Elite Sources, Context, and News Topics: How Two Korean Newspapers Covered a Public Health Crisis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2004

Department

Mass Communication and Journalism

School

Communication

Abstract

A content analysis of the coverage of a public health crisis in Korea from September 1999 to December 2000 explored six hypotheses about news reporting and topic selection mostly derived from qualitatively based literature. The findings suggest that two Korean daily newspapers (Chosun Ilbo and Hankyoreh) emphasized governmental officials and physicians as news sources, underemphasized other news sources, and limited in-depth reporting. The study's findings appear to support prior assertions in the international literature that critique news media performance. However Chosun Ilbo and Hankyoreh used a range of sources and provided some multidimensional news coverage during the public health crisis. While both newspapers depended on governmental officials and physicians as news sources and tended to provide less in-depth coverage, the overall findings do not reveal a pattern of journalistic neglect.

Publication Title

Science Communication

Volume

25

Issue

4

First Page

364

Last Page

398

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