Introductory remarks 5

Part 1: Far-Right Media and Civil War

Chapter 1: Catalysts of Civil War: Far-Right Media 19
1.
Chinese hacker captured in Okinawa? 19
2.
Sky Daily and Captain America 31
3.
The Red Mirage and the Big Lie 42
4.
US Capitol Riot 50
5.
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems 56

Chapter 2: The Far Right and Post-Truth 71
1.
Digital Media and Post-Truth 71
2.
The Asymmetric Radicalization of the Far Right 81
3.
Martial Law and the Far-Right Media Ecosystem 95

Part 2: How Election Fraud Conspiracy Theories Became Far-Right Discourse

Chapter 3: The 2002 Presidential Election: The Beginning of the Election Fraud Conspiracy Theory 115
1.
2002 Presidential Election Exit Poll 115
2.
The Power of the Networked Masses and OhmyNews 120
3.
Electronic vote counting? A confession from a former NIS agent? 126

Chapter 4: The 2012 Presidential Election: The Completion of the Election Fraud Conspiracy Theory 135
1.
Comment manipulation and self-imprisonment 135
2.
Kim Eo-jun and the K-Value Conspiracy Theory 141
3.
The Law of Large Numbers and the Election Fraud Conspiracy Theory 153

Chapter 5: The Far-Right Discourse of Election Fraud Conspiracy Theories
1.
2020 general election and 63 to 36 163
2.
Is Election Fraud God's Work? The Evolution of "The Plan" 170
3.
Shouldn't there be a difference in voting percentages? 181
4.
Korea-US far-right solidarity 190

Part 3: Journalism in This Era

Chapter 6: Partisanship in the Media 203
1.
The more ideologically imbalanced a party is, the higher its popularity? 203
2. Is bias the factor behind the rise in MBC News popularity? 213
3.
Bias and Prejudice 219
4.
How Trustworthy Are Traditional Media and YouTube? 230

Chapter 7: Breaking the View-Based Revenue Model 237
1.
Will slamming the desk solve the problem? 237
2.
Digital Services Act 245
3.
Are there any alternatives to view counts? 252
4.
Transparent and Responsible Journalism 260

Outgoing Words 267
Americas 277
Table and Figure Source 293

Report on Civil War in the Post-Truth Era
The Attack of the Far-Right Media

The news disappeared, leaving only anger.

In an age where lies overwhelm truth, the news is no longer a mirror reflecting reality, but a weapon for organizing anger.
"The Attack of the Far-Right Media" is a record of the crisis in journalism witnessed by reporter Kim Hyun-seok, who has been covering the media scene for 30 years.
From the 19th century, when Joseph Pulitzer and Randolph Hearst's yellow journalism sparked wars, to today's Korea, with its "Chinese hacker arrest rumors" and the "Seoul Western District Court riots," he breathlessly traces how emotional manipulation and misinformation can spark civil wars.
What stands out is the analysis that is based on objective indicators and theoretical basis, rather than blind assertions.

Professional journalist Kim Hyun-seok's insight is cold and desperate.
He dissects how far-right discourse consumes society through the media, analyzing the grammar of news production and how platforms operate.
This book warns that we have already entered a state of psychological civil war due to the media, which has become a weapon rather than a source of news. It is a journalist's poignant indictment and an urgent and desperate appeal to rebuild journalism from the ashes.

What is more dangerous than a lie?
It is the conviction of those who believe it.

Truth is no longer built on facts.
This is truly a post-truth era where people only believe what they want to believe.
Interestingly, however, the post-truth circuit operates most fully in far-right groups.
Harvard University professor Yochai Benkler analyzes that today's networked public sphere is splitting in two directions.
One is the 'dynamism of fact-checking' where criticism and verification are constantly taking place, and the other is the 'propaganda amplification circuit' where emotions and convictions are fed back.
The author vividly illustrates how Korea's far-right media, connected to YouTube and online communities, sits at the center of this amplification cycle, transforming anger into public opinion and conviction into truth.

The power of far-right media lies not in mere propaganda, but in the structure of circulating conviction.
Media users are trapped in a filter bubble, repeating only the same beliefs and emotions, unable to reach voices different from their own.
The propaganda amplification circuit that Professor Benkler spoke of overlaps directly with this mechanism of self-confidence.
South Korea's far-right media maximizes this structure through the recommendation systems of YouTube and online communities, and the information silos thus created divide society into distinct realities.
It is becoming increasingly clear that post-truth is not simply a matter of perception, but rather a structural crisis that shakes the very foundations of Korean democracy.

Suspicion of progress has become the logic of the far right.

Suspicion always grows in the soil of distrust.
At first, it was a voice denouncing the flaws of democracy, but when the verification process was omitted, it soon became a narrative of conspiracy.
The author reveals how the rigged election conspiracy theories that surfaced in the 2002 and 2012 presidential elections evolved into conspiracy theories about rigged elections, such as the "K-value conspiracy theory" and the "63 to 36" vote in the 2020 general election.
This narrative, cloaked in data and algorithms, amplified emotions through the guise of science, and the suspicions of the progressive camp were transplanted into the propaganda of the far right.
The conspiracy theory of election fraud is not a matter of evidence, but rather a matter of grammar of conviction.

In fact, the narrative of this conspiracy has crossed borders.
The author traces how Trump's "Stop the Steal" movement and conspiracy theories about the 2020 US presidential election fraud were absorbed into the strategic language of the Korean far-right.
YouTube, Telegram, and online communities have translated and mimicked American far-right discourse in near real time, transforming "suspicion" into "movement" and "movement" into "belief system."
This is the birth of the Korean version of Trumpism.
What is noteworthy is that this scene of subversion, where progressive suspicion is transformed into far-right logic, becomes the stage for a conspiracy to destroy democracy.
This isn't just a problem of fake news.
The author identifies this point as the deepest rift between Korean media and democracy.

The last chance for journalism to survive!

The partisanship of the media is often criticized as 'bias', but it is ultimately a matter of distance from power.
The author points out that the moment the media pretends to be neutral and repeats the language of power, the news changes from the language of surveillance to the language of rule.
Concealing the real power relations in the name of fairness and objectivity is precisely where journalism loses itself.
One-person media is no exception.
Individual channels, dependent on the algorithms and advertising revenue structures of large platforms, prioritize promoting their broadcasts and increasing clicks.
The author's diagnosis is that although voices have become more diverse, the distance from power has actually narrowed.

So, is there an alternative? The author's solution is clear.
We need to strengthen platform accountability, change our revenue structure, and restore verifiable journalism.
He emphasizes that large platforms, including YouTube, should not be mere distributors but should take responsibility for fact-checking and algorithmic transparency.
This is also in line with the direction shown by the European Union's 'Digital Services Act'.
Furthermore, the media must move beyond a structure that relies on views and advertising to one that converts public interest into profit.
Such efforts are already underway in some fields, and they are seen as a sign that journalism is trying to regain the language of trust.
Can the media, which has become a weapon rather than a source of news, restore truth to the language of society? This is the last chance for journalism to regain trust.