Local media reporting on science is too nationalistic and does not focus enough on a discovery's importance and impact on society, a report released Thursday revealed.
The report, carried out by the Korean Press Foundation, found that 75.4 percent of news stories on scientific achievements on major television networks were about discoveries by Koreans.
The results were based on an analysis of 69 news pieces collected from September to November that were broadcast on nightly news programs by MBC, SBS and KBS.
The findings appear to back up claims by some experts that nationalism by the local media was to blame for the controversy surrounding professor Hwang Woo-suk.
The professor was once regarded as a national hero for his scientific achievements that attracted local and international media attention, but he fell from grace because of his research fabrication.
According to the survey, about 80 percent of all science coverage is focused on discoveries by Korean researchers. Of the stories about discoveries by foreign scientists, only two emphasized their nationality.
About 48 percent of the broadcasts about local scientists stressed the fact that the achievements were made for the first time. However, none of foreign scientists' achievements highlighted this.
The report also compared newspaper articles about scientific discoveries from three dailies _ Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo and Hankyoreh _ and found that they introduced more achievements by foreign scientists (57.8 percent) than local ones (34.4 percent).
However, among the stories about the achievements of local scientists, 68 percent stressed the nationality of the researcher in their first paragraphs or headlines.
The report concluded that newspapers and television news programs lacked journalistic objectivity when it came to science news about South Korean scientists as they gave importance to the discoverers' nationality rather than the scientific significance of the discovery.
