한국 언론의 러시아 보도 분석:내용분석과 심층인터뷰 방법론을 중심으로

Abstract

Although a number of studies have examined the Korea-Russia relationships and their impact on the Korean society, few have investigated Korean media’s news coverage of Russia and few have examined how Korean journalists think about their news coverage on Russia. In this regard, this study examines how Korean media portray various issues associated with Russia in terms of salience and qualities of news coverage. It also investigates how Korean journalists think their news coverage in terms of the ways Korean media address Russian issues. We first conducted a content analysis of news stories from two major newspapers in Korea─the Donga Ilbo and the Hankyoreh. For the 2004-2010 periods, the two papers presented a gradually diminishing coverage on Russian issues. Their qualities of news coverage reflected more episodic and fragmentary information, rather than thematic and comprehensive ideas. While they portrayed Russia with rather positive frames when economic, financial and cultural issues are concerned, they delivered mostly neutral tones on political, diplomatic and military issues. Second, we performed in-depth interviews with international news editors in major newspapers and television stations in Korea. They suggested that the global news in Korea should be diversified in terms of news items and frames. They recommended that, to overcome the oversupply of news from U.S. and China, the Korean media should give more space and time for Russian news coverage. Some helpful ways, such as setting up exchange programs and joint coverage teams between Korean and Russian journalists, are suggested to enhance mutual understanding and to engender more newsworthy coverage.