Media and the Meanings of Land: A South Korean Case Study

How land and property are treated has changed through history: from commons to commodities and financial assets. Nevertheless, studies on how the media contribute to this process are rare. Based on Anne Haila’s concept of “property mind” and the idea of “the culture of property,” this article analyzes how the media have framed the meanings of land and reflected on the treatment of land. We analyzed editorials on land, housing, and properties from seven South Korean newspapers over a 30-year period using a structural topic model (STM). The results demonstrate that the media have played a vital role in contributing to the promotion of the private land tenure system and “the property mind” in South Korea, particularly since the late 1990s. Despite the recent trends that have intensified around market-oriented topics, we also found that liberal and conservative newspapers can be quite different in how they shape “the culture of property.”