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Journalists’ Evaluation of the South Korean Government's Crisis Management in the Cheonan Incident
Author(s) -
Cho SeungHo,
Hong SookYeong
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.12117
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , peninsula , political science , crisis management , public administration , geography , law , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology
The purpose of this study was to examine how journalists judge and react to the withholding of information by the government during a national crisis. This article analyses the case of the sinking of the Cheonan , which killed four South Korean marines and sparked extreme tension throughout the Korean peninsula. For this research, in‐depth interviews were conducted with journalists who reported on the Cheonan incident. All participants (11 journalists) believed that the South Korean government withheld information about the cause of the Cheonan sinking for a period of time. Half of the journalists did not agree with the governmental restrictive information policy, while the other half accepted this as the government acting in the best interest of national security in a crisis situation.