This study aims to draw implications by understanding Koreans" attitude toward overseas adoptees and considering their facing problems and actual conditions through an analysis of the reports of The Chosun Ilbo and The Kyunghyang Shinmun, nation"s major news media. In actual fact, the number of overseas adoptees to visit Korea has increased gradually since the mid-1990s although overseas adoptees has grown very attentive to Korea after 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. This is the reason why the research conduced an analysis of both newspapers reports after the 2000s. Since then, the Web site for overseas adoptees has been opened and the news on them have released because the Korean government legislated act on Overseas Koreans Foundation in 1997 and started to formally include overseas adoptees in the global Korean community. The interest in overseas adoptees is growing in Korea because of the rapid economic growth of Korea, Korean government continued interest in overseas Koreans, etc.
In the research method, it compares and analyzes how The Chosun Ilbo and The Kyunghyang Shinmun speaking for conservative press and progressive press respectively look at overseas adoptees during about ten years, from 2000 to 2011. The objects of analysis are the tone of two newspapers, an editorial, and a column regarding overseas adoptees. Based on earlier studies, it shows differences between two newspapers" reports and argument in three respects: causes of overseas adoptees, seeking their roots and identities, and international adoption and domestic adoption.The results of the research are as follows.
First, in regard to causes of overseas adoptees, baby girls and children with disability have been sent overseas because of blood ties-oriented culture and the preference for male offspring in Korean society.
Second, overseas adoptees are facing a negative international reputation which Korea is a orphan exporting country from the mid-1990s to the 2000s. In addition, overseas adoptees are seeking their roots in Korean society and experiencing identity confusion in adolescence. To handle the matter, it is emphasized Korean society interest, Korean government support, granting dual nationality, and making use of talented people.
Third, the matter on international adoption and domestic adoption is under discussion in Korea since the domestic adoption priority system was imposed in 2007. In particular, the need for change international adoption into domestic adoption came to the fore. While The Chosun Ilbo asserts necessariness of international adoption, The Kyunghyang Shinmun asserts the solution of the unmarried mother problem, overcoming biases against children with disability, and legal institutional supplement policies on domestic adoption in order to produce an atmosphere of domestic adoption.
In conclusion, Korean government has developed and executed various programs, such as follow-up management ofoverseas adoptees, homeland visiting experience program, overseas adoptees project, etc since 2000. But it could be pointed out a lack of a true understanding on overseas adoptees in these programs