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The Ongoing Media Pluralism Debate in South Korea

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business ((GMPB))

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the notion of media pluralism and how it is assessed in South Korea. Throughout 2008–2009, Korean society experienced intense controversy over an amendment to its Broadcasting Law, which is commonly referred to as ‘the Media Laws Debates’. The essential purpose of the amendment was to deregulate the media ownership restrictions in the existing laws, such as the Broadcasting law, Newspaper law and IPTV law, which prohibited the ownership of major broadcast services — notably, network T V, general program provider (hereafter: PP), news PP — by large enterprises, newspapers and news agencies. The focus of the conflict was on the impact such ownership deregulation might have on the existing power structure of the major media, which exert a tremendous influence on public opinion.

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References

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© 2015 Sugmin Youn and Hyunwoo Lee

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Youn, S., Lee, H. (2015). The Ongoing Media Pluralism Debate in South Korea. In: Valcke, P., Sükösd, M., Picard, R.G. (eds) Media Pluralism and Diversity. Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137304308_16

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