Abstract

This paper is to examine how TV and Radio drama audiences in the 1970s appreciated law, crime and criminal investigation, by looking into popular dramas of that period <Chief Detective> and ≪Bup-chang-ya-hwa≫ in the history of Korean TV and Radio detective series. And to conclude, it seems a new drama <Chief Detective>, which enjoyed a great popularity in the 1970s, shows a change in public perception and attitude toward law among its audiences who were exposed to a new media and a new period of the 1970s and ≪Bup-chang-ya-hwa≫ does the same. In the early and mid 20th century, popular narratives treated law frequently but were felt exaggerated and contrived and it was to do with their nature of Shin-pa. The person who sees the world through the Shin-pa is hard on and feels guilty to oneself as he does not live the way he wants to and does not live the way he thinks right. Therefore, he tends to see himself as a victim to law and feel pity toward himself who is wrongly accused and humiliated in the court of law. However, the hit TV series <Chief Detective> saw the cases through the eyes of detectives, not criminals, therefore, Shin-pa attitude toward law was a lot weakened, compared to previous popular narratives. This is to do with the fact that the 1970s saw the fall of the nature of Shin-pa thanks to the growth of young audiences of popular arts and TV was the newest media of that period. Meanwhile, ≪Bup-chan-ya-hwa≫ which was aired on radio, a relatively old media, was liberal, compared to the old Shin-pa's popular narratives but was conservative, compared to the new trend of <Chief Detective> in its attitude toward law. However, even <Chief Detective> did not have a characteristic of detective series which emphasize fun of reasoning. At least, the nature of Shin-pa was weakened in the 1970s as <Chief Detective> and ≪Bup-chan-ya-hwa≫ were based on legal episodes from real life, thus, maintaining certain level of legal formalism and reality. To see detective series equipped with strengthened reasoning, we had to wait till the 2000s.