Korea's National Image Through a Content Analysis of Articles about Korea on Vietnamese Online Newspapers
| Tran Thuy Anh | |
| 섬네일을 만드는 중 오류 발생: 섬네일 변수가 잘못되었습니다
| |
| Name in Latin Alphabet: | Tran Thuy Anh |
|---|---|
| Nationality: | Vietnam |
| Affiliation: | 前 하노이 인문사회과학대 경제·관광학부 학장 |
목차
- 1 Summary
- 2 The relationship between Vietnam and Korea
- 3 National image and the role of the international media
- 4 Introduction of Vietnamese media and three online studied newspapers
- 5 Analysis results of information about Korea on the three online newspapers in Vietnam
- 6 Discussion and Conclusion
- 7 references(Korea's National Image Through a Content Analysis of Articles about Korea on Vietnamese Online Newspapers)
- 8 발표문 목록
Summary
This paper introduces the relationship between Vietnam and Korea, the role of media in building and promoting the country's image, analyzes the current information of Korea, which is reflected on three biggest online newspapers in Vietnam, including The Youth of Hochiminh city (tuoitre.com.vn), The Youth (thanhnien.com.vn), and VnExpress.net from January, 2014 to July, 2015.
Results show that the relationship between Vietnam and Korea has built and developed very fast in all fields since the two countries established official diplomatic relationship in 1992. Image of Korea is reflected very updated on the Vietnamese online newspapers with high frequency, fast speed, and rich in its contents and readers’ comments.
Among many topics, which were mentioned on online newspapers, readers are most interested over the past year in politics, highlighted crisis happening in Korea as Sewol shipwreck disaster, MERS disease or activities related to bilateral relations such as international marriage between Vietnamese women and Korean men. Comments from readers showed that they evaluated the news about Korea through the prism of Vietnamese, with their cultural characteristics of humanity, friendship with the Korean people, and especially the admiration that Korea is a model to Vietnam in solving similar problems. The study also analyzed that topic of Korean culture on Vietnamese online news has become quieter than the early Hallyu and the content information about Korea have increasingly more diverse, not just centered on music and movies as the beginning of the Hallyu wave. The study suggested the Government of Korea may think and establish some kinds of information campaign to increase mutual understanding between other countries with Korea through online media more strategically.
The relationship between Vietnam and Korea
Relationship between Vietnam and Korea has flourished for more than 20 years since diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. In 2001, the two countries reached a comprehensive relationship, and in 2009 the bilateral relationship was lifted into a strategic partnership. The interaction and integration between the two countries have achieved impressive results. The relationship between the two countries has developed as strategic relationships to determine not only bilateral issues but also regional and global issues. Korea and Vietnam joined confidently negotiate the global issues like climate change, terrorism, piracy, technological crime, natural disaster management, green growth, management of water resources cooperation, reforestation and emerging diseases.
Both Vietnam and Korea have many historical and cultural similarities. In addition, the two countries have complementary strengths as Vietnam has abundant human resources, while Korea has strengths in technology and many success of economic development. Vietnam and Korea relationship is tied closely through Korea’s active investments and trade cooperations in recent years.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have achieved strong progress. Vietnam is the only ASEAN members, where Korea has two diplomatic missions, including the Korean Embassy in Hanoi and the Korean Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City. The highest diplomat visited regularly take place between the two countries with the state level visit of President Park Geun -hye Korea to Vietnam in May 12, 2013, the visit of the General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to Korea in May 10, 2014 and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on May 12, 2014 .
In terms of business, at present, Korean businesses considers Vietnam as an attractive investment market. Thanks to the wave of Korean investment in Vietnam increasing, a community of Korean business in Vietnam was formed with about 3000 companies and more than 35,000 businessmen (in Ho Chi Minh City there are more than 30,000 people and over 5,000 people in Hanoi). This is the second largest foreign business community in Vietnam after China. Similarly, around 40,000 Vietnamese workers are working in Korea. Thanks to the positive contributions of companies and workers, the bilateral trade and investment between the two countries have achieved impressive results [Linh Huong, 2015].
In late 2014, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and Korea were ratified. President Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung have announced two countries successfully negotiated a free trade agreement between Vietnam - Korea when the two leaders met for bilateral talks in March 12, 2014 at Busan summit meeting on the occasion of anniversary of the Korean and ASEAN ties. This important event opened new heights in economic ties between Vietnam and Korea as Free Trade Agreement Vietnam - Korea not only expands trade opportunities and investment between the two countries but also deepens cooperation in various fields, including industries and energy.
With the similarities of the Asian peoples in cultures, art is also an important contribution to the field of mounting peoples of Vietnam and South Korea, especially among youngsters. Today, young people in Vietnam know very much, admire and love many prominent faces of Korean entertainment world. For them, there seems to be an invisible mount, inclusive and they always enthusiastically welcome each of the singers , Korean actress’ tour, and soak in the vibrant performance night of the Korean stars. And it seems that between them no longer exist whatever language barriers, cultural. Hallyu, the Korean cultural wave, was received in Vietnam as an extensive than any other country in the area.
Regarding people diplomacy, each nation has about 100,000 people living in the other country. Every year about half of a million people visit each other on each side. In addition, approximately 40,000 Vietnamese and Korean couples have been married to make the two countries become a connexion and family relationship.
In the process of industrialization and modernization, Vietnam's economy is undergoing similar changes that Korea has gone through in the past decades. A typical characteristic of relations between Vietnam and Korea, when compared with many other bilateral relations of Vietnam, is Korea ready to share its experiences and willingness to support Vietnam. Vietnam also looks at Korea as a role model for experiences in the development process.
National image and the role of the international media
National image has become unprecedentedly crucial for governments of countries especially in the context of globalization. National image is a complex concept. It is referred to as “nation branding” and is often associated with public diplomacy, international perception, and international relations. Boulding (1956) conceptualized national image as “the total cognitive, affective, and evaluative structure of the behavioral unit, or its internal view of itself and its universe” (pp. 120–121). Wang (2006) suggested a nation’s reputation consisted of the “collective judgments of a foreign country’s image and character” (p. 91). Many scholars also conceptualized nation branding as a form of soft power (e.g., Potter, 2009). National image has also been noted by many popular authors including Simon Anholt. In a series of continuing publications and speaking engagements, Anholt addresses some of the practical aspects of establishing a national image or “nation branding”. For example, Anholt (2008) suggested a country’s reputation could be analogized to a company or product’s brand image. Many countries undertake the practice managing their national images in other countries or in their regions.
According to Cui Zhang and Charles William Meadow III (2012), prior research has found that international media coverage has an agenda-setting effect on public opinion regarding foreign nations (McNelly & Izcaray, 1986; Salwen & Matera, 1992). For example, Semetko, Brzinski, Weaver, and Willnat (1992) analyzed U.S. television news over a six-month period. A strong relationship was found between the visibility of foreign countries in the media and public opinion. In addition, more recent studies examining a triangulation of media, public opinion, and U.S. foreign policy have found connections between the salience of foreign affairs in the media and in public opinion (Kiousis & Wu, 2008). Other than salience, a foreign country’s positive or negative image in the U.S. media can also exert considerable influence on public attitudes toward that country (McNelly & Izcaray, 1986). For example, Wanta and his colleagues (2004) examined whether U.S. news coverage of foreign nations was able to influence perceptions of other nations, and whether valence (positive or negative) in news reports had an influence on evaluations of the countries. They found that increased negative coverage of a nation resulted in more negative attitudes toward the country. Kiousis and Wu (2008) also found that media coverage was associated with U.S. public attitudes toward foreign countries. Specifically, the U.S. public formed greater negative perceptions of a country due to increased negative media coverage. In examining a country’s national image in the media, two dimensions have been frequently included: visibility and valence (Manheim & Albritton, 1984). Visibility refers to the total amount of media coverage that a country receives from the media, while valence refers to whether a country is portrayed unfavorably or favorably in the media. These two dimensions combine to form the overall national image of a country. As such, a negative national image results from negative valence and low visibility, while a positive national image results from positive valence and high visibility (Manheim & Albritton, 1984). In agenda-setting studies, visibility of a country in the media is likely to be identified in first-level agenda setting research as determined by news frequency, while the valence of a country can be identified in second-level agenda-setting research as determined by the positive or negative framing of the news story [Cui Zhang and Charles William Meadow III, 2012].
Introduction of Vietnamese media and three online studied newspapers
In Vietnam, to December 2014 , there were 838 media organizations with 1,111 print publications, 67 central and local radios and televisions, which includes 02 national stations, 01 digital TV stations, 64 local radio and television stations, 90 online newspapers, and 215 websites belongs to their newspapers.
Data from the study by the TNS, the proportion using smartphone in Vietnam nearly doubled compared with 2013, specifically, it grew up from 20 % last year to 36 %. This rate is lower than the average rate of 49% of the world , or 40 % in Thailand, 51 % and 85 % of Singapore Malaysia, but showed growth in smartphone use is increasingly popular with Vietnamese consumers. An interesting figure about online habits of Vietnamese people from the research is that there are 85% people who often watch videos online, behind only China (92%) and Saudi Arabia (97%). In a survey of online activity (at least once per month) shows that current news, sports and weather information are most concerned by Vietnamese people with 95%, followed by search information 93%, finding product information 69%. Vietnamese people like to read online newspapers to gather more information of the country as well as world. [Thanh Truc, 2014]
Introduction of 3 studied online newspapers
The Tuoitre, Thanhnien, and Vnexpress are among the top 10 online newspapers with the biggest hits Vietnam. Among them, tuoitre.com.vn online newspaper is an online version of the print newspaper called Tuoi Tre daily with circulation near 350,000 copies/ day, and the number of visits online is about 4 millions/ day. [wikipedia/tuoitre]
The thanhnien.com.vn is belong to the Thanh Nien print newspaper, which is a newspaper published daily also based in Ho Chi Minh City. This is one of the newspapers with the largest circulation of 300,000 copies Vietnam in a day, and online newspaper traffic with several million visits/ day. [wikipedia/thanhnien]
Vnexpress.net is the first online newspaper in Vietnam without print paper version. According to Alexa rankings, Vnexpress always had the largest number of people visiting in Vietnam. Also according to this ranking, Vnexpress is in the top 500 most visited website in the world, with over 40 million hits/ day and 24 million regular readers both inside and outside of Vietnam. [wikipedia/vnexpress]
The three aforementioned online newspapers can be seen as representative online newspapers in Vietnam with the largest amount of traffic, fast in reported rapid, deep and responsible for their published contents. The information about the country and the people of Korea as well as the relationship between Vietnam and Korea published in theirs pages is sure to be well received by wide publics.
Analysis results of information about Korea on the three online newspapers in Vietnam
Newspaper is where we can learn and build the image and perception of a country from its information. How the information about Korea was shown on online newspaper sites mentioned above? We have examined three online newspapers from January, 2014 to July, 2015 to investigate the keywords on search menu of each newspapers. The keywords include: Korea (Hàn Quốc), kimchi (kim chi), Korean actor and actress (diễn viên Hàn Quốc), Vietnamese bride of Korea (cô dâu Việt ở Hàn Quốc), Sewol (Sewol). We chose these keywords on the basis of inheriting the previous studies result about the salient features of Korean cuisine (Vietnamese often called Korea as kimchi land – xứ sở kim chi), and focusing major concern of the Vietnamese on the lives of girls marrying Korean men, as well as noticing the highlighted events occurred during the study period. Each article is selected, evaluated and classified in order to avoid duplication. Accordingly, keyword Korea is a general keyword for articles with general values of all matters related to Korea from political, cultural, social issues, etc. If the message contains both from Sewol and Korea we will sort items into categories Sewol. The keywords are selected above abreast of content and highlights that Vietnamese readers care most about Korea during the studied period.
The number of articles on Korea under all 5 keywords
Looking at table 1, we see in recent time, the number of articles in the Thanhnien.com.vn is most, followed by Tuoitre.com.vn and eventually is VnExpress.net. On the Thanhnien, almost every day average two stories about South Korea are published, more than one story on the Tuoitre as well as on the Vnexpress. However, the allocation of the entries according to the keywords on the newspaper surveyed uneven. The number of articles on general topics by the keyword Korea is highest, followed by articles on keyword Sewol related to shipwreck disaster.
Total of news articles about Korea on three aforementioned newspapers also greatly increased compared with the previous years, if compared with the study by Dr. Lee Kye Sun (2013 ). Lee Kye Sun also studied the same three online newspapers, and her study results show that the total number of articles on Korea on three newspaper in 2010 was 443, in 2011 was 596 and in 2012 was 809 items. Through this comparison, we can see the level of interest of Korea by online media in Vietnam have increased steadily in recent years.
Among the general articles of the keyword Korea, the array contents are distributed as follows
Table 2 shows the Thanhnien and the Tuoitre and have the similar level of interest in information on the topic of politics, culture, and society, while the Vnexpress is more interested in cultural and economic topics but less focused on topics reflecting Korean politics. In particular, the Vnexpress have the total number of articles reflect the social cultural issues equivalent to the economic issues with high frequencies, while the rest online newspapers reported very little about the subject of Korean economy.
Table 3 will show the content of the news articles with Korea is positive or negative. Stories reflected the errors, weaknesses, bad sides of society will be recognized as negative, while stories about the beauty, the good sides of Korean society will be coded as positive.
Regarding politics, during the time of study, the Tuoitre and Thanhnien were referring more to the prominent political events related to the activities of the Korean president, Korean Government in relation to other countries as the US, China, Japan, North Korea... For example, the stories reflect the details of the former Korean prime minister indicted, then Korea has a new prime minister, strained relations on the Korean peninsula with the drills, threatening each other ... relationship between Korea and China after the collision of sea fishing, the military exercises of Korea near disputed islands with Japan, incident US ambassador was attacked in Korea, the explosion in subway, Korean president expressed responsibility after Sewol ferry sinking ... It is worth noting here that bellow many bad news stories, there are many favorable comments for Korea made by Vietnamese readers. For example, story about the former Prime Minister of Korea resigned over bribery allegations published by Tuoitre drew 5 comments were all positive and they made a strong association with the situation in Vietnam [Dong Phuong, 2015]. It is noted that the resignation among leaders is very rare in Vietnam. Specifically, comments as follows:
- Culture of resignation is here. Vietnamese leaders should see and learn!
- With leaders like this, not difficult for me to understand why Korea developed. I admire such leaders.
- Self-esteem of Japan and Korea was admirable!
- That’s why Korea become DRAGON!
- When being appointed or being tasked, the resignation is impossible. (refer to the appointed mechanism in Vietnam)
In a similar report published in Vnexpress, reader’s comment also showed his admire for Korean culture of resignation by officials and said that there is a lesson for the people of Vietnam. Negative incidents related to Korean government basically is bad news, but it is interesting to find that Vietnamese readers' comments are in the light of most praising for Korean laws with high respect, and these comments are associated to corruptive situation and the weak of Vietnamese laws today in dealing with these worse issues.
Regarding topics of Korean culture and society,the three online newspapers are more interested the Korean laws, tourism, social pressures in the life of people for their employment, pensions, health care... For instance, there are many reports about Korea rejected the prohibition of adultery, how Korean deal with extra school status, pressure that Korean students have to suffer to entrance university, the risk of suicide in Korean society, Ihwa slum village is decorated with wall paintings and attracts tourists, the risk of MERS disease and noticement for people when they go to work or travel in Korea, unemployment issue among Korean youngsters, or the difficulty of finding employment by university’s graduates during the Korean economic recession...
Regarding educational topics, while writing about the status of education in Vietnam, the authors often refer to information on Korea and notice that training activities in Korea nevertheless still be better managed than in Vietnam. For example, Vietnam also has to face the extra school situation similarly to Korea, but it is reported that Korean situation is much better managed as public school teachers are not allowed to teach extra class for their own students, whereas Vietnamese teacher can do extra class for students regardless of school type or students.
It seems that Vietnamese readers often compare the way to deal of situation by Korean and Vietnamese management organizations. For example, when an article reported about a Korean company confirmed that a famous male singer of Vietnam named Son Tung M-TP is not plagiarism of a Korean band, it was immediately attracted dozens of comments criticized and hasty concluded the way that Vietnamese organization to investigate about this incidence while praised Korean organization with more transparent, accountable and faster [Vu Viet Tuan, 2014]. From the article contents to readers' comments, we may feel that the public is considered Korea becoming the ideal model for the development of Vietnam society in many ways.
However, even Vietnam and Korea has deployed a lot of cooperations in exchange educational programs, scientific research, Korea provided many scholarships for Vietnamese talents and also there are many Vietnamese students study with their own fee, but the article reflects the themes of the cooperation in education, training and scientific research between the two countries, as well as the quality of education, scientific research in Korea is very little mentioned by the online newspapers, or even completely absent.
Regarding topics of Korean economics, there are not many articles on economic topics on all three online newspapers. The article mainly refers to the efforts of the government and the Korean people in overcoming the economic downturn and overcome the adverse impacts on the economy by MERS disease or Sewol ship sank disaster. Panorama of the Korean developed economy, the economic cooperation projects between Korea and Vietnam, the information of products made in Korea, Korean investment activities in Vietnam as well as how Korean businesses contribute to the development of Vietnam... especially almost absent on the online pages.
In the keyword “kimchi”
In the keyword “kimchi", we counted only 12 posts about this topic on the 3 largest online newspapers in Vietnam during the past time. The articles are simply mentioned how to make kimchi, cooking dishes with kimchi, the kimchi museum in Korea, and a seminar on Korean kimchi in Hanoi in a cultural exchange program of traditional village in two countries.
In particular, there was a highlight report on Tuoitre, which introduced a Korean businessman successful in making and distributing kimchi on the Vietnam market with the brand Mr. Kim 's (Ông Kim) [Quynh Trung, 2014]. This article portrayed Mr. Kim, who has persistently learned, clinged to Vietnamese market and succeed with the kimchi. He was married to his Vietnamese assistant woman and has been developing their brand famous not only in Vietnam but also reaching out to other countries in the region. The article praised Mr. Kim 's kimchi brand and the sincere sentiments of Koreans and Vietnamese people. However, among the few number of articles on the subject of kimchi, the report about a kimchi workshop in Hanoi on the Tuoitre caused the opposite effects that made the readers lose affection with kimchi and sympathy to conference organizers. Reasons related to errors in the workshop invitation letter noted that the seminar will be held on the occasion of Hanoi Liberation October, 10. It created question why Hanoi organize workshop on Korean kimchi on the anniversary of Vietnamese capital liberation, that brought dozens of readers’ negative comments. After posting on the Tuoitre, the workshop organizer published their explanation and apology, but the matter has attracted dozens of comments criticize, critique of readers, negatively affect the image of Korea. In addition, there are many topics, stories related to the kimchi but not exploited by any newspapers, such what is the role of kimchi in the Korean life style and national image, the position of kimchi in Korean people's lives, research results on the effect of kimchi or kimchi manufacturing processes...
Regarding the keyword "Korean actors/ actress”
Regarding the keyword "Korean actors/ actress”, it attracted total of 183 articles on all three online newspapers, in which the Vnexpress had largest number of 120 news articles while 60 news articles were published on the Thanhnien, and the Tuoitre posted only 3 times during the survey. Comparing with the results of Lee Kye Sun research (2013) counted on the same 3 online newspapers, the quantities of reports on Korean actor/ actress in 2010 was 56 posts, in 2011 was 85 posts, and in 2012 was 91 posts, the number of articles about Korean actor/ actress on 3 online newspapers increase very fast.
Among three online newspapers, Vnexpress published the most number of articles about Korean actor and actress, with a total of 120 posts, equivalent to the monthly average of 6-7 articles published on the subject. The article about Korean actor on Vnexpress posted in very detailed, meticulously, from their role in the movie, their personal lives and loved ones. For example, the Vnexpress paid a lot of attention to actor Won Bin with pregnant wife, star Hari Won dress in what color to attend a specific event in the Hochiminh city tonight, Bae Yong Joon and his wife on honeymoon, Lee Byung Hun cold face role, the love between Song Seun Hun and Chinese actress, the children of Choi Jin-sil after the lost of the many family members because of suicide... In particular, Song Seun Hun actor only has some dozen posts mentioning his roles and his talent, how he became a Korean movie star in recent years not only in Korea but also internationally. Especially, the article on Korean actors are posted always with beautiful or nice image, and the tone are very positive. Almost there are no mention about the dark side of the life of the stars at all. Many articles attracted readers' comments and especially the readers also lavished praise for their movie star idols. For example, recent articles about Song Seun Hun and his co-star on the Vnexpress has attracted 28 comments, much more than for the articles of other social, political issues posted on this newspaper. The comments showed readers’ admiration of classic masculine beauty of Seun Hun, his great role in the films, as well as congratulations for matched lover that he has just found. We have never seen any negative comment about Korean movie stars on this online newspapers yet.
The Thanhnien has almost 3 articles every month about the Korean movie stars. The article is mainly about the role, work, family of the stars, and even their only their images associated with outfits, accessories and the brands they represent, their styles when interact with fans... The newspaper described in very details about the Korean stars from their dressing styles, words, smiles to eating habits to serve the curiosity of readers. Most of the articles are in accordance with the positive or neutral inclination, less critical tone. The Thanhnien’s readers all have only few comment and not as impressive as the Vnexpress do. It is maybe because of the Thanhnien readers’ style is quite different with the Vnexpress’ readers.
The Tuoitre online newspaper published only one article about the success of Lee Min Ho, one of Ryu Si Won's scandal with his wife and one about Jeon Jang Ja performance banned related to Sewol ship owners. All of these three articles are posted without comment by writer as well as readers. Thus, 2 out of 3 articles is referring to the bad news related to Korean actor/ actress. Seemingly Tuoitre intentionally posted very few stories on this topic, as the policy of the newspaper is directed to the serious topic and avoid attracting the readers in any ways.
Keyword "Vietnamese brides in Korea"
Keyword "Vietnamese brides in Korea" attracted a total of 27 articles in three newspaper, in which the Tuoitre is most concerned with 21 articles, the Vnexpress and the Thanhnien each published 3 articles in the studied time. The proportion of positive articles about the Vietnamese bride in Korea is very low compared to the article on the negative aspects. Every single newspaper published only one article with positive elements, the rest were only referred to the failures and the bad news in the marriage of Vietnamese brides in Korea. The positive contents reflected about the trips to visit family of Vietnamese brides in Korea, who have the support of the local Korean community or Korean businesses, or about some classes, where Vietnamese brides learn Korean culture and custom to before going to her husband home family, the online reunion between the brides and her own family during Vietnamese traditional holidays... The remaining topics mentioned the violence in the family of the brides, the brutal murders, the regret of the family of the passed bride's relatives, the journey to bring brides’ ashes back home to Vietnam, their funeral, the pitiful fate of each Vietnamese bride in remote country…
In 21 articles published on the Tuoitre, there were always flooded of all tear-stained words of unjust, death, delusions, illusions, injustice, violence, cheapness, offensive, disadvantages... Not any even one Vietnamese bride in Korea is peacefully and happily portrayed on any online newspapers. Items on the page are often seen with the happy wedding images accompanying the farewell letters, sorrowful diaries, beside the altar picture of young girl, and distressed face of the bride’s parents, relatives when they heard their daughter was died because of her Korean husband. In particular, there are articles about a dialogue in the TV drama “Modern farmer” on SBS, which was inferred as insulting Vietnamese women when the main character’s mother taunted her son that: "If you continue to drink all day like this, even you go to Vietnam you can not find any bride"[Vien Su, Tran Kim Anh, 2014]. This dialogue is further analysis in many different dimensions on this article, such as how the Vietnamese brides are usually treated in Korea, why they want to exchange their lifetime to get married with a complete strange husband in terms of culture, language, and even emotion and sentiment, what is waiting for the brides in the future, and the social reasons of Vietnam society related to this marriage issue. The article drew 25 comments on every aspect related to Vietnamese and Korean marriage. Among these, there were many comments blaming the Vietnamese Television show too many Korean films that caused illusion to young girls about Korean men, and stated that what was projected on Korean movie are not real. Some commentators questioned that why Vietnamese media say only bad for the Korean and Vietnamese marriage and try to ignore the happy marriage. Some comments expressed reproach to Vietnamese girls marrying Korean as they just want to change their life easily without diligent effort, or even exchange their marriage to help their families financially rather than from sincere love... As the whole, from the content of the article to the reader comments section are not showed favorable evaluation image Korean men, said they prefer violence, hot tempered, inattentive and often drunk. These posts and comments brought so many adverse affect on the image of Korean men in the eyes of Vietnamese as general. After the above-mentioned article, the Tuoitre online newspaper also posted an apology and explanation of SBS for this incidence. Report on SBS apology also attracted exactly 25 comments from readers, in which commentators emphasized the goodwill of SBS, the Korean culture in general, and continue to explain why some Vietnamese women images become so bad in the eye of foreigners.
We have interviewed a senior editor of the Tuoitre newspaper, who did not want to be identified, and she confirmed that the Tuoitre’s editorial viewpoint on the topic of Vietnamese brides in foreign countries is very clear and straight forward. It is said that the Tuoitre completely stands on the side to protect normal Vietnamese people, including the young brides in Korea. They don’t support forced marriages, fast and instant marriage through match-maker, no love marriage between Vietnamese girls and Korean men as it is contrary to the habits and customs of Vietnamese and prejudice the lives and rights of the girls. The Tuoitre articles often aims to reflect the tragedy of Vietnamese and Korean marriage to help alert other young girls avoiding repeat mistakes of many previous women. "We determined a path that does not honor international match-making marriages, since it causes a negative impact on our society. We found it heartbreaking whenever our newsroom receive bad news about Vietnamese brides in Korea, who was beaten to death, or to suffer from lifelong disease, inhumane treatment, killed, lost custody, or evicted. Readers need to understand the real of this kind of marriage to avoid mistakes themselves and protect our loved ones" - she said.
Keyword "Sewol"
The shipwreck disaster of Sewol was reported on all three newspapers at very high level of frequency since it happened so far. In total 470 articles of the three newspapers, Vnexpress reported most with 222 articles, followed by the Thanhnien with 150 articles, and finally the Tuoitre with 98 articles. In particular, the Tuoitre voted Sewol disaster as 1 of 10 most notable international issues and events in the year 2014. All developments around shipwreck’s misery and stress are published constantly, every day on the newspapers there are some stories about this crisis, especially during the peak time of the incident and one year anniversary of the wreck. Vnexpress have posted up to 5-7 times a day reporting on the incident when it just happened. These information was bad news as it was focusing on loss, impotence, sacrifice, worry, grief ... about people on the ill-fated ship and the suffering of their parents, relatives. The rescue efforts of the government and the functional forces of Korea were also mentioned quickly. Actions, words and decisions of the President of Korea related to the sinking ship of Sewol are reported fast and timely. Especially, information about a Vietnamese woman on the ship attracted special attention of readers because it increases the sympathy of the community and is a common concern. The news article covered the death of a Vietnamese bride with her husband and son on the ship left behind a little girl make many readers into tear. Particularly, this post has attracted more than 200 comments with all kinds of emotions from readers. Once again, on the Vietnamese newspaper, the fate of Vietnamese brides in Korea is portrayed associated with extreme loss and grief. No sery of any kind of stories that attract readers comments in Vietnam as many as the articles on Sewol sinking, indicating areas of very high concern about this disaster. Every news and articles about the incident were attracted tens to hundreds of comments from readers. The readers' comments on the report are divided into the following groups :
- Mournful feeling, sympathy for the victims of the sinking ship and their families in general, especially the Vietnamese bride's family on the ship. Admiring feeling to those who take the responsibility, sacrifice for the life of others.
- Condemning Korea for too focusing on economic development but loose management, not taking care and protect people's lives in a proper balance, indignant feeling at the behavior of irresponsible Sewol’s captain.
- Recommend a good lesson for Vietnamese leaders in the similar accidents.
Among the articles on Sewol sinking, the most notable is the article on the attitude and actions of the Prime Minister Chung Hong-won and President Park Gun-hye at the time. The article "Korean Prime Minister to resign because of the sinking of the ferry" published on Vnexpress has summarized televised speech by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, emphasized his responsibility before, during and after the ship sank [Trong Giap, 2014]. This article drew 491 comments from readers, accounted the highest number of comments of the articles on this subject on all newspapers. The comments focused assessment of Mr. Chung's attitude of responsibility, or showed respects, admiration for the cultural resignation of Koreans. The article also raises up the association with irresponsible attitude and behavior, entrenchment of the Vietnam government officials, when undetected errors are still deliberately hiding, blame and almost no culture resignation.
In addition, an article published in Vnexpress titled "Korean president to apologize for the sinking of the ferry" also recounted details of the Korean president's speech in the cabinet meeting dated 16 April, 2014 [Trong Giap b, 2014]. After this article, readers have left 7 comments expressed admiration with the attitude of the leadership responsibility of Korea, and compare with the attitude of the leaders of Malaysia as the country met the air disaster that took the lives of similar figure of people.
Through these article on Sewol disaster, we can see Vietnamese online media paid a lot of attention for the developments of the Korean crisis in a daily hours. Although the accident itself is a bad news, but the comment of the Vietnamese readers suggested that they still appreciate the attitude of the senior leaders of the Korea through their personal responsibilities before the people, in what Vietnamese leaders are rarely expressed even in words. It seems that Vietnamese readers also wanted Vietnamese officials look at Korean leaders’ as good models for learning at the work that people have entrusted to them.
Discussion and Conclusion
Korea and Vietnam officially established relations in 1992, now the diplomatic relationship has been more than 20 years. During that time, the government and people of the two countries have done a lot of work to increase understanding, mutual cooperation to develop relations in all aspects. Participating in the process of enhancing understanding and cooperation, among many forces, we need to mention the contribution of mass media, including online newspapers. Three above studied online newspapers are the biggest and most prestigious online newspapers in Vietnam today. Through the analysis of data as presented above, some basic conclusions can be drawn as follows:
1. The online newspapers in Vietnam are interested in the diverse information on Korea with the published quantity rising steadily over the years, and the rich of content ranging from the political, cultural, social, economic issues to international, bilateral, multilateral relationships of Korea.
2. Hallyu wave continues to attract the attention of the Vietnamese online newspapers, but showed signs of going down. Over time, the news that Vietnamese media interest has tended to gradually shift from the cultural or art topics under the influence of Hallyu into the themes of the social politics of Korea. Among these, major events happening in Korea immediately attracted special attention at high levels of Vietnamese readership. Especially, whether negative or positive events were reported, the Vietnamese readers remain fairly to positive attitude to Korea. They clearly disclosed opinion regarded Korea as a model worth for learning in management style, specifically the culture of taking responsibility and resigning of government officials. Vietnamese readers expressed interest in political issues in Korean society at deeper level than before, in a close reference to Vietnamese context. The question is when the attraction of the Hallyu wave has moved into saturation phase, in order to make Korea continue to attract high attention of the public in Vietnam through mass media, what kind of content/ image/ topic do Korea want to present to Vietnam?
3. There are many array of topics on Korea, which haven’t been focused on online newspapers in Vietnam, such as the development of scientific research, economic sectors, education, engineering and technology. Bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Korea in these areas also have not been mentioned as much as it does in the real time on the news in the major online newspapers in Vietnam. If the bilateral cooperation projects between the two countries are reported more effectively by Vietnamese media, we can be sure the relationship between the two countries can be more strengthened, better serves the information needs of the public.
4. The issue of international marriages among Vietnamese women and Korean men became sore on online newspapers of Vietnam, when the report on the subject is merely the bad news. Image of Korean can be negatively affected through very detailed articles, all about the sad end of these marriages. Some of the readers easily find the direction of eliminating international marriage through marriage brokers from the editorial board of the newspaper, and they also had comments on the reader’s forums. However, these comments are even as small as salt put into the sea. Korea’s international marriage support programs or Korea’s programs for developing the multicultural society should be strengthened with better communicating activities in order to build a real, proper picture of international marriage families for the benefit of all related partners in both countries.
The previous researches have acknowledged the role of the media in honestly, objectively, exactly distributing information of a country in order to enhancing mutual understanding and cooperating between states and regions. Many countries have built and executed communicating strategies using mass media to convey their national message to the public of the partner country successfully. Through the study of articles on Korean topics on online newspapers in Vietnam, we can see apparently that the information published about Korea in the Vietnamese media are taking place quite naturally without national brand’s strategic effort. In many topics, the percentage of positive and negative news reports are almost equal, even inclined to negative in sensitive issues such as Vietnamese brides in Korea. Cooperation of Korea and Vietnam has increased tremendously and diversified in recent years, especially in economic sectors, but it seems that communication activities to enhance mutual understanding not keep up with this progress. Thus, in order to make the Korea country's image becoming more attractive and favorable among Vietnamese, the Korean government may think of a communication strategy using different media channels in Vietnam. Among them, the online channel is one of the best of communication tool with advantages in high speed, no space limitation, multimedia, and easy to measure public feedbacks.
The results of our study still have many shortcomings and limitations. To increase mutual understanding, better cooperation between the two countries in all aspects, study on the media of the two countries on related issues should continue to be done in the future. For example, question of how the topic of Korean and Vietnamese marriage is reported on two countries’ news media, how different the two countries’ news angles regarding this bilateral issue, how the government and organizations in each countries can help these international marriage to become happier using mass media, etc. may deserve more studies. Overall, the image of Korea through news reports on Vietnamese online newspapers are favorable. However, we believe that it can be better improved to lift our relationship to the new stage of development in the near future when we think more about the media.
