페미니즘이 언론학에 미친 영향 = The Impact of Feminism on Media Studies

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

For the past twenty years since the introduction of women's studies as a legitimate field of study in Korea, feminist research has made headway in various fields including communication studies. However, there is some debate as to whether it has realized its full potential to transform the conceptual and methodological frameworks of other fields.
The feminist assertion that gender is socially constructed through communication closely links these two disciplines. It is apparent that feminism has been successful in making its presence in communication research and vice versa.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of feminism on communication research in Korea. We paid special attention to the somewhat bewildering proliferation of communication programs at colleges and universities across the nation in the 1990's. This can be characterized by a ski in social paradigms for democracy and egalitarianism. We assumed that the expansion of the field allowed the flux of young liberal scholars who, in turn, contributed to the formation of a more progressive and egalitarian academic environment which was more favorable to fundamentally progressive social thoughts like feminism. With this loose hypothesis in mind, we monitored the changes in the academic environment of communication research on the one hand, and the trends in feminist media research on the other. We also conducted an empirical study of women communication scholar's whose roles in establishing feminist scholarship in communication research should not be overlooked.
To enhance our understanding of the process of importing feminist theory and methodology from the West, we initially conducted an extensive review of literature in feminist media studies in the West, mainly in the United States and Britain, and also in Korea. We found the similar patterns or stages of development--from the stage of "add-women-and-stir", to the stages of feminist empiricism, and finally to the feminist standpoint in western and Korean literature.
A quantitative analysis of the academic environment of communication studies revealed two distinct waves of growth. The first wave came in the 1980's and the second one, which was much more larger and powerful, came late in the 1990's. It is remarkable that twelve new departments of communication were established in 1998 alone.
The professional recognition of female communication scholars came quite late. Before 1990, there were only six full-time female professors throughout the nation. No one was added to the very short roster until 1993. However, during the second wave of growth(from 1995 through 2000), twenty-seven female scholars found full-time university teaching jobs. Increasing demands for full-time faculty members at newly opened departments facilitated a bigger and more flexible job market where many women fared well.
Before the 1990, women comprised of only 9.4% of the total membership of the Korean Society for Journalism & Communication Studies(KSJCS), the largest and most prestigious academic society in communication research. This percentage increased in 1997, and has consistently stayed around 14% until 2000. It was not until 1998 when the KSJCS included the first gender session in their biannual conventions.
Communication research in Korea has been slow in responding to the emergence of the feminist perspective. It was not until 1993 when a paper written from a feminist perspective was first published in the official journal of KSJCS. Books or articles seriously discussing feminist media theories became visible since 1994.
The analysis of curricula offered by the undergraduate communication programs clearly showed the marginalization of feminist media theories and research. Only five universities were found to have offered feminist media theories and research as an independent course, At most other universities, feminist perspectives are covered as minor topics in such courses as popular culture, media & society, film, advertising, and consumer behaviors. In conclusion, feminism has foiled to carve out a unique niche in the communication studies curricula.
Trends in feminist media research were examined as a continuation of, and also a complement to, Hye Soon Kim's study(1996) which analyzed 142 articles published between 1978 and 1995. Although Kim's research is valuable in its own right, it stopped short of covering the second wave of growth, We were interested in finding out new trends in the growth period during which women fared well when it came to finding teaching and research positions. We created a new database covering seventy-three feminist communication studies published between 1996 and 1999 and incorporated it with Kim's database. Our analysis from this merged data showed that feminist media studies which steadily increased since 1992 had grown remarkably since 1997. On the basis of feminist literature, Kim conceptualized that the feminist project would proceed from an 'add-women-and-stir' stage, to a 'feminist empiricism' stage, then a 'feminist standpoint' stage, and ultimately to a 'feminism as normal science' stage. We adopted the same stage conceptualization and operations in order to maintain the continuity of research.
Results show that research at the stage of 'add-women-and-stir' decreased, while the research at the 'feminist empiricism stage' increased. The research at the 'stage of feminist standpoint' did not show a consistent trend. Unlike Kim's study, communication researchers produced research in feminist empiricism and 'feminist standpoint stages' and there were more non-thesis papers from these scholars than researchers in other fields. Like the pattern in the West, the feminist cultural studies school has played a leading role in the development of feminist media research in Korea. We concluded that the quality of the papers has improved greatly in the latter half of 1990's, the second wave of growth period. We detected many positive signs that communication scholars were beginning to discuss feminist perspectives more seriously.
The analysis from a survey of members of the Association of Women in Communication Research(AWCR) showed a stronger sense of commitment and solidarity among the older members and comparatively weaker orientation toward the feminist projects among the younger members. The majority of the members evaluated the status of feminist research in the field of communication as being minor or marginal in relation to the dominant discourse of the field. Although most of them seemed to have valued the sisterhood and political edge they gained through the association's academic and social activities, they seemed to have been troubled by their struggle with having a dual identity as a feminist scholar and as a communication scholar who wants to earn recognition in the areas of their specialization. While they acknowledged the need for collaborating with feminist scholars across disciplines, they did not work productively with feminist scholars in other fields.
In conclusion, the impact of feminism is big enough to make a presence in the field of communication, which draws on a plethora of theories from other fields. However, we feel that it is far from achieving its potential in transforming the field. In contrast with what some feminist epistemologists assert, the prospect for moving from an initial accomplishment of presence towards a fundamental paradigm shift in communication studies does not seem to be bright.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ.서론
• 1.문제의 제기
• 2.연구문제 및 연구방법
• Ⅱ.이론적 쟁점: 서구 언론학에 미친 페미니즘의 영향
• 1.지배적 패러다임내의 페미니즘
• 2.언론학의 패러다임 논쟁과 페미니스트 미디어 이론
• 3.언론학에 대한 페미니즘의 도전: 인식론적, 방법론적 쟁점들
• Ⅲ.페미니즘의 수용이 한국 언론학에 미친 영향 분석
• 1.언론학의 성장이 페미니즘 수용에 미친 영향
• 2.학회활동에 나타난 페미니즘의 수용
• 3.언론학 교육에 나타난 페미니즘의 수용
• 4.연구경향에 나타난 페미니즘의 수용
• Ⅳ.여성 언론학자들의 페미니즘 수용과 활동
• Ⅴ.연구 결과의 요약 및 결론
• 참고문헌
• 부록
• 영문초록