I found this headline interesting because up to this point I had thought that South Korea had recently banned US beef, I didn't realize that it had been going on since the outset of mad cow disease in 2003. Then I thought about what we talked about in class concerning the media coverage of political issues, and how often times long term policy issues don't get covered until there's a dramatic event that focuses our attention. Also, often times the media assumes that the public already understands the situation. Not that I'm saying that we need to hear about Korea's ban on US beef everyday.
For example, there was one article in April (the headline read "South Korea Will Lift Its Ban on American Beef") in the NY Times about the initial lifting of the ban, and I don't think it would have made the news had there not been protests in Korea about it. Here's the picture that went with that. Makes for a nice dramatic visual, right?
And then nothing in the NY Times about lifting the ban until June, and there are at least 8 articles in the month of June. South Korea decided to keep the ban in response to the protests. And the Prime Minister's cabinet all resigned because of the issue. I looked through some of these articles and I found that when images accompanied the articles, the images were of the protesters. For example "U.S. Said to Compromise on Beef for South Korea" showed this image:
And "Beef Furor Provokes a Turnover in Seoul" showed these images (in this order):
Notice how the protest picture is on top?
I think this is a nice illustration of how the press loves a good drama and perhaps unconsciously uses images to add to it.
3 comments:
Just like you, I saw the reports about this but didn't really bother with to much. I find it interesing how the media covered this, I did not know the ban runned for 5 years. I like the way you used the pictures in your blog, very symbolic of the situation and just like you said it creates great drama for the media to feed on.
This story does remind me of what we've covered in class regarding the media's coverage of foreign policy. Just like you I had not heard of this ban untill recently and I wonder how many protest have been left out of the mainsteam prior to this.
I remember seeing the protests on TV and thinking to myelf, "Wow, what's going on in N.Korea?" It seems as though a sensationalized imagary is need in the press for it to grab peoples attention. I too was not really aware of the magnitutde of this situation until CNN showed the mass of people on the streets protesting. It's sad that violence sells not only on the big screen but on the news tube as well.
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