“Arab Spring is Wake-Up Call for Kim Jong-Il”

Abstract

This study explores how differently and similarly the liberal and conservative newspapers in South Korea framed the Arab Spring in their opinion sections. By employing a qualitative framing analysis of editorials and columns, it found that the ideological views of the news outlets themselves had a considerable influence on the opinion discourses. Compared to the liberal papers, the conservative papers more persistently linked the Arab Spring to South Korea's confrontation with North Korea and portrayed the North Korean regime as the world's most infamous and brutal suppressor of human rights. While the conservative papers rarely saw the Arab Spring as the result of West-led neo-liberal globalization, the liberal papers characterized the Arab Spring as being part of the resistance to “neo-liberalism.” This ideological divergence media made possible the presentation of a variety of views about a public issue within a South Korean context. However, it is a matter of grave concern that news outlets' ideological orientations can also impede the objective presentation of an international issue or event, such as the Arab Spring.

KEYWORDS:

• Arab Spring
• framing
• Middle East
• newspaper
• opinion
• South Korea

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank Dr. James Kelly (Indiana University at Bloomington) for his support and advice in this study.