The discursive construction of discrimination: The representation of migrants in the Korean public service broadcasting news

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ways in which Korean society, which is seen by its members as a homogeneous nation, produces media discourses that reaffirm an ideological system of stratified racial order. Furthermore, it examines the vital role of public service broadcasting (PSB) in Korean society where migrants have increasingly become visible. To fulfill the research objectives, the texts of reports dealing with migrants in Korea, which were aired on KBS News 9 from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2008, were examined. The findings suggest that the PSB has failed to fairly represent the culturally diverse groups in Korean society. This demonstrates that PSB gives a concrete form to ideological constructions of Otherness, sometimes transforming subtle cultural or social differences into fundamental and oppositional ones. A key conclusion is that the Korean PSB appears to be ideologically biased toward nationalism. News about migrants reflects underlying ideological systems of social and racial stratification, with migrants being constantly represented as the ultimate Others.