Scandals, Shamans, and Samsung: Framing Analysis of Media Coverage on the Choi Soon-Sil Gate

Scandals, Shamans, and Samsung: framing analysis of media coverage on the Choi Soon-sil Gate Karoliina Piispa Master’s thesis East Asian studies Department of World Cultures University of Helsinki 1 Tiedekunta/Osasto – Fakultet/Sektion – Faculty Laitos – Institution – Department Humanistinen tiedekunta Maailman kulttuurien laitos Tekijä – Författare – Author Karoliina Piispa Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title Scandals, Shamans, and Samsung: framing analysis of media coverage on the Choi Soon-sil Gate Oppiaine – Läroämne – Subject Itä-Aasian tutkimus Työn laji – Arbetets art – Level Aika – Datum – Month and year Sivumäärä– Sidoantal – Number of pages pro gradu 04/2018 83 Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Tutkielma analysoi kahden korealaisen sanomalehden, Hankyoreh ja JoongAng, uutisointia Etelä- Korean entisestä presidentistä Park Geun-hyesta ja Choi Soon-silista lahjonta- ja korruptioskandaalissa, johon liittyi myös Samsung Electronic:sin varapuheenjohtaja Jay Y. Lee. Artikkelit ja niistä tehty analyysi keskittyvät näihin kolmeen henkilöön. Lehdistä Hankyoreh edustaa liberaalia poliittista suuntausta, kun taas JoongAng on konservatiivinen sanomalehti, jolla on myös suorat perhesiteet Samsungiin. Nämä kaksi sanomalehteä valittiin tarkoituksella edustamaan kahta eri poliittista linjaa sillä oletuksella, että liberaali sanomalehti käsittelisi konservatiivisen presidentin skandaalia eri tavalla kuin konservatiivinen media. Analysoidut artikkelit sijoittuvat aikavälille lokakuusta 2016 maaliskuuhun 2017. Artikkelit kerättiin internetistä ja analysoidaan käyttäen metodeina framing-analyysia ja kriittistä diskurssianalyysia. Analyysi muodostuu sekä kvalitatiivisista että kvantitatiivisista elementeistä. Tuloksia vertaillaan myös aiempaan tutkimukseen liittyen erityisesti korealaisen lehdistön aiempaan sananvapauteen ja kykyyn toimia yhteiskunnassa väärinkäytösten paljastajana. Korealaisella lehdistöllä on aiemmin ollut suuria vaikeuksia kirjoittaa negatiivisesti erityisesti Samsungin kaltaisista taloudellisen vallan käyttäjistä, joten yksi tutkimuksen tavoitteista on paljastaa, kuinka nämä kaksi lehteä uutisoivat Leesta eritysesti verrattuna Choihin ja Parkiin. Artikkeleita analyysissa on yhteensä 206, joista 95 Hankyoreh:sta ja 111 JoongAngista. Kumpikin kirjoitti Choista yhtä negatiivisesti johtuen hänen vähäisestä vallastaan ja yleisestä epäsuosiostaan Koreassa. Hankyoreh kirjoitti Parkista myös erittäin negatiivisesti, kun taas JoongAng käytti joko negatiivista kehystä tai sekoitti negatiivisia ja positiivisia kehyksiä artikkeleissaan. Yllättävää kyllä, se ei kertaakaan suoraan puolustanut konservatiivista presidenttiä, kenties johtuen hänen hyvin vähäisestä kannatuksestaan. Sen uutisointi Parkiin liittyen oli kuitenkin vähemmän negatiivista kuin Hankyoreh:n, joka vaati hänen syrjäyttämistään skandaalin alusta lähtien. Hankyoreh asettui myös melko avoimesti Leeta vastaan ja odotetusti JoongAng puolusti häntä ja Samsungia hänen pidätykseensä saakka. Hankyoreh:n avoin negatiivisuus Leeta kohtaan ja myös JoongAngin varovainen kritiikki hänen pidätyksensä jälkeen voidaan nähdä merkkinä siitä, että korealainen media on entistä valmiimpi kritisoimaan paitsi poliittisia päättäjiä, niin myös taloudellisia johtajia. Kuitenkin Leesta kirjoitetut artikkelit olivat kauttaaltaan vähemmän negatiivisia kuin Parkista tai Choista kirjoitetut artikkelit kummassakin lehdessä. Avainsanat – Nyckelord – Keywords Etelä-Korea, Park Geun-hye, media-analyysi, Choi Soon-sil, Jay Y. Lee, framing-analyysi, politiikka, Hankyoreh, JoongAng Säilytyspaikka – Förvaringställe – Where deposited Maailman kulttuurien laitos Muita tietoja – Övriga uppgifter – Additional information 2 Table of contents Acknowledgments 4 Introduction 5 1 The political scandal and the people behind it 7 1.1 Who is Choi Soon-sil? 7 1.2 The Choi Soon-sil gate 9 1.3 Calls for impeachment begin 12 1.4 The arrest of Choi and the impeachment of president Park 13 1.5 Samsung joins the scandal and Park’s arrest 15 1.6 Timeline for the scandal 17 2 Media in South Korea: a struggle for freedom 17 2.1 Press freedom in the past 18 2.2 Newspapers and scandals in economics and politics 21 3 Methodology 25 3.1 Research outline 25 3.2 Theoretical framework and methodology 27 3.3 Data collection 30 3.4 Coding 33 4 Analysis and findings 36 4.1 Quantitative findings 36 4.2 Qualitative findings: what are the frames truly like? 43 4.2.1 Frames used for Park 43 4.2.2 Frames used for Choi 50 4.2.3 Frames used for Lee 57 5 Conclusions 66 Sources 71 3 Acknowledgments I would like to express my humble thanks to those who have helped me along the way of writing and finishing this thesis. Most notably I want to thank Andrew Logie, professor of Korean studies and my thesis supervisor, and Juha Janhunen, professor of East Asian studies, for helping me through their academic expertise and guidance in making this a legitimate dissertation. Huge thanks to my friends Mia Meri and Kata Naaranoja, for acting as my peer support group despite having graduated already, and to my parents for supporting me throughout the long writing process. I also want to extend my gratitude to Charles La Shure, professor of Korean language and literature in Seoul National University, for proving to me that I can indeed read Korean texts, for without the revelation this thesis would not have been possible. 4 Introduction I was an exchange student in Seoul National University from August of 2016 to June of 2017. During that time, something quite peculiar happened, something that I discussed with my professors, my student peers, and my friends alike. Coming from a very calm political culture where mass protests are a rare event and large scale political scandals are even more so, comprehending the magnitude and full meaning of the Choi Soon-sil gate was quite difficult, even if I watched it unfold from a very close distance. But it intrigued me, so much so that I abandoned my original idea for my graduate thesis of continuing with the topic I chose for my undergrad thesis, poverty in South Korea, and decided to write about the scandal instead. It took me months of thinking and brain storming to finally arrive to my final choice of research topic. Despite my self-doubt in my Korean capabilities and my general ability to tackle a totally new field of research, I decided to stick with it. Now, six months later, I know I made the right decision. While the general topic of this thesis is the political scandal of 2016-2017 surrounding then president Park Geun-hye, the actual research made is on the newspaper media and how it covered the main three people tangled in the scandal, namely president Park, her friend Choi Soon-sil, and vice-chairman of Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee. More specifically, this is a media analysis of frames used when reporting on these three people by two different Korean newspapers, Hankyoreh and JoongAng Ilbo. With that being said, however, even writing the chapter on the timeline of the scandal required research of its own because there is no academic material available yet on this matter. Thus, it was up to me to use news sources to figure out what happened and when, so I could write a detailed description of how the events unfolded. The fact that not much has been published yet on this very recent chain of events not only made writing about it that much more difficult, but it has also given me great responsibility to do my work well. I hope I have done this topic justice. First, I will talk in length about the political scandal itself to establish a clear timeline for what happened between October of 2016 and April of 2017. Events that took place after that will not be included because this is the timeline of the article sample used for the analysis, but also because the final word is yet to be said on the case. At the time of writing this, Park still hasn’t 5 been convicted, leaving the whole chain of events without a conclusion. Perhaps a full, detailed account can be written once everyone involved has been finally sentenced. In the second chapter, I will explain the history of press freedom in South Korea and how that relates to this particular case. As will be shown later, writing about people in power, be it political or economic, has not always been something newspapers have been allowed to do in Korea. Although all direct control of the press has been erased, self-censorship in the press is still an issue, which gives an interesting premise for this research topic as well. Special attention will be paid to how Samsung Group has controlled or directed the press in the past, and also in present day. Third chapter is dedicated to explaining the theoretical and methodological background of the analysis made. I will also explain how the data sample was collected and how it was coded. This is done to give credibility for the analysis made in the next chapter, which will include both quantitative and qualitative aspects to ensure a broad scope of analysis. Lastly, conclusions will be drawn from the analysis chapter and each research question will be answered explicitly and concretely. 6 1 The political scandal and the people behind it In this chapter, I will explore the main reasons behind the 2016 political scandal concerning the now former president Park Geun-hye, and how these events unfolded. This is important to ensure a good understanding of what exactly happened in this peculiar chain of events, and to establish the timeline for the research and media analysis that will be the core of this thesis. I will also describe briefly the personal life of the woman at the root of this scandal, Choi Soon-sil, to come to a better understanding of her relationship with president Park and her involvement in the scandal at large. News articles and videos will be used as the main sources for this chapter, as there isn’t yet much academic material available. This is simply because of how recent this whole political scandal is. 1.1 Who is Choi Soon-sil? Choi Soon-sil was born in 1956. Her father was Choi Tae-min, founder and leader of a religious cult in South Korea called the Church of Eternal Life. It was through her father’s connections with the Park family that she befriended Park Geun-hye in the 1970s.

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