Shared Narratives in News Media Coverage of 2016 South Korean Political Scandal

This study is devoted to the research of the concept of shared narratives (wandering plots) and an analysis of the case study of news media coverage of the political scandal in South Korea in 2016 to identify them. The use of such theoretical methods as historical analysis, analysis of functions and classification, as well as such an empirical method as narrative analysis, allowed to examine the conceptualization of the term 'shared narrative' from the point of view of the psychoanalytic and literary tradition, as well as to identify the role of wandering plots in journalistic news storytelling. This work identified wandering plots (=shared narratives) and their structural units (motives) in news media coverage of the political crisis in South Korea of 2016, during which a wave of civil protests took place, which, in turn, led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. The news media in one way or another resorted to the following shared narratives and their motives: archetypal images of the magician (evil magician), a puppet-king, a hero-saviour, as well as such plots as "disaster", "revolt", "siege of the city" and "Dragon fight / battle with evil".