Gatekeeping of translations in Shinchunji in South Korea during the Cold War (1946–1954) from the text
mining approach
This study examines the change of criteria for selecting texts for translation in Shinchunji, the
most influential magazine in liberated Korea. Using data mining methods, the study analyzes the topics and narratives of the
source texts on the two occupiers of Korea: the US and the USSR. The results reveal that institutional, domestic, and
international changes affected the magazine’s selection process, as its editors’ perceptions of the two powers changed over time.
The selected texts’ topics and narratives show the ideological transformation of the publishing company from a left-leaning or
moderate to an anti-communist governmental mouthpiece, expressing the editors’ desire to win over the minds of the Koreans for
nation-building.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Gatekeeping and Shinchunji
- Corpus
- Methodology
- Analysis of the data
- Period 1: Reality of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the occupied areas (1946–1947)
- Analysis of topics
- Concordance lines and dominant narratives promoted
- Ambivalent soviet policy
- Implications
- Period 2: Increasing tension between the US and the USSR (January 1948–July 1949)
- Analysis of topics
- Concordance Lines and Dominant Narratives Promoted
- Implications
- Period 3: Strengthening of anti-communism (August 1949–October 1954)
- Concordance lines and the dominant narrative framed
- Implications
- Conclusion
- Notes
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References