In South Korea, television has traditionally been the most influential form of media. Television remains popular with a penetration rate of 90 per cent for the adult population, but the digital shift has changed the way people watch television and television programmes. Television programmes are no longer reserved for televisions but are also accessible online via personal computers (PCs), smartphones, and other mobile devices. This has resulted in television programmes reaching a greater portion of the adult population (91.6%) than television did. Television news programmes reach 82.8 per cent of the population. 75.6 per cent of the adult population watch television news programmes more than two days a week, with 47 per cent watching television news every day. Despite a continued decreasing trend in use, television remains the most-used medium, with an average weekly viewing time of 143.2 minutes and television news viewing time of 48.4 minutes. News usage share by media sector (categorised by the type of devices used) also shows that television is still the most popular news media among the news audience, with a usage share of 45.3 per cent in comparison with that of newspaper and Internet, which have a share of 9.2 per cent and 40.4 per cent, respectively. However, a closer look into the television news usage share shows that terrestrial television channels, once the dominant news outlet in the country, now have the news usage share of 17.8 per cent, with general cable channels and specialised news channels’ share together reaching 27.5 per cent (Public Opinion Concentration Survey Committee, 2018).
In contrast to its glory days in the 1990s when the print newspaper was the second-most used medium and its penetration rate reached 87.8 per cent, print newspapers are read by a mere 12.3 per cent of the population today, exclusively for news. The subscription, readership, and reading time of print newspapers have consistently decreased since 2011. The Media Consumer Research reported that the print newspaper subscription rate fell to the level of 6.4 per cent and the time spent reading print newspapers to 4.2 minutes in 2019. In terms of newspaper circulation, the Chosun Ilbo tops the list at 1,308,395 copies, followed by JungAng Ilbo (978,279) and Dong-A Ilbo (965,286). Maeil Business Newspaper is ranked fourth (707,749), with Haynkyoreh (214,832) and Kyunghyang Shinmun (190,745) placed at seventh and tenth on the list, respectively. The paid circulation data from Korea Audit Bureau of Certification show that these six national print dailies are among the ten most-circulated newspapers in South Korea. Chosun Ilbo, JungAng Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, Hankyoreh, and Maeil Business Newspaper are the top brands in terms of weekly usage percentages (Newman et al., 2019). While Chosun Ilbo is the most-read print daily newspaper, it ranks at the bottom in terms of brand trust. Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang are the most and second-most trusted print dailies by those who have heard of the titles. While trust in the news in South Korea is consistently low, print news is even less trusted, and all the print newspapers discussed above place at the bottom in the brand trust ranking when compared with television news media. Other periodicals declined in their reach by 25.9 percentage points since 1996, and 1.3 per cent of people still get news from them.
Most striking in recent years has been the rise of Internet-based media as the news media of choice, especially on mobile devices. As of 2019, the reach of Internet-based media is 86.7 per cent, with 80 per cent of the adult population using Internet-based media to access news. Preference for mobile devices over PCs became even starker, with only 21.1 per cent of the population using a PC to access the news and 79.6 per cent using mobile devices. 37.2 per cent of adults get news on their mobile devices and 3.3 per cent on their PC every day. Altogether, 79.6 per cent of adults consume news online at least once a week on their mobile devices. On average, people spent 21.5 minutes and 4.8 minutes reading or watching the news on their mobile devices and PC, respectively.
Looking at the platform through which people get news on the Internet, 73.6 per cent gets news from an Internet portal like Naver or Kakao’s Daum. The Internet portals provide a wide range of services and reach 81.8 per cent of the population on either PC or mobile devices, and have become one of the most influential media in the country. Another interesting change has been the rise of online video platforms like YouTube, Naver TV, and Afreeca TV as popular online news media channels. The use of these platforms for news rose from 6.7 per cent in 2018 to 12 per cent in 2019. All major broadcasting companies run a channel on at least one of the video platforms, and JTBC, YTN, and MBC topped the list as the news outlets that reached the greatest number of people on these video platforms.
It is important to note the status of Internet portals as news media, because while Internet portals do not produce their own news articles or programmes and act only as go-betweens, they are still believed to be some of the most important news media by South Koreans. The three largest portal sites, Naver, Kakao’s Daum, and Nate, have 55.4 per cent, 22.4 per cent, and 7.4 per cent share, respectively, in online news article consumption. The concentration ratio (CR3) reaches 85.2 per cent, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in online news article consumption is 3,638 (Public Opinion Concentration Survey Committee, 2018). Internet portals distribute articles and stream content uploaded by the programme providers, but 64.2 per cent of the adult population saw it as a news medium, with the vast majority of those in their 20s believing it to be so (76.8%). Naver, the most-used Internet portal in South Korea, ranked second in the most influential media company after KBS in the Survey of Media Audiences’ Perception and was the fourth most-trusted media company after KBS, JTBC, and MBC, despite not being a news outlet that produces original content (Korea Press Foundation, 2019a). News on the Internet portal also scored 3.19 out of 5 in reliability, which is comparable to the reliability score of print news media (3.21).
Despite an overall increase in digital media use, polarised patterns in news media use habits across different age groups are becoming more prominent. Most of the news audience in their 20s get news predominantly from the Internet (77.7%), but 89.5 per cent of those older than 60 get news from the television, and only 4.6 per cent of this group use the Internet for news. Use of television for news is significantly lower in the younger groups, with only 10.1 per cent of those in their 20s and 25.4 per cent in their 30s watching television news.
The digital turn is even more visible in teens’ news consumption patterns. 66.2 per cent of teens access news on the Internet, 52.8 per cent get their news from television, and only 7.8 per cent use print media. In terms of the platforms of choice for news consumption, social media has the greatest reach (41.4%), with online video platforms (39.8%) and messenger services (35.1%) following closely. This shows a significant change in news consumption habits, considering the reach of social media (10.8%) and messenger services (13%) among adults.
