TV soap operas are to join the government's campaign to promote marriage and birth.

A two-day workshop organized by the state-run Planned Population Federation of Korea and the Korean TV and Radio Writers Association began on Monday in South Chungcheong Province, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said on Monday (Nov. 20). The event aims to increase positive portrayals of marriage and birth in mass media, especially in TV dramas.

Thirty writers from TV soap operas and entertainment programs are to participate.

The workshop consists of lectures, seminars and discussions that will teach writers about the seriousness of low birth rates.

“It is time for mass communications to deliver a stronger message about the importance of giving birth and having a family as well as how all parts of the society, including the government, companies and family members, should cooperate to benefit working mothers,” said Kang Do-tae, a ministry official.

“Problems with low birth rates are attributed not only to economic difficulties but also to young people's views on marriage and children. Since TV dramas have a great influence on the young generation, it is necessary to reduce negative or biased portrayals of marriage and birth in TV dramas,” he said.

According to the government's study of 50 recent TV dramas, there have been an increasing number of dramas that feature one-parent families, unmarried mothers, divorced couples or couples without children. Also, an increasing number of dramas feature single women who put more importance on work than marriage or family.

“More and more dramas portrayed birth and families with many children negatively while making the lives of single career women seem cooler and wiser,” said Choi Eun-sil, one of the researchers. “Also, as opposed to the old dramas that depicted marriage as the ultimate goal of love, recent dramas communicate that marriage is not a must. Such dramas have greatly influenced the young consciously and unconsciously.”

Choi said that especially after 2000, giving birth to children has been depicted as something that is not necessarily related to marriage.

According to a 2005 survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 71.4 percent of unmarried men were positive about getting married, but only 49.2 percent of unmarried women were positive about it. About 29.4 percent of unmarried men thought marriage was compulsory, but 12.9 percent of unmarried women thought so.

In 1997, 9.4 percent said that it was OK not to have children after getting married. The number increased to 35 percent in 2005.