Send message to Authors

Short abstract:

This paper analyzes the ways in which the Korean media portrays liquified natural gas (LNG) and how these portrayals potentially obstruct the energy transition. Our tentative conclusion is that the attitude of Korean media reports on LNG depends on the political orientation of then government.

Long abstract:

The South Korean government is aiming to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, but it is not proactive in reducing the use of liquified natural gas (LNG), which currently accounts for 25 percent of total power generation in Korea. Such action is publicly justified due to the misconception among the public that LNG is relatively clean and safe despite being classified as fossil fuels. From the viewpoint of discursive opposition structures (DOS) theory, we raise the possibility that the media landscape conceals the environmental challenges that LNG generation poses and obstructs the development of public discourse on renewable energy transition. The paper uses media broadcasts and newspaper articles that discuss LNG from 2010 to 2022, which are analyzed using both inferential statistics and discourse analysis. The preliminary results show that the terms 'shipping industry' and 'particulate matter' are mainly mentioned together with LNG from economic and environmental perspective, which lead to positive reports on LNG consumption and imports in the nation. In addition, given that Korea's energy management is centralized, LNG issue is interconnected to the political controversy on other energy issues such as nuclear power generation. The findings indicate that these social and economic structures lead to both conservative leaning and liberal leaning media outlets supporting the use of LNG. We argue that more diverse studies are needed on how national perspectives align with the interests of the media and can lead to the suppression of civic participation in the energy transition processes.