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The first consideration is the acknowledged importance of Korea to the United States as a bulwark in its policy of containment of communism and Soviet influence since the late 1940s. In this context, the tragedy of Kwangju and its centrality to an understanding of contemporary Korean politics, including that nation's relationship with the United States, are difficult to overstate. As Cumings observed, Kwangju "made the suppression of Solidarity in Poland seem like child's play." (5)

A second consideration is media intensity, the question of whether the media give a story sufficient visibility to gain public awareness. While many published studies examine major media events which received high, "saturation" levels of coverage on U.S. television, the Korea case addresses the implications of a long-term pattern of low and sporadic levels of attention by mainstream U.S. media. For few other nations in the world is there such a glaring disparity between low levels of media attention on the one hand and the close military, political, economic, and cultural exchange with the United States on the other. Accordingly, this case study offers a strong complement to research on nations or regions that receive more sustained media attention.

A third aspect of the case study is the manner in which both U.S. media coverage and U .S. policies toward South Korea relate to prevailing images of that nation. In his classic 1950s study of American perceptions of China and India, Harold Isaacs noted that "Vagueness about Asia has been until now the natural condition even of the educated American."(6) His study was motivated by the apparent tendency of Americans, including policymakers, to view the world with emphasis on Europe, despite the obvious importance of Asia in America's emergence as a major world power. Korea illustrates the persistence of such tendencies on the eve of what many have called the Pacific Century.