hankyoreh

Nov. 30. (Photo by Park Jong-shik)

By Lee Moon-young

Will South Korea be seeing its own version of Fox News?

If things go according to the government’s Korea Communications Commission (KCC) plans, it will not be long. Providers are to be designated within around one month after the close Wednesday of applications for comprehensive programming channels, which began Tuesday. Applications are expected from six hopefuls: the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea Economic Daily, and Tbroad.

Despite the Constitutional Court’s acknowledged procedural illegalities in the passage of the media legislation and redirected the matter to the National Assembly to resolve, no action has since been taken in the National Assembly. The Court rejected a petition for adjudication on a jurisdictional dispute against former National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o.

The the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) railroaded the media reform legislation in an extraordinary session of the National Assembly in July 2009. This was despite opposition by over 60 percent of the general public due to controversy over allowing South Korea’s three conservative dailies to gain a greater hold on public opinion by allowing them into the broadcast market.

Observers have voiced concerns that following the arrival of the new programmers, South Korea might see the same kind of divisions in public opinion and rapid conservative turn brought about in the U.S. by the Fox News network. Indeed, Sookmyung Women’s University Professor Park Chun-il, who served as a media policy advisor for Lee Myung-bak during his presidential run, has suggested benchmarking Fox News to ensure the comprehensive programmers’ success.

A number of media experts are seeing signs of a Fox News phenomenon in the arrival of comprehensive programming networks. The U.S. network’s “conservative sensationalism” and the expansion of its parent industry, News Corporation, are similar to the course currently being taken by the “ChoJoongDong”: the conservative Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, and Dong-A Ilbo newspapers.

News Corporation, which owns around 780 companies in 52 countries, is a leading media corporation that has engaged in aggressive mergers and acquisitions and lobbying efforts with conservatives and progressive alike and across national boundaries, which have sparked concerns about the monopolization of public opinion. In particular, Fox News has led the way in the pushing sentiment to the right in the United States with dualistic black-and-white logic and distorted or manipulated reporting, prompting a variety of “anti-Fox” campaigns. Some have even said, “Conservatism in the United States is represented by the Republican Party, and Fox News is leading the conservative shift in that party.”

Comprehensive programming networks in South Korea are also spearheading the “commodification of the domestic press” and heralding a future of “rich media and poor democracy.” In order to secure such networks, the ChoJoongDong newspapers have actively withdrawn criticisms of the Lee Myung-bak administration, leading to criticisms from conservative Liberty Forward Party Chairman Lee Hoe-chang, who called them “slaves to comprehensive programming” rewarded to them by the Lee Myung-bak government.

Their favoritism toward conservatives and major business conglomerates also echoes Fox News.

“Both Fox News and the ‘ChoJoongDong’ comprehensive programming networks are products of the permission of simultaneous newspaper and broadcasting operation and view the press from the perspective of business,” said Forum for Open Media and Open Society co-President Chang Haeng-hoon. “There is a strong chance the imbalance in U.S. public opinion fomented by Fox News will be seen in South Korea after the comprehensive networks begin.”

Claims that one-sided reporting like that of Fox News is impossible in South Korea, where the KCC also reviews content for fairness violations, have been called “unrealistic.” In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission deleted its “fairness doctrine” provisions in 1987.

Chungnam National University Professor Kim Jae-young said, “Even if they do not engage in overtly biased reporting, a bigger problem is when they do not report on things they should, or minimize the issues.”

Some observers predict that the content of reports and programs will degenerate as the number of permitted comprehensive programmers increases. Competition among multiple networks is certain to spark a no-holds-barred battle.

Many analysts say there is a strong chance cash-strapped domestic comprehensive programmers will follow the Fox News success strategy in order to establish themselves within a short period of time.

“There is a very strong likelihood that the ChoJoongDong networks will make programs geared to the perspective of the conservatives who make up their main viewership, like Fox News,” said Texas State University Journalism Professor Jinbong Choi. “They know how to survive in the broadcasting market.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]