Production and Correction of Misinformation About Fine Dust in the Korean News Media: A Big Data Analysis of News From 2009 to 2019

Based on framing theory and attribution theory, this research examines how the Korean news has framed and attributed the causes of fine dust in terms of external factors (i.e., China-responsibility) or internal factors (e.g., Korea-responsibility). We conducted a large-scale big-data analysis such as natural language processing and semantic network analysis to examine how news about fine dust in the Korean news had been produced and corrected. We used search terms, such as “fine dust” and “China,” to collect 21,222 articles from 54 media outlets over 11 years from 2009 to 2019. Fine dust reporting could be divided mainly into two stages of (a) producing misinformation and (b) correcting misinformation. In the phase of producing misinformation (before 2015), the Korea Meteorological Administration appeared as a major source of information and emphasized “fine dust from China” in its weather forecast. In the phase of correcting misinformation (after 2015), environmental and civic groups appeared as major sources of information. They urged the Korean government to initiate policies rather than blame China. Another important group, the scholars, denied China-responsibility and started to talk about Korea-responsibility. The government also emphasized on cooperation of Northeast Asian countries and initiating eco-friendly domestic policies based on LTP results (Long-range Transboundary Pollutants). Overall, misinformation was produced in the process of “climate,” → “socialization,” → “politicization,” and misinformation was corrected through “scientification,” → “Asianization” internationally, and “Korea-responsibility” → “eco-friendly policymaking” domestically.