2017, Vol.13, No.1

Crisisonomy 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.64

pISSN : 2466-1198 / eISSN : 2466-1201
https://journal.kci.go.kr/cemtp

The purposes of risk communication are to provide accurate information and to relieve psychological anxiety among the public. This study aims to examine how well the Korean media functioned as a principal agent of risk communication, focusing on word choice in reporting recent infectious diseases such as Zika virus, Haemaphysalis longicornis, and multi-drug resistant organisms. A corpus linguistic analysis was conducted based on the interviews with the Ministry of Health and Welfare correspondents. It is found that negative terms were often used on the headlines in a provocative manner rather than on the main body of the article. The words used in the report were also found to be fairly provocative, although the infectious disease reporting guidelines from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged the press to refrain from using such words. The interview pointed out that the competition among the press was a major barrier hindering good risk communication.

After the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, public attention on nuclear energy has increased and various rumors have circulated on the internet. Information from rumors increased people’s fear, which forced them to resist nuclear power energy development. Thus, people tended to oppose additional construction of nuclear power plants in local areas, and doubt about the governmental policy of nuclear power energy. It is so critical to suppress intense rumors for effective implementation of nuclear policies. This study explored the determinants for trust in rumors about nuclear power energy. Positive determinants include perceived risk, stigma, conformity, information usefulness, Identity, anonymity, social capital, and trust in sources, while negative determinants include perceived benefit and trust in government. Our paper gives the empirical evidence for factors to induce the trust in the rumors.

This study analyzed how the relationship between residents and policy participants affects the assesment of local government. Especially, it examined how the relationship affects local government’s policy evaluation with focusing on residents’ perception of policy cases in Goyang City. For this purpose, the empirical analyses through questionnaire and interview survey were conducted. To clarify the purpose of this study, three hypotheses were analyzed. The first hypothesis is that the assessment of local government’s policy will differ according to the relationship between residents and policy participants. The second hypothesis is that there will be difference in assessments of mayor of local government according to their preferred political party. The third hypothesis is that the resident’s assessment of mayor of local government will affect their assessment of local government’s policy. The result of this study shows that the relationship affects the assessment of local government’s policy. It is also found that the residents were analyzed to positively assess the mayor who belong to the political party they preferred. Finally, this study shows that the resident’s assessment of mayor influences the assessment of local government’s policy.