매스미디어 뉴스에 나타난 유교의 인식과 이미지 연구

Abstract

This paper analyzes how the public cognition and image of Confucianism appear in mass media news. The question of how the public thinks of Confucianism is meaningful as the basis for judging the social values and roles of Confucianism in this era. Public cognition is specifically reflected in mass media news. The analysis method used Korea Press Foundation’s News Big Data Analysis Service(BIGKinds) to investigate the frequency of news exposure. The survey period is 10 years from January 2013 to September 2023. The keywords for analysis are Confucian studies such as Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, and Yang-ming studies, Confucian-related figures, concepts, and Confucius and Analects. As a result of the analysis, there were many negative cognitions of Neo-Confucianism. In contrast, positive cognitions and images of Confucius and Analects were high to a special degree. This shows that the popularity of Confucius and Analects is strong. However, ‘human nature is principle’(性則理), ‘human mind is principle’(心則理), and ‘extension of innate knowledge to the utmost’(致良知) are the core concepts of Neo-Confucianism and Yang-ming studies, but their popularity was very low. The reason seems to be that the meaning of these concepts is difficult to understand easily by the general public. It is noteworthy in this study that the public cognition and image of Yang-ming studies, a big trend in Confucian thought, were very low. Accordingly, it was suggested that active attention is needed to secure the popularity of Yang-ming studies at the level of the Korean Society of Yang-ming Studies. This task is required for the balanced development of Korean Confucianism beyond Yang-ming studies.