Communication and media issues at the center of Korea's political impasse

The political impasse over President Park Geun-hye's government reorganization continues, as does public discussion and mainstream news media coverage of the issue.  For example, an article in The Korea Herald carried the headline "New Giant Ministry Mired in Political Wrangling."
As noted in the article, the new ministry, which focuses on building a “creative economy,” would be in charge of devising policies involving developing future growth engines in information communication technology as well as science. “Some say that the new government branch will have too much power and some others say it’s just being overemphasized, but the main message is that it aims to create new jobs and projects through IT and science,” said Chang Soon-heung, a professor of nuclear quantum engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Chang, who is a leading authority in nuclear study, has been a part of Park’s transition team, helping the new president to establish a more creative and technology-driven economy ― drafting measures on developing the software industry and supporting start-up firms while setting up the infrastructure for the new ministry. He further noted that “Creativity has become a virtue of utmost importance … we now have to compete with creativity, and the role of the Future Planning and Science Ministry will play a critical role in making that happen.”
An article in The Korea IT News covered a meeting of scholars hosted by the Korea Federation of Science and Technology Societies on March 5. Some of the experts in attendance pointed out that the Ministry of Future-Creation Science (English name to be decide later) must lead convergence and support the creation of an ecosystem for producers of intellectual property (IP). Professor YI Park of the Digital Media School, Ewha Women’s University, suggested that intellectual property should be used as the tool for convergence. “It is widely understood that there is science and technology on one side of the Ministry, and ICT on the other side. We need a successful convergence technology package that will bridge the two sides,” commented Prof. Park.