Who Receives Media Attention in South Korea: Analysing Internal and External Pluralism in the News Coverage of Policy Debates

The mass media in democracies plays an important role in portraying key policy debates and viewpoints, ultimately shaping how citizens and political actors understand policy problems. How diverse are the policy perspectives represented in the news? Research in comparative political communication typically points to two ways through which pluralism is maintained in the news coverage of policy debates—internally and externally. Using 1,341 Dong-A and 1,205 Hankyoreh Daily front-page newspaper stories published in Korea in the year 2008, this article examines the circumstances under which internal and external pluralism in the news is limited in a democratic media system. Specifically, the article argues that a unique newsgathering process relying heavily on government sources for policy-relevant information, as well as relatively weak and unstable ties between news outlets and political/social organizations significantly restrict the diversity of voices appearing in the news in Korea. Such attention patterns offer a partial explanation for rapidly declining trust in print newspapers among the Korean public, and raise concerns about whose views are actually reflected in public policy debates in the news.