President as the „executive‟. These lexical items have contrasted meaning. Then, the lexical items of „fired‟ means that the culture in South Korea, the official will be fired
when there is a „scandal‟ or „failure‟. That is the culture in the government of South Korea.
The next chain of lexical items occurs in the subtopic of the recent report about the death toll and rescue struggle. This subtopic only appears in The New York
Times . The lexical items that collocate are
„remained‟, „not changed‟, „trying‟, „challenging‟, and „trapped‟. The report of the death toll until the articles published
remained the same, not change. The divers were trying to rescue the passenger, but they face challenging situation.
Then, the last chain of lexical items in The New York Times occurs in the subtopic of the grief of the nation due to the disaster. This topic only appears in The
New York Times . The lexical items which occur as collocation are: „paroxysm of
grief‟, „shame‟, „cheering‟, „banned‟, „comedy‟, „suspended‟, „trips‟, „canceled‟, „Buddhists‟, and „paraded‟. Those lexical items describe how the disaster causes a
really deep grief to the people in South Korea. The lexical items which represents „happiness‟ such as, „cheering‟, „comedy‟, and „trips‟ were met by the lexical items
which represent „prohibition‟ such as „banned‟, „suspended‟, and canceled‟. This is how South Koreans express their grief. This part of the news article
shows how The New York Times concerns with what people feel about the disaster. The Korea Herald
does not mention this subtopic.
c. Grammatical Cohesion
i. Reference
In The New York Times, the lexical items which are reiterated are the lexical items of “Mr. Chung” and “apology”. Those lexical items are repeated by its same
lexical items. Then, there is lexical item of “the South Korean Government” which is reiterated by its synonym “the Government”. Next is the lexical item of “failing”
which is reiterated by its near- synonym “fumbling”. Then the last lexical item which
is reiterated is the lexical item of “sadness” which is reiterated by its synonym “grief”.
Those reiterated items must have the same referent. For example, the lexical item of “Mr. Chung”. It is repeated for 3 times in 3 different sentences but in all 3
sentences, the lexical item of “Mr. Chung” has same referent. That lexical item refers to The Prime Minister of South Korea, the one which becomes the center of the story
in the text. Then, the next lexical item is the lexical item of “apology”. It is repeated for
twice in 2 different sentences in the text but in both sentences the lexical item of “apology” has same referent. It refers to a regretful acknowledgement of a failure of
the Prime Minister in handling the disaster. Those lexical items are the lexical items which are repeated by its same
lexical item. Then, there are 2 lexical items which are repeated by its synonym. The first lexical item is the lexical item of “the South Korean Government” which is
reiterated by its synonym “the government”. Both lexical items share the same
referent of the government of South Korea. The next lexical item which is reiterated by its synonym is “sadness” which is reiterated by “grief”. Both lexical items
“sadness” and “grief” have same referent of the sadness of the people due to the disaster.
The last reiterated item is the lexical item of “failing” which is reiterated by its near-
synonym “fumbling”. Both lexical items refer to the bad action by the government in handling the disaster
ii. Substitution
Similar to The Korea Herald, The New York Times presents the text with no substitution with general words. The fact that The New York Times uses no general
words in the text implies that The New York Times wants to presents the issue with its details by using no general words but by using specific nouns and verbs.
iii. Ellipsis
The analysis in The New York Times finds no use of ellipsis in the text. It is just the same as The Korea Herald. It implies that The New York Times wants the
reader to understand all information clearly. So, there are no words which are omitted. Everything is clear with its details.
iv. Conjunction
The use of conjunction in both articles is only limited to the additive type. Mostly, the conjunctions used in both articles are only maintaining the structural
relation because those conjunctions only hold within a sentence. That kind of
conjunction cannot be said to have cohesive relation because they do not hold between sentences and make the flow of the idea clear
B. The Media Viewpoint on the Issue of the Resignation of South Korea’s Prime
Minister
The media viewpoint toward a certain issue can be understood from how it is linguistically presented. That includes textual organization, grammar, and lexical
choices. This study tries to reveal the media viewpoint toward the issue of the resignation of South Korea‟s Prime Minister. In order to reveal the viewpoint of The
Korea Herald and The New York Times toward that issue, the writer focuses its
analysis on the subtopics organization and cohesion of the text which includes lexical cohesion and grammatical cohesion.
From the analysis of the arrangement of subtopics and the cohesion of the text, The Korea Herald and The New York Times set their angle in telling the news a
little bit different. The Korea Herald and The New York Times view the resignation of the Prime Minister as an action of the Prime Minister which is urged by the public
outrage, and causes a governmental change. Both The Korea Herald and The New York Times
also view the disaster of the ferry sinking is caused by the irregularities that are on the operator of the ferry and the inability of the government to give
appropriate response. Moreover The New York Times also views this resignation as a form of cultural practice in the Government of South Korea. The further elaboration
of it is on the following points:
1. The urgency of the resignation of the Prime Minister.
Both newspapers have similarity in presenting the issue. Both The Korea Herald
and The New York Times present the resignation of South Korea‟s Prime
Minister as an action which is urged by the public outrage and as an action which absorbs so many negative critics from the public because both newspapers elaborate
those two subtopics in their texts. From the arrangement of the subtopics in both texts, it can be seen that both texts place the subtopic of the resignation offer in the
first place. It implies that both texts view the offer of the prime minister‟s resignation with its cause and critics as the most important matter.
In the aspect of lexical cohesion, both texts also employ similar lexical items which tend to point out that the public outrage is something prominent which
becomes the background of the resignation of the Prime Minister. The Korea Herald uses the lexical item of „outrage‟ while The New York Times uses the lexical items of
„angry‟ and „saddened‟. Those lexical items have similar semantic feature of [+showing feeling] and [-
pleasant] but the lexical item of „outrage‟ has one distinctive feature from the two lexical items, that is [+extreme]. So, both texts want
to point out that the resignation of South Korea‟s Prime Minister is urged by the unpleasant feelings of the people, but The Korea Herald as the representation of the
media inside South Korea employs the lexical i tem of „outrage‟ gives more stress in
this point by using the lexical item of „outrage‟. Both texts also present the issue of the resignation of the Prime Minister as an
action which absorbs so many negative critics from the public. It can be seen from the
lexical cohesion of both texts. The Korea Herald describes the critics from the public about the resignation by the lexical items of „mistook‟, „failing to act promptly‟,
„inconsistent‟ while The New York Times employs the lexical items of „failing‟ and „fumbling‟. Those lexical items have similar semantic feature of [-succeed].
Moreover, the lexical items of „inconsistent‟ and „mistook‟ have same kind of prefix which means „lacking‟ or wrongly. By the used of those lexical items that have
negative meaning, The Korea Herald and The New York Times want to point out that the act of resigning from the position of a Prime Minister absorbs so many negative
critics due to their inability in responding the disaster of ferry sinking.
2. The cultural practice within the government of South Korea.
In their arrangement of subtopics, The New York Times and The Korea Herald present the subtopic about the governmental change after the resignation of the prime
Minister but there is a difference on how the two newspapers present it. The Korea Herald
placed this subtopic right after the discussion of the statements of the prime minister which is still at the beginning part of the text while The New York Times
placed this subtopic after the discussion of the irregularities on the ferry sinking at the end part of the text. It means that The Korea Herald gives more stress to the matter of
governmental change than The New York Times. The Korea Herald presents the subtopic of the governmental issue in more simple way rather than The New York
Times . The Korea Herald presents this subtopic limited on the event which will
happen after the resignation of the Prime Minister but The New York Times includes the cultural view on this subtopic.
