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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


- 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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

[email protected]

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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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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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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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

[email protected]

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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(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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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

[email protected]

Emeritus Professor, Journalism & Communications,

Hankuk University of Foreign studies

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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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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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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

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