Noting that the Korean Journalism has been continuously criticized for its partisan and ideological bias although it mainly consists of commercial presses, this study is an attempt to identify root causes of the problem in the commercialization process of the sector in the 1960s. Although the commercial press is a common form not only in Korea, but in most capitalist societies, it is rare that such press is criticized for its partisan and ideological bias that used to be unique to the partisan press.The modern commercial press of the United States resulted from the penny press, which emerged from democracy, market economy and the Enlightenment in the 19th century, and survived the one-century-long fierce competition against the party press and the mercantile press. However, the penny press, the so called “direct ancestor” of the modern US journalism, was born out of the political change (democracy), economic change (market economy) and cognitive change (the Enlightenment) of the 19th-century America, and has evolved into the dominant form of the press by continuously competing against and beating previously-influential presses for a hundred years, not by sweeping them out at once.In short, the American press was commercialized by constant competitions among them, and by simultaneous processes of commercialization and politicization of the press. Accordingly, the commercialization process adjusted political functions of the press in accordance with changes of the era, not distorting or eliminating them.In contrast, the commercialization process of the Korean press began in the 1960s when the Park Chung-hee regime drove radical economic modernization and growth while distorting or halting political modernization. The political system of the era can be represented by the term, “administrative democracy.” Park refused to accept the Western democracy as it was, and proclaimed administrative democracy, citing that democracy should be adjusted to the situation of Korea. His democracy was a political system in which every sector of the society is uniformly and efficiently controlled by administrative direction and command of the government. However, administrative democracy was actually anti-democratic as it was operated by the unilateral direction and command of the regime, not by the people, i.e. the owners of the country; and it dismissed legitimate procedures of democracy as inefficiency and confusion. Park’s Yushin regime was the extreme form of the anti-democratic system.The Korean press was commercialized in the course of compressed modernization, urbanization and industrialization in the 1960s, but the commercialization process was more directly affected by the media policy of the Park Chung-hee regime. The policy was built upon Park's principle of statecraft, namely administrative democracy. His media policy allowed economic support and political privileges for the press while fundamentally blocking the press from facilitating political discourses or checking the power of the regime. In turn, the press enjoyed such benefits in its commercialization process in the 1960s while voluntarily forgoing its political functions. Therefore, the commercialization of the Korean press in the 1960s was a “compressed commercialization” that only pursued economic commercialization but distorted and forsook the political roles of the press.Such a distorted commercialization process has given rise to the partisan and ideological bias of the Korean press. Consequently, the political roles must be reinvigorated to address the profound problems of the Korean press. For today’s audience and readers who are highly segmented by ideology, region and generation, and who have many different outlets through which they can express themselves, the prevalent commercial press model that proclaims political impartiality and objectivity to mass audience may not be useful anymore. In addition, the public are strongly doubtful abou...
Noting that the Korean Journalism has been continuously criticized for its partisan and ideological bias although it mainly consists of commercial presses, this study is an attempt to identify root causes of the problem in the commercialization process of the sector in the 1960s. Although the commercial press is a common form not only in Korea, but in most capitalist societies, it is rare that such press is criticized for its partisan and ideological bias that used to be unique to the partisan press.The modern commercial press of the United States resulted from the penny press, which emerged from democracy, market economy and the Enlightenment in the 19th century, and survived the one-century-long fierce competition against the party press and the mercantile press. However, the penny press, the so called “direct ancestor” of the modern US journalism, was born out of the political change (democracy), economic change (market economy) and cognitive change (the Enlightenment) of the 19th-century America, and has evolved into the dominant form of the press by continuously competing against and beating previously-influential presses for a hundred years, not by sweeping them out at once.In short, the American press was commercialized by constant competitions among them, and by simultaneous processes of commercialization and politicization of the press. Accordingly, the commercialization process adjusted political functions of the press in accordance with changes of the era, not distorting or eliminating them.In contrast, the commercialization process of the Korean press began in the 1960s when the Park Chung-hee regime drove radical economic modernization and growth while distorting or halting political modernization. The political system of the era can be represented by the term, “administrative democracy.” Park refused to accept the Western democracy as it was, and proclaimed administrative democracy, citing that democracy should be adjusted to the situation of Korea. His democracy was a political system in which every sector of the society is uniformly and efficiently controlled by administrative direction and command of the government. However, administrative democracy was actually anti-democratic as it was operated by the unilateral direction and command of the regime, not by the people, i.e. the owners of the country; and it dismissed legitimate procedures of democracy as inefficiency and confusion. Park’s Yushin regime was the extreme form of the anti-democratic system.The Korean press was commercialized in the course of compressed modernization, urbanization and industrialization in the 1960s, but the commercialization process was more directly affected by the media policy of the Park Chung-hee regime. The policy was built upon Park's principle of statecraft, namely administrative democracy. His media policy allowed economic support and political privileges for the press while fundamentally blocking the press from facilitating political discourses or checking the power of the regime. In turn, the press enjoyed such benefits in its commercialization process in the 1960s while voluntarily forgoing its political functions. Therefore, the commercialization of the Korean press in the 1960s was a “compressed commercialization” that only pursued economic commercialization but distorted and forsook the political roles of the press.Such a distorted commercialization process has given rise to the partisan and ideological bias of the Korean press. Consequently, the political roles must be reinvigorated to address the profound problems of the Korean press. For today’s audience and readers who are highly segmented by ideology, region and generation, and who have many different outlets through which they can express themselves, the prevalent commercial press model that proclaims political impartiality and objectivity to mass audience may not be useful anymore. In addition, the public are strongly doubtful abou...
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