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A Study on the Power and Justice of the Press in Korean Television Dramas─With a Focus on <Pinocchio>, <The Healer>, <Jojak>, and <Argon>

  • The Journal of Korean drama and theatre
  • 2019, (64), pp.229-272
  • DOI : 10.17938/tjkdat.2019..64.229
  • Publisher : The Learned Society Of Korean Drama And Theatre
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Other Arts and Kinesiology
  • Received : April 26, 2019
  • Accepted : June 20, 2019
  • Published : June 30, 2019

Park, Sang-Wan 1

1충남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

There is a heterogeneous gap between people's perceptions of the press in reality and the patterns of the press reproduced in television dramas. Based on this problematic consciousness, this study set out to conduct a general review of its power and justice in Pinocchio, The Healer, Jojak, and Argon. Chapter 2 examined individual lives damaged by the corruption and graft power. Pinocchio and The Healer depict unspecified individuals that fall victim to the power because they are the weak that cannot resist it. These individuals show the violent nature of evil and motivate the main characters to act in a dramatic way. Unlike these dramas, Jojak and Argon depict individual journalists with social influence that are chosen by evil for their influence and become its tools. Being used by evil with no power and methods to inform people of truth, they contribute to the embodiment of the thematic consciousness and make the viewers reflect on media justice. Chapter 3 examined the media power. In Pinocchio and The Healer, the press is described as a puppet for men of political and economic power. These two dramas, however, fail to provide a critical viewpoint of the press that committed evil deeds itself beyond being manipulated by them, thus raising a possibility that the media can justify itself. In Jojak and Argon, the press is depicted as an organization with greater power than men of political and economic power. These two dramas too fail to show the self-examination of the press, thus confirming the power of the press that has become too massive to need no excuse for itself. Chapter 4 examined the media justice. Focusing on the process of covering news, Pinocchio and The Healer put an emphasis on the message that journalists should handle only facts as they are. The truth excavated in the process is used as a ground to punish evil, but the problem is illegal ways of covering new. The duplicity of the press is shown which tries to avoid its responsibilities while exercising its influence instead of public power. Focusing on the reporting process, Jojak and Argon emphasize a message that truth should not be covered up but revealed to the world. Here, however, there is still the possibility of beautification by the press itself. Investigative journalism programs make an in-depth inquiry into the truth of an event, but they have a difficult time securing objectivity and impartiality, which suggests that the delivery of truth through them can also be another way of self-beautification on the part of the press. Truth is emphasized in television dramas on the press. In television dramas, the press avoids its ethical responsibilities on the ground of truth and tries to obtain social influence by means of truth. In the end, the press is granting power to itself.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.