ChoJoongDong has greatly increased pro-administration coverage, study says

Posted on : 2010-05-27 12:31 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
The study analyzed press coverage during the four most recent presidential administrations

An analysis of press coverage of the president over four government administrations has revealed that the number of positive reports of presidential events in the largest three conservative newspapers, the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Daily and Dong-A Ilbo, has greatly increased since the Lee Myung-bak government took office.

In April, the Hankyoreh commissioned the Information, Society and Culture Research Institute (ISCRI) to take and analyze a sample of articles from four newspapers including Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Daily, Dong-A Ilbo and Hankyoreh. The samples covered a period of six months, and were taken from articles written during the second year of each of the four most recent presidential administrations.

The results reveal the number of reports on President Lee Myung-bak’s attendance at various events to be 23, 22, 19 and 16 for the JoongAng, Dong-A, Chosun and Hankyoreh respectively. The corresponding figures for the Roh Moo-hyun administration are 6 and 8 articles in the JoongAng and Chosun respectively, an increase of 3.8 and 2.4 times under the current administration. The Dong-A and Hankyoreh ran 14 and 12 articles, respectively, indicating 1.6 and 1.3 times increases from the previous administration.

ISCRI created three categories for analyzing presidential visits, which include visits to the general public, visits to educational and media organizations or businesses, and visits to civic organizations.

The number of articles covering visits to the general public by President Lee, such as walking through markets and chatting with vendors, is 11 in the Dong-A, 10 in the JoongAng, 7 in the Hankyoreh and 6 in the Chosun Ilbo. Corresponding numbers for the Roh administration were 5 each for the Hankyoreh and Chosun, and only 2 each in the JoongAng and Dong-A. This represents increases of 5.5 and 5 times, under the Lee administration, for the Dong-A Ilbo and JoongAng Daily respectively. Under the Kim Young-sam administration, the corresponding figures were 3 articles in the JoongAng, 8 in the Dong-A, 6 in the Hankyoreh and 5 in the Chosun Ilbo.

Shin Hyun-ho, a researcher at ISCRI who analyzed the results of the study, said they revealed a strong connection between positive reports of President Lee Myung-bak in the Chosun, JoongAng and Dong-A and his visits to the general public, and that this could be interpreted as asserting the legitimacy of the president’s actions in government. In the case of the Hankyoreh, most positive reports on President Lee were about his diplomatic and international activity.

Observers have also said that the current administration has planned an array of on-site visits aimed at boosting the president’s image, and these visits have been more frequent than previous administrations. The visits are reportedly aimed at boosting the president’s image, and this increase in the number of overall visits had an effect on the results of the survey.

“The increase in positive reports is due to President Lee’s busy schedule, and the fact that politics between the government and the opposition is failing to draw the attention of the media, resulting in a relatively high profile for the president’s day-to-day activities in the political pages,” said one journalist from the Chosun Ilbo.

An analysis of the total number of positive articles about President Lee shows that the JoongAng Daily ran 143, the most of the four newspapers. The Dong-A and Chosun ran 111 and 99 articles respectively, while the Hankyoreh, with 70 articles, ran the least. The JoongAng Daily ran at least three times more positive articles on Lee than on late President Roh Moo-hyun, which total 47.

“This could be interpreted as the JoongAng Daily’s decision to attach higher newsworthy value to President Lee than other newspapers and show a more friendly attitude towards him,” said Shin in regards to the JoongAng’s frequent positive coverage of President Lee.