A Study on Korea’s Brand Image Perceived by Foreign Correspondents:Focusing on National and Regional Differences

A country’s brand image is formed through various channels. Among them, the most important channel is media. For that reason, foreign correspondents play a key role in the formation of the images of the nations where they are stationed. But their reporting is not fully objective. By nature, foreign correspondents interpret and report events in their host countries based on their internal perceptions. This paper is designed to analyze Korea’s brand image perceived by foreign correspondents stationed in Korea through in-depth interviews with them. The results show that their image of Korea has four features: Economic and industrial development; Coexistence of tradition and modernity; Popular culture represented by Hallyu; and Tensions related to national division. Of the four, U.S. and European correspondents focused heavily on national division and Asian correspondents on popular culture. As such, Korea’s image of the latter was more positive than that of the former.