The U.S. and Korean Media’s Framing of the Korean Air Flight 801 Crash on Guam 1997: Pilot Error or Faulty Navigation Devices?
 

Hun Shik Kim
Doctoral  Student

Jongmin Park
Doctoral Student

School of Journalism
University of Missouri-Columbia
 

Abstract
On August 6, 1997, Korean Air Flight 801 crashed with the loss of 225 lives in the jungle of Guam, a United States Territory.
A comparative analysis of the news coverage of the New York Times and NBC Nightly News (U.S.) and Joong-Ang Ilbo Daily and KBS News (Korea) revealed that the news organizations and journalists from the two countries reported on the cause of the crash markedly different.  The Korean journalists reported the cause to be the combination of bad weather, poor performance of the Guam air controllers whereas the American journalists reported it to be pilot error.
The qualitative analysis of news stories and in-depth interviews with the journalists from the two countries revealed that these journalists reflected different news framing, conflict of national interest, or personal biases in reporting international air disaster.