A Study of Perceptions on Hallyu(Korean Wave) and Reporting Routine among Korean Journalists: Focusing on In-depth Interviews with Journalists Covering Culture Issues

This study focuses on the critical mind of Korean media, covering ‘Hallyu(the Korean Wave)’, and analyzes how journalists understand and report this issue. We have carried out in-depth interviews and focus group interviews simultaneously with 10 journalists from the cultural department who have experienced reporting about Korean Wave and K-content-related news. Journalists appeared to have mixed perspectives on Hallyu, mainly objective views mixed with nationalistic views. While they practiced news reporting or writing articles, journalists tended to over-consider the editor’s preference and they preferred numbers and grades to objectify their stories. Additionally, to overcome the restrictions of not working overseas, journalists tend to adopt more convenient and easier methods and make the story fancier to get it published or to run it on air. Due to this reporting tendency and journalist's perception under the influence of funds, combined with the less social impact the cultural news has, they eventually resulted in both losing the quality and depth of the news. By only focusing on the economic and industrial aspects, the media failed to cover ‘Hallyu’ from diverse perspectives and tended to neglect its cultural value. To solve this issue, journalists stress the importance of group effort as a solution. To regain the critical role of reporting cultural news, this study suggests an industry-level effort from the media industry.