Media Coverage of K-pop by BBC and CNN: A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis

The international acclaim of K-pop groups like BLACKPINK and BTS, Bong Joon Ho’s film “Parasite” (2019), and Netflix’s blockbuster drama series “Squid Game” (2021) have perpetuated the phenomenon commonly termed the ‘Korean wave’ or ‘Hallyu’. Substantial research approaches to analyzing the popularity of Korean cultural products are twofold. One approach examines why Korean cultural products are gaining popularity not only in neighbouring Asian countries but also in North America and Europe, which have lower degrees of cultural proximity to Korea. Stemming from audience reception studies, many scholars explore why viewers watch what they watch, a phenomenon that does not seem to conform to hegemonic, conventional, and, therefore, stereotypical codes (Hall, 1973).

As widely acknowledged, Ang’s (1985) groundbreaking audience reception study on “Dallas” marked the beginning of a new era in research that explores the multifaceted ways audiences perceive and engage with soap operas. Similarly, in the field of audience decoding and fandom studies, the Korean drama “Winter Sonata” (Fuyu no Sonata in Japanese) represents a significant milestone, sparking academic inquiries into the reception of Korean popular culture abroad. These studies have examined the transnational appeal of this drama, especially among middle-aged Japanese women. Research findings indicate that the series evoked a poignant sense of nostalgia in Japanese women in their 40s, awakening fond memories. Further investigations have probed how global fans interact with and integrate Korean media content into their daily lives (Baudinette, 2021; Hanaki et al., 2007; Iwabuchi, 2008).

The other approach involves international communication scholars who have examined the factors contributing to transnational audiences’ embrace of Korean cultural products and explored the reasons behind the phenomenon of contra-flows from the global South to the global North (Thussu, 2006; Wasserman, 2014). This scholarship focuses on how South Korean popular culture became a global phenomenon and its impact on tourism and the marketing industry, leveraging the nation’s image and soft power in foreign countries (Bae et al., 2017; Han & Lee, 2008; Jin, 2016; Kim & Lee, 2010; Nye & Kim, 2013). These scholars have examined the factors that influence the worldwide spread of Korean pop culture and have considered the actions necessary for the Korean government, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, to enhance Korean cultural engagement. This includes promoting the export of Korean cultural productions and improving Korea’s image.

Regarding new phenomena or global issues, audiences often rely on international news media (Boudana, 2016). Moreover, the media not only convey information and knowledge but also influence public perceptions of other nations, forming “imagined communities” (Anderson, 1991). In other words, the framing of issues by news outlets significantly influences the reality audiences construct in their minds through the process of imagination after exposure to media texts, a phenomenon described by Lippmann as “pictures in our heads.” However, only a few studies have been conducted on the global news coverage of K-pop, and the ways in which international news media represent ‘non-Western’ popular culture, particularly K-pop, have been controversial.

Glynn and Kim (2013) conducted a study on the portrayal of the Asian singer PSY and his song ‘Gangnam Style’ in the British press. They uncovered a prevalence of negative attitudes towards Asians, evidenced by the portrayal of non-Western music as having “low cultural status” (p. 9). Conversely, Gibson engaged in a qualitative analysis scrutinizing Western news and entertainment content from 2009 to 2019, with an emphasis on K-pop as presented in Google News and Google Video, platforms that predominantly prioritize high-traffic websites. This study inferred that, despite the critical and stereotypical perspectives of K-pop and its idols prevalent in Western mainstream media, the overall sentiment of news reporting was predominantly positive. However, the extent to which international news media have reported on K-pop over time, particularly into the 2020s, remains unexplored. Moreover, given the major role of transnational news media in disseminating information and shaping global perspectives (Chouliaraki, 2008; Curran et al., 2017; McPhail, 2016), it is imperative to examine how international media representations of K-pop have evolved since its inception. Consequently, this study endeavors firstly to investigate historical tropes and secondly, to identify how Western news media currently articulate K-pop in their narratives. Thirdly, it aims to evaluate whether these stereotypes have evolved.

METHOD

This study adopts a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis (CACDA) approach to conduct a comparative examination of news narratives within data related to K-pop. By employing the CACDA method, this research aims to analyze how the news media frames and contextualizes K-pop, with a particular emphasis on the specific terms and phrases encoded in news discourses. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) offers an interdisciplinary lens for examining texts within their social contexts, aiming to unravel the intricate interplay between language, power, and ideology. As proposed by Fairclough and Wodak (1997), discourse is not only influenced by the social milieu but also actively shapes it. Consequently, CDA examines language as a form of social practice, emphasizing the societal structures and power dynamics that both affect and are affected by discourse.

Van Dijk and Kintsch (2013) highlight the nonneutrality of texts, emphasizing their inherent ideological loadings and the power dynamics they reflect. Their work underscores the interpretive role of linguistic structures in discourse comprehension, suggesting that texts don't merely depict reality but actively construct it. Thus, by dissecting symbolic lexical choices and nuances in phrasing, analysts can discern the ideologies that permeate the discourse and identify how language may reinforce or challenge prevailing power narratives. Building on this, Wodak and Meyer (2009) advocate for a multi-dimensional approach to discourse, acknowledging the multifaceted layers—ranging from specific linguistic elements to overarching socio-political frameworks. This perspective underscores the necessity to understand both the details and broader contexts in which language operates. Through such a comprehensive approach, CDA highlights the interdependent relationship between language and society, offering insights into the complex dynamics that underpin textual and conversational constructs (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; Van Dijk & Kintsch, 2013; Wodak & Meyer, 2009).

In the method of assessing the salience of issues in media, this study utilized the WordSmith Tool, substantially mitigating subjectivity. By discerning the highest-ranked keyword, we infer the most dominant issue corresponds to the term most recurrently used by the news entity. Notably, computer-assisted textual analysis, facilitated by such data-mining tools, proves instrumental in studying news frames due to its capacity to pinpoint salient themes (Entman, 1993; Tian & Steward, 2005). For our systematic textual exploration, we incorporated WordSmith Tool 7.0, adept at automating word extraction. This methodology curtails the inherent subjectivity of manual coding, offering insights into overarching media discourse structures derived from explicit microstructures (Seale, 1998, 2008; Van Dijk & Kintsch, 2013). In the evolving landscape of discourse analysis, the need for methodologies that can adeptly handle voluminous corpora is becoming increasingly evident. Moschonas and Spitzmüller (2010) underscore this growing necessity, particularly in the context of comparative, corpus-based discourse analysis. For instance, in their comprehensive examination of media portrayals of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press, Baker et al. (2008) examined the discursive constructions related to refugees and asylum seekers in UK tabloids and broadsheet newspapers from 1996 to 2005 using WordSmith Tools. Wang et al. (2020) examined the ways in which Chinese, US, and Filipino newspapers reported on South China Sea issues using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. Kim (2014) examined how CNN, Newsweek, and The New York Times portrayed North Korea using the WordSmith software. Seale (2008) also conducted a computer-assisted content analysis of British and American journals in sociology and medical sociology using WordSmith Tools in his pioneering work in medical sociology (Seale, 2008).

This study used WordSmith software’s keyword function to identify dominant media issues (RQ1) and to analyze key K-pop news terms across different sources. It excluded generic articles such as “the,” “a” and conjunctions while focusing on significant pronouns such as “Trump,” “BTS,” and “BLACKPINK” to represent media focal points. In line with R2, the research aims to uncover patterns in K-pop media narratives by decoding keywords with WordSmith Tools. To ascertain significant lexical associations, collocates within a 10:10 span underwent rigorous analysis, assisted by WordList, KeyWords, and Concord features. For statistical robustness, the ‘Log Likelihood’ (L.L.) measure was chosen after evaluating alternatives like MI and Dice Coefficient (DC) (Kim, 2014, p. 225). In response to R3, this exposition explores the contrasting representations of K-pop in BBC and CNN news discourses.

With regard to the selection of media outlets, we prioritized globally influential platforms, specifically selecting the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the US-based Cable News Network (CNN) due to their pivotal roles as global agenda setters. Given their esteemed international reputation and their ability to vie with leading global news agencies, the narratives produced by BBC and CNN serve as salient benchmarks for global media discourse (McPhail, 2016; Tian & Stewart, 2005; Xie & Boyd-Barrett, 2015). This study utilized a corpus of news articles sourced from the LexisNexis Advance database.

These articles have previously been employed in analyses of news discourse, as demonstrated in studies by Gabrielatos and Baker (2008, p. 9), Lai and Lane (2009), and Kearns et al. (2019). Adopting Gibson’s (2018) methodology, the search term ‘K-pop’ was selected to minimize overlapping with unrelated terms. The dataset encompasses content from BBC World and BBC UK National, alongside CNN International and CNN Domestic. The temporal scope of the study extended from an unspecified opening date to 31 December 2021, a period chosen to include the full scope of relevant news coverage pertaining to K-pop. Given that the BBC World Service and CNN International offer content in 42 and 7 languages respectively, as stated on their websites, the selection of English-language content was facilitated by specifying the ‘English’ language filter within the database, thereby ensuring the extraction of news items exclusively in English.

RESULTS

BBC’s initial coverage of K-pop emerged on December 31, 2005. This narrative, predominantly centered on the year's pervasive digital trends, highlighted the meteoric rise of Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” As delineated by BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, within a mere span of five months, this cultural artifact not only clinched the apex position on global music charts but also registered an unprecedented near-billion YouTube views. The global resonance of this musical phenomenon culminated in Psy’s discourse at the esteemed Oxford Union and engendered myriad parodies, with a rendition by Eton pupils being particularly noteworthy. Cellan-Jones further posited a discernible shift in youth's media consumption patterns, veering towards platforms like YouTube, suggesting that the Gangnam wave—emblematic of foreign cultural transference—had captivated audiences prior to its mainstream media endorsement. On a parallel note, CNN’s first reference to K-pop materialized on July 3, 2012. Within the international news segment, Suzanne Malveaux, accompanied by an aural backdrop of Busker Busker’s track, intimated the band’s ascension post their debut on South Korea's talent spectacle, Superstar K3, subsequently solidifying their chart dominance. Figure 1 chronicles the annual frequency of K-pop-centric news from 2005 through 2021 across both BBC and CNN.

Figure 1.

News Size and Volume: The Number of News Articles in BBC and CNNNote. Spanning from 2005 to 2021

In 2017, a year marked by a significant increase in news reporting, the BBC frequently used the keywords “Jong” (raw frequency: 45) and “Hyun” (36), relating to news about Kim Jong-hyun, the lead singer of SHINee. This was highlighted in a report dated December 19, 2017, which noted, ‘He was the lead singer of one of South Korea’s largest pop groups, SHINee. His death elicited an outpouring of grief from fans around the world.’ In 2018, the predominant keyword ‘Concert’ (34) in CNN’s coverage focused on a K-pop concert in Pyongyang, featuring groups such as Red Velvet. As the 2020s commenced, the BBC expanded its coverage to include megastars like BTS (41), and BLACKPINK (45) prominently figured in the 2021 analysis. Meanwhile, CNN’s 2017 reports concentrated on Kim Jong-hyun’s death and significant political events, including then-President Trump’s first visit to South Korea, as indicated by the keywords “SHINee” (19) and “Trump” (34). The keyword “music” (62) in 2019 was primarily used in discussions about K-pop and the Korean pop music industry, exemplified by the statement on October 14, 2019: “Concerns regarding how mental health is managed in the Korean pop music industry - often referred to as K-pop - have grown significantly over the past decade. Many of its stars, known as idols, undergo years of training to refine their singing, dancing, and acting skills...” Throughout the 2020s, CNN’s coverage evolved to include various socio-political campaigns, especially those involving BTS (266) in 2020, while continuing to cover issues related to “Trump” (122) in 2020 and “China (Beijing)”(138) in 2021.

Data from Google Trends (2016) indicates that J-pop enjoyed global popularity in the late 1990s and 2000s. However, a shift occurred around 2009, with growing public interest in K-pop. This trend intensified from 2010 onwards, as evidenced by a dramatic increase in K-pop related searches, leading to an unprecedented widening in the popularity gap between J-pop and K-pop. Currently, K-pop’s popularity is approximately 14.3 times greater than that of J-pop. Furthermore, when compared to K-pop, the popularity of Cantopop (Cantonese pop music) and Mandopop (Chinese pop music) is markedly lower, almost negligible (Kong, 2016).

Table 1 presents the prominent keywords extracted using the Wordlist function of the WordSmith Tool. Word frequency illustrates the methods by which news media emphasize specific issues or topics, predominantly employing consistent terminology within news narratives (Entman, 1991).

Table 1.

Top BBC, CNN Wordlist

A comparative analysis was conducted between the Wordlist and KeyWord lists. The consequential list of salient keywords extracted from each media outlet via the KeyWord function indicates congruent key agendas between BBC and CNN. The top 15 keywords, arranged hierarchically, for BBC were as follows: “K-pop,” “BTS,” “Korean,” “Fans,” “Asian,” “Blackpink,” “Crimes,” “Anti,” “Issues,” “Biden,” “Hate,” “Idols,” “Military,” “Limbo,” and “exports.” For CNN, the list comprised “K-pop,” “BTS,” “Biden,” “Trump,” “Korean,” “Fans,” “Tiktok,” “China,” “Blackpink,” “Twitter,” “Music,” “Netflix,” “Rally,” “Crimes,” and “Slave.” The words distinctly prevalent in each media source were “Hate’, “Military,” “Limbo,” and “exports' for BBC, and “Trump,” “Tiktok,” “China,” “Netflix,” and “Rally” for CNN. Within the list of 20 keywords, three pivotal terms – “K-pop,” “China,” and “fans” - emerged as the primary news agendas in both the BBC and CNN. Building on this selection, the subsequent section will offer a critical discourse analysis for each keyword, delving into the nuances of their respective news narratives.

DISCUSSION

The present study examined the portrayal of K-pop within Western news media, specifically on BBC and CNN, aiming to discern the varying discourses articulated by these outlets. The primary aim was to discern the dominant agendas and attributes characterizing their coverage of K-pop. Initially, the first research question (RQ1) explored the principal news agendas in the portrayal of K-pop on BBC and CNN. An inductive discourse analysis methodology, utilizing WordSmith for keyword analysis, was adopted. This analysis revealed that both BBC and CNN predominantly framed K-pop as an export commodity, diverging from their typical coverage of Western pop artists like Adele or Taylor Swift, which tends to explore societal reflections, emotional depth, or musical expertise. K-pop artists, by contrast, are often depicted merely as products for export. Furthermore, both the BBC and CNN consistently portrayed K-pop as a deliberately crafted cultural product. Such portrayals could convey to global audiences Western stereotypical perceptions of the Korean music industry and South Korea as ‘undemocratic,’ positioning them as ‘the Other’ even among democratic nations (Wang, 2019).

The study’s second question (RQ2) examined the dominant patterns manifest in the representation of K-pop in BBC and CNN news. The results show that h BBC and CNN’s news pertaining to K-pop were constructed with issues such as controversy or conflict. Additionally, the global media narrative around K-pop did not solely focus on its potential economic impact for South Korea, but also highlighted various challenges and controversies. This includes narratives on criticisms from Chinese social media users and specific incidents related to the THAAD deployment, and Choi Si-won’s endorsement of Hong Kong’s independence. There was also a propensity to elevate lesserknown figures, or “celetoids,” to K-pop stardom in Western coverage, sometimes shading the broader industry’s reputation (Rojek, 2004). Although the Korean Peninsula is technically at war, with 28,500 US personnel currently stationed in South Korea since the Korean War (1950–1953) ended in an armistice, Korean popular music has primarily been shaped by economic and geopolitical contexts. It particularly highlights the conflict not only between the two Koreas but also the ongoing tensions between South Korea and China, amidst China's economic and military rivalry with the US, which significantly impacts the global landscape. Regarding the question about discrepancies between BBC and CNN in reporting on K-pop (RQ3), CNN depicted K-pop fans as technologically adept, entwined in political narratives, especially during the Trump and Biden administrations. Furthermore, there's a noticeable tendency within global media to portray K-pop fans as “extraordinary.” Such narratives, while differentiating K-pop fans from conventional pop music fans, simultaneously elevate them from mere supporters to potent political actors, sometimes overshadowing their philanthropic endeavors and commitment to sustainable initiatives.

As DeNora (2000) notes, the complexities of how music operates remain somewhat elusive. However, this study’s findings suggest that global news narratives pertaining to K-pop may not sufficiently explore in depth the aspects of audience-music interactions, potentially limiting our comprehensive understanding of music’s influence on listeners. Significantly, there was an apparent scarcity of articles that genuinely dealt with the conventional aspects of K-pop as a music genre, including the inspirations behind their musical compositions or dance choreography. In light of the substantial impact global media exerts on shaping societal perceptions, as noted by Curran et al. (2017), it becomes imperative to ensure a fair, nuanced, and comprehensive depiction of non-Western cultures in contexts. This study embarked on an exploration of K-pop’s portrayal in news media, striving to uncover the specific social contexts influencing its representation. The approach centered on contextual social factors, employing inductive analysis to reduce subjectivity. However, the investigation fell short of fully deciphering the elements influencing K-pop’s portrayal in international news outlets. Future research should adopt a cross-cultural comparative framework to critically examine the representation of Asian and Western pop stars in Western media narratives. Such scholarly pursuits are crucial, not for exacerbating East-West divides, but for transcending the stereotypical ideologies that shape the portrayal of Asian cultures in Western news media. Moreover, this approach will assist in reexamining the role of global news networks as agenda setters, responsible for cultivating a global public sphere within the ever-evolving and interconnected landscape of global media.

Disclosure Statement

Disclosure Statement There is no potential conflict of interest. The study did not receive any external funding.

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