The present study examined the role of the Korean
ethnic press in Australia with special reference to the
ways in which their professional backgrounds shaped the
construction of the news content of their newspapers.
The study sample consisted of six Korean ethnic
newspapers produced in Sydney. Both intrinsic and
extrinsic factors relevant to the role of journalists
were identified in interviews with the editors and
publishers. The overall news content was analyzed through
quantitative and qualitative content analysis.
The principal finding of this study was that none of
Shoemaker's (1987) theoretical statements about how
economic factors shape news content could be applied to
the Korean ethnic press in Australia. Despite their
reliance on commercial sources for their economic
survival, all six papers devoted more space to issue oriented
news than to event-oriented news, and were not
responsive to their readers and advertisers in
Shoemaker's terms. Journalistic professionalism as
discussed by Henningham (1989) also was treated as a less
important factor by Korean ethnic newspaper staff. Rather
the professional identity of the ethnic press editors and
publishers was grounded in the culture of their local
community instead of in the mainstream standards of
It is concluded that Korean ethnic newspapers in
Australia have more pragmatic criteria both for the
selection of their news content, and for the professional
standards of their newspaper staff.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219103 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Kwak, Ki-Sung, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Communication |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Ki-Sung Kwak |
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