The number of immigrants living in Korea exceeded 1.57 million in 2013. However, immigrants in Korea are still being recognized as objects of exclusion when they adhere to their own identities. They are treated as objects of pity and inclusion only when they are assimilated into Korean culture. This is the typical way of the mainstream media when they represent minority groups as “the other”, not us. In this research, we analyzed reports of articles on immigrants in two major Korean newspapers from 1993 to 2013. Chosunilbo is a representative of the conservative newspapers and The Hankyore is on the liberal side.
Iyengar & Kinder stated that the used words and terms in the media have the tendency to generate ‘semantic priming’ to the audience. For example, if media frequently and continuously use ‘the immigrant’ and ‘the criminal’ together, newspaper readers bring the word, ‘criminal’, into their minds automatically when they think about the immigrant.
Using semantic network analysis method, we found the most used words and the most frequently connected words with then in the articles on immigrants in the two major newspapers. And we classified 21 years into two periods. In the first period(1993-2003), the main word referring to the immigrants in Chosunilbo was ‘foreigner’ and it was most frequently connected with ‘illegal’, ‘illegal stay’, ‘Korea." The main word of The Hankyore was ‘labor’ and it was connected with various words including ‘illegal stay’, ‘human right’, ‘institution." In the first period, the immigrants were commonly represented as the others or foreign workers by two newspapers. Compared with Chosunilbo, The Hankyore mentioned the immigrants’ rights more and saw them more compassionately.
In the second period, the main word of Chosunilbo was ‘multi-culture’ and it was most frequently connected with ‘culture’, ‘home’, ‘education’, ‘support." The main words of The Hankyore were ‘woman’ and ‘immigrant worker’. ‘Woman’ was connected with ‘society’, ‘human right’, ‘culture’, and ‘immigrant worker’ was connected with ‘Korea’, ‘labor’, ‘we’, ‘government’. In this period, the composition of the immigrants became more diverse, and immigrant women were more attended to. The change of main words of two newspaper reflects this reality. However, Chosunilbo still treats immigrants as a single group and as others whom we have to assimilate to our society. The Hankyore accepts their diversity and urges Korean government to protect their rights as the member of our society.