언론인 홍명희(洪命憙)의 사실성 글쓰기

Based on Fact : Hong, Myenghee's Writing Style

2001년 언론학회에서 기사의 역삼각형 보도형태의 도입 시기 규명이 쟁점의 대상이 되었다. 과거 시간의 흐름을 따라 인과관계를 규명하였던 글쓰기의 유형과는 판이한 역삼각형의 기사작성은 전문직 상업 언론의 보도형태이며, 통신이 일상화되면서 더욱 발전되었다. 이 보도는 가장 중요한 사건이 먼저 위치하고, 그렇지 못한 것은 뒤에 자리하는 형태이다. "사실이 사실을 말한다."의 '사실의 위계질서'가 역삼각형의 전제조건이다. 즉, 역삼각형 보도는 '사실의 질서'의 체계와 함께 발전되었다. 홍명희는 '사실의 질서', 그 '언어의 질서'로 새로운 지식 체계의 정립에 관심을 가졌으며, 이는 전문직 언론의 글쓰기 정립에 결정적 기여를 한 것이다. 설령 홍명희가 계급적, 혹은 다큐드라마 형식의 혁명적 당파성을 주장하더라도, 그 시발점은 사실적 보도의 글쓰기에 있었다. 본고는 해석적 방법으로 홍명희의 사실적 보도의 실체를 이해코자 한다.

Hong Myenghee(1888～1968), a famous Korean journalist and novelist, was an editorial writer of Donga and Chosun Daily News during the Japanese rule. These daily newspapers, which started their business from 1920, adopted the Western specialized departmental system. The owners of these Newspapers recruited their staff, and trained each for a special field, so that as professional journalists, they began their jobs reporting on one sector of society. Hong Myenghee was an editorial writer who strictly separated facts and opinion. His descriptions on the editorial pages were based on facts. However, his writing style did not focus only on the arrangement of facts in an orderly manner. Hong Myenghee also chose facts based on their importance. The most important fact was positioned at the head of the news articles. The time order of events was no longer the major criteria for arranging a news description. Hong Myenghee is one of the famous historial novelists in Korea. He wrote only one novel, Limggukchung, which was the name of a man who had the lowest status in Korea. Limggukchung created a gang and the gangster chief, Limggukchung, made fighting events in which he gathered the gangsters to fight for him. Hong Myenghee wrote of these events as though they were city pages of Chosun Daily News. In the novel, Mr. Hong used historical facts, without any opinion, in an orderly manner. The most important fact positioned in the early parts of his description. Limggukchung was started in 1928 and was left as an unfinished novel in 1939. Hong Myenghee practiced 'the inverted pyramid' in the novel of Limggukchung. As a professional journalist, Hong Myenghee was the first man who practiced 'the inverted pyramid' in a novel. According to Lee Jaekyung, the Korean newspapers used 'the inverted pyramid' from the early 1930's, but Hong Myenghee had practiced the writing style in his novel before them.