This paper deals with the public information policy among a variety of policies established after the establishment of the May 16 military government. A public information policy is originally for promoting a government’s numerous activities, but the one during the military regime after the May 16 coup went beyond the negative meaning, carrying a positive meaning of securing legitimacy.
The public information policy was closely associated with the stages of the revolution planned by the leading forces of the coup as the policy was considered a tool for realizing the plan. They asserted the eradication of the old evils as ‘the first stage.’ Then as ‘the second stage,’ they carried out organizational reforms with the purpose of strengthening the economic development and anticommunism that they had emphasized. During these processes, the public information organization was expanded in comparison with that of the previous governments.
As the tasks for ‘the third stage’ needed to be performed along with the completion of the ‘second stage’ tasks by July 1961, the characteristics of the public information policy changed. The tasks for ‘the third stage’ were to be newly carried out by the leading forces of the coup. The public information policy until 1962 was implemented while this ‘third task’ tasks were established. The reinforcement of publicity activities and broadcasting for farming and fishing communities, the promotions of culture and arts, and the expansion of foreign publicity activities were aimed at the ‘third stage’ tasks. The ‘third stage’ tasks included public enlightenment and guidance through publicity activities, which were based on a perception that ‘the leading forces of the revolution’ should lead the general public with reformist inclinations and new ideologies for Korea to develop into a advanced nation.
The military government’s public information policy developed in this wise did not appear to be effective. This is because it was not smoothly done to transfer power to civil government for the continuity of all of the policies developed by the military regime. A bill for constitutional amendment was put to a plebiscite on December 17, 1962. The Office of Public Information conducted a public opinion poll focused on those who favored the bill on January 12, 1963, and the results showed immense support for the military government and President Park Chung-Hee. Nevertheless, President Park won the presidential election in 1963 by a narrow margin, only 150,000 votes, in spite of the advantage of staying in power. This result indicates that public support for President Park and the military government was actually low and that the outcomes of the public information policy aggressively pursued by the military regime proved not to be effective.