A News Frame Study of Conflicts in Educational Policy Issues
- An Analysis of Editorials in Six major Newspapers
with Regard to the Reform of the "Private School Law" -
LEE, Il-Hyung
Dep. of Mass Communication
The Grate School of Korea University
...
A News Frame Study of Conflicts in Educational Policy Issues
- An Analysis of Editorials in Six major Newspapers
with Regard to the Reform of the "Private School Law" -
LEE, Il-Hyung
Dep. of Mass Communication
The Grate School of Korea University
This study examined the ways in which dominant print news media framed the issue of reforming of the "Private School Law," an issue which is one of the conflicting issues in education policy. The study specifically focused on the relationships between the ideological inclination of a media organization and (1) issue stance, (2) the use of news frames, and (3) support for the governing party or the opposition parties.
A total of six newspapers - three conservative newspapers (i.e., Chosun Ilbo, Donga Ilbo, and Segye Ilbo) and three progressive newspapers (i.e., Hangyoreh, Kyunghyang, and Seoul Shinmun) were analyzed in a one year period of April 15, 2004 to April 14, 2005 when the 17th election of the National Assembly was held. 77 editorials were sampled and the data were analyzed using frequency and cross tab analyses.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.
First, conservative news media organizations and progressive news media organizations were significantly different with regard to their attitudes toward the issue of reforming of the "Private School Law." 88.9% of the editorials in conservative newspapers expressed negative opinions while 78.1% of the editorials in progressive newspapers expressed positive opinions about the policy reform.
There are four major conflicts surrounding the issue: improving decision making structure, change of personnel authorization, increase of educational autonomy, and transparency of auditing accounts. There were strong and significant associations between the issue stance of the editorials with regard to three of the four conflicting issues (i.e., except for the fourth issue) and media organization inclination.
Next, regarding the analysis of news frames that is the core of this thesis, 77.8% of the conservative newspapers have used existing frame for the bill of private school law, which is comparatively high using rate as conservative newspapers. Meanwhile, 78.1% of the progressive newspapers have used the innovative frame for the bill of school law, which is also comparatively high using rate as progressive newspapers.
Three newspapers among the conservative newspapers have kept neutral situation and only one newspaper among the progressive newspapers has kept neutral situation, which means that newspaper companies tend to show their peculiar opinions on the bill of the private school law clearly.
The notable point was that conservative newspapers have compartively frequently used the cause diagnosis frame in the viewpont of 'Educational Self-Management Oppression'(12 items, 28.6%) and the moral judgement frame in the viewpoint of 'Private Property Right Infringement(9 items, 21.4%) and that progressive newspapers have comparatively used frequently the suggest remedy frame of 'Whole Amendment of Private School Law'(10 items, 32.3%) and the problem definition frame of 'Educational Innovation and Development'.
Especially regarding the comparative analysis of the lower frames, the difference of frame using frequency by the characteristics of the newspapers shall have significant meaning in viewpoint of statastics. This suggests that two kinds of newspapers representing conservative camp and progressive camp respectively have their own characteristic theory to express their assertion of the bill of private school law.
Lastly, considering that editorials shall be expressed on the political situation of the newspaers, the author of the thesis has examined the interrelation between news frames of the newspapers and the proper tendency of political parties and found some meaningful result in the viewpoint of statastics.
That is, the conservative newspapers with the tendency to keep the existing frame have only favorable situation of 7.3%(3 items) for the ruling party but they have favorable situation of 75.6%(31 items) for the opposite overwhelmingly. Meanwhile, the newspapers with the tendency to use the frame of innovation of private school law have favrable situation of 50%(16 items) for the ruling party, which shows the contrary situation each other.
This suggests that conservative media outlets tend to oppose the ruling party, Yeolin Woori Party, by emphasizing its negative aspects, and thus block the passage of the Private School Law reform. On the other hand, progressive media news sources supported the law reform by using both positive(i.e., to support the ruling party) and negative strategies(i.e., to criticize the opposing Hanara party).
In sum, Korean news media should eliminate biased opinions and attempt to include various background knowledge with regard to an issue in order to convey proper information about the issue and offer a larger picture of the issue to the audiences so that desirable public opinion may be formed.
Particularly in the contemporary society, where diversity and interest group activities increase, professional knowledge and logical alternatives should be offered in educational issues in order to decrease social conflicts.
I hope this study would contribute to researchers who attempt to study conflict in educational issues.