Political News as a Cultural Repository: A Comparative Study of Political Reporting in South Korea and the United States

This dissertation explores how the journalistic, political, and organizational cultures of the United States and South Korea have moderated press/politics relationship in these two countries with regard to the practice of journalism. While the majority of previous comparative journalism studies approach culture by measuring either journalists’ ethical standards or their idealized normative ideas of their work, this study investigates how cultural dimensions affect each country’s actual journalistic practice, specifically in relation to the writing of presidential news, political reporting routines, and the journalistic use of social media. By conducting a content analysis of presidential speeches and quoted statements in news stories, as well as in-depth interviews with 27 journalists, my findings show that in Korean media, a president is portrayed as a person who exercises a great deal of influence, following the tradition of “imperial presidency.” Meanwhile, in U.S. media, comparatively president-centered patterns and an emphasis on presidents’ negative remarks through quotations are found. In South Korea, an informal connection is unconsciously established through direct or indirect contact between reporters and their sources, as well as between reporters from rival media outlets through the practice of kkumi and mawari. The sense of collectivism manifested in the newly routinized mechanisms of press activities, forms the basis for the “insiderization” of political reporters. On the other hand, the culture of self-determination and unencumbered individualism in the United States fits with the model of an open-beat system, as well as open-market competition, as seen in the adversarial relations between journalists, their sources, and their competitors. With the establishment of rules differentiating one from the many, customized and personalized strategies have been used to reach a greater audience. Furthermore, this research also reveals the divergent ways of interpreting social media by journalists in these two countries. In a collectivist society, which depends on journalists interpreting social media, it can be used as a homogenizing tool that reifies the hegemonic system through conformity thinking. By comparison, the U.S. media’s market-oriented model tends to produce news that pursues commercial goals and intensifies journalists’ social media use, resulting in a commodification of journalists’ branding and self-marketing.2024-10-1