#Shigak no. 4: Making Money, Spending Money, and Income Redistribution in South Korea

By | April 09, 2014 | No Comments

LG Corporation is the fourth largest South Korean multinational conglomerate. | Image: Wikicommons

LG Corporation is the fourth largest South Korean multinational conglomerate. | Image: Wikicommons

This issue of “Shigak” (시각) covers stories that gained much discursive traction in late March: conglomerates, gambling, and welfare reform, amongst other issues. South Korea is no stranger to vast and sprawling corporate oligopolies. Some of the world’s most well-known companies are Korean: Samsung, Hyundai, and LG. As tax day approaches, the newspapers are busy publishing statistics and analysis about the salaries of corporate executives and the companies’ profits. Equally prominent in mid-March were investigations of the troubling relationship between the South Korean state and the gambling industry, with the government giving the green light to plans for a major casino on the island that houses Incheon International Airport. There seemed to be some conflict about what the problem actually was. Elsewhere, the Left made a big fuss over broadcasting license renewals handed to some perennially divisive conservative cable broadcasters. Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Han-kil of the New Political Vision Party announced their intentions to push for welfare reforms; and the latest in public opinion polls shows Park Geun-hye doing well on the North-South front.

Each bimonthly volume of Shigak, recorded on its dedicated page, features only the most important tweets posted by Sino-NK analysts in the preceding period. These are augmented with essential annotations and a small dose of concentrated analysis. Shigak, meaning “perspective,” is a multilingual data collection effort that uses Twitter to curate sources dealing in key political, social, and economic issues on South Korea. Each bimonthly issue takes only the most important tweets posted by Sino-NK analysts under the hashtag #시각 and augments them with essential annotations and a small dose of concentrated analysis.

Shigak is edited by Steven Denney and Christopher Green. Back issues can be found on the dedicated page.

Download the fourth release at the link below.

#Shigak no. 04, March 19 – April 2, 2014

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