatly to the development
of religion, politics, education and culture in
Korea during the countrys enlightenment
period.
The Christian Advocate and the Christian
News, following an eight-year-long publica-
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32 Korea Journalism Review
Cover Story : Korean Media Overview
tion, issued their respective final issues on
June 24, 1905, and merged themselves into
the Christian Newson July 1 of the same
year. The Catholic Church launched the
Kyonghyang Sinmunweekly on October 19,
1906. French priest Florinan Demange was
the publisher.
The year of 1898 marked a unique pe-
riod in the history of Koreas media as the
press circle was born with the Jeguk Sinmun
and Hwangseong Sinmun, representative na-
tionalist papers in the final months of the
Great Han Empire, launched in addition to
the Hyopseong Hoeboand Maeil Sinmun. The
year also saw the formation of the News-
paper Friendship Society, the first of its
kind in the country, which began to discuss
in group the freedom of the press and
newspaper management as well as promot-
ing mutual friendship between newspapers.
Such a rapid growth of private newspapers
was possible largely thanks to the followingthree factors:
First, the social situation at the time ac-
celerated the publication of private papers.
With the thought of enlightenment spread-
ing, a social reform movement was invigo-
rated centered around the Independence
Club and Manmin Gongdong Hoe (the
Convention of Ten Thousand People). De-
sire for information thrived across societyand strong moves emerged to publish pa-
pers as a means of achieving social reforms.
Second, the social leaders began to have
confidence that newspapers could sustain
themselves as independent businesses. The
Independent, though inaugurated with the
governments financial subsidies, proved it
possible to publish a newspaper indepen-
dently on readership fees and advertising
revenues.
Third, the inauguration of the pro-Jap-
anese Hanseong Shinboa year prior to that
of the Independenton the strength of secret
subsidies from Japans foreign ministry and
the publication since 1897 of the Christian
Advocateand Christian News stimulated the
appearance of private newspapers.
5. Publication of Dailies
by Private Citizens
On January 1, 1898, Hyopseong Hoe (As-
sociation for Cooperative Endeavors), the
student association of Pai Chai College, in
Seoul, launched the Hyopseong Hoebo (the
Journal of Hyeopseong Hoe) , a weekly,
which developed into the daily newspaper
named the Maeil Sinmun(Diurnal News) in
April. The Maeil Shinmunwas the first dailypublished in Korea. The Independent, inau-
gurated two years earlier, was then published
every other day or three times a week. Fol-
lowing the publication of the Maeil Sinmun,
the Independentbecame a daily in July. Syng-
man Rhee (Yi Sungman), then a Pai Chai
College student, worked as a Maeil Sinmun
reporter, and assumed the dailys presidency
for a while. Syngman Rhee, an indepen-dence fighter, became the first president of
the Republic of Korea.
The inauguration of the Jeguk Sinmun
(August 10, 1895) and the Hwangseong Sin-
mun(September 5, 1898) followed. Thus
four dailies -- the Maeil Sinmun, Jeguk Sin-
mun, Hwangseong Sinmun and Independent --
were published in Seoul. The Shisa Chongbo
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33Volume. 4 2010 no.2
(The All-Encompassing Report on Current
Affairs) was born the next year in January
1899. A variety of papers, including reli-
gious and ordinary ones, came into being
for the rst time in Korea.
The Jeguk Sinmun and Hwangseong Sin-
muncontinued publication until 1910 when
Japan annexed Korea by force. Published
exclusively in the Korean alphabet, the Jeguk
Sinmuns readership consisted mainly of
commoners. The editor-in-chief was Syng-
man Rhee, who waged an active battle of
words with the Hanseong Sinbo, published by
a group of Japanese. He is famous for hav-
ing written articles in the Jeguk Sinmuneven
while serving a prison term, after having
been arrested in January 1899 on charges
involving his activities within the Indepen-
dence Club. While traveling to the United
States for study in November 1904 after
release from prison in August that year, he
had two of his observations printed in theop-ed column of the Jeguk Sinmun. The
newspaper published a total of some 3,240
issues over 11 years.
Being published in both Korean and Chi-
nese characters, the Hwangseong Sinmun had
intellectuals and the upper class as its main
readers. The daily was a joint-stock com-
pany, electing executives at a staff members
general assembly. It was in the August 31,1902 staff general meeting that Chang Chi-
yon, the prominent disputant, was elected
the president of the newspaper.
6. Confrontation between
Nationalist and Pro-Japanese
Papers
Presenting many similarities in the history
of Koreas media are the two turbulent
times from 1904 when the Russo-Japanese
War ended till 1910 when Korea was an-
nexed by Japan and from 1945 when Korea
was liberated till 1948 when the Republic
of Korea was born. The former was the so-
called protectorate-rule period prior to
Japans colonization of Korea when Japan
set up the Japanese Resident-General ex-
tending its hands of invasion to Korea, and
the latter a period during which the United
States military government ruled Korea fol-
lowing Koreas emancipation from Japans
imperialism and our independent govern-
ment was born. The two periods preceding
and following Japans colonization of Ko-
rea, short as they were, were similar to each
other in that Korea could not exercise its
sovereignty politically and in that they both
featured political and social turbulence. In
time of political instability in any country, itis usual that many newspapers characterized
by strong political leanings will emerge, ris-
ing and falling in step with the vicissitudes
of the political groups that they espouse. In
Korea also, the afore-mentioned two peri-
ods were times of extreme divisiveness in
public opinion and accordingly, the numbers
of newly-published newspapers rose sud-
denly and sharply.Following the outbreak of the Russo-
Japanese War, the media was split into
two: pro-Japanese papers and national-
istic newspapers. The papers of the nation-
alist camp a