언론의 ‘사내유보금’ 용어 오용 및 보도 양태

There is a widespread misconception in Korea that the term “internal reserve amount” refers to cash that companies accumulate by limiting their investments and recruitment. This paper investigates the history of how the media has misunderstood this term. While the term “internal reserve amount” first appeared in a 1933 article, the last fifteen years have seen it become widely (misused and) misunderstood. In this study, we collect news articles printed between 2010 and 2019 and find that the progressive media had published significantly more articles mentioning “internal reserve amount” than the conservative media. The difference in misuse rates, however, is not significant. For a large-scale analysis, we examine the articles containing the term and apply K-Means clustering (machine learning methodology) to classify them into two groups. We find that the difference in the use of sensationalistic words is statistically significant between the two media groups, indicating systematic differences in the use of sensationalistic words by press. We further find that the number of sensationalized feelings among readers and the use of offensive language in the comment sections are higher for groups with more sensationalistic words. Such differences in reader reactions imply that words used in press articles may stimulate social conflicts concerning the “internal reserve amount”. Overall, as the first study for the media coverage of “internal reserve amount” using machine learning technology, this study shows that the misuse of words by media may increase social conflict surrounding business environment.