An email from a reader:
[W]hich newspaper would you recommend as being the most “impartial” in Korea (in English language) ? Korea Times? Any other? I would like to subscribe to a good one, but not sure which is more “reliable”.
Good question.
Well, I prefer the Korea Times, but that’s not necessarily because it’s more reliable. I just happened to enjoy some of its regular contributors like Mike Breen, Andrei Lankov and, of course, the Marmot Hole’s own Andy Jackson. The Korea Herald, meanwhile, has its Expat Living section with a number of good writers, many of whom are also bloggers.
Overall, there’s not a lot of difference betwen the Korea Times and Korea Herald, at least as far as I can tell. A lot of folk will bitch about the quality of both, but personally, I think they do a reasonable job reporting events given the constraints they work under (namely, a limited market which, I’d imagine, limits their resources). Neither even approaches the depth of reporting of any of the Korean-language newspapers, and their editorials are noteworthy only in their irrelevance, but if you can’t read Korean, I’m afraid your options are rather limited.
One thing I would caution you against is confusing Korea’s English-language newspapers with the “Korean media.” The only people who read either the Korea Times or the Korea Herald are foreigners and Koreans studying English, and their content reflects this. The discourse that takes place in the actual Korean media, — i.e., the media that actually means something — is very, very different. As long as you remember what the English dailies actually are — a roundup of news for foreign consumption with editorials nobody in Korea actually reads — they can be quite helpful.
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You missed the International Herald Tribune, which comes in two sections: the International section, by New York Times International, and the local insert, made by the Joongang Daily, the paper which offers the most balanced political coverage of Korea’s major papers, according to Girlfriendoseyo.
My coworkers and I liked the IHT well enough that we convinced my boss to cancel the Herald subscription and sign on for the IHT. The writing level’s a little higher than the Herald or the Times, but I’ve generally found it just. . . better.
Korea Herald’s writing level is probably the easiest, and therefore best to bring into a conversation class, but IMHO the quality of journalism is sometimes on par with a “Korea, Sparkling” tourist brochure (though I also liked the Expat Living section); from what I’ve seen so far, Korea Times seems to enjoy taking cheap shots at English teachers more than the others — both the “Top 50 Universities” clown and the Schertzer fiasco covered here at Marm were published in the Times, as well as a few other teacher-slurs that Brian in Jeollanamdo has blogged about.
I think the translated content of the Chosun Ilbo and other online versions of newspapers is more informative than the KH or KT both of which I quit reading a long time ago.
What’s your take on the Joongang Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo? My coworkers don’t trust both, as they consider them “the government’s newspapers.” For example when I brought up some articles about this beef mess from those two papers, including the interview with the scientist you brought up, my colleagues immediately dismissed it and said they trusted “PD Diary.” The Chosun especially has been quite critical of the KTU, and so of course my colleagues object to that.
Personally I don’t read the KH because it’s user-unfriendly. I scan the KT, but yeah, their opinion page is just random garbage, and their front page will invariably have a story about no good foreigners any time you check.
What do I think of the JoongAng and Chosun? Well, I’ll say this — I think a big problem with the translated Korean dailies, apart from the fact that they are able to translate very little of what’s in the Korean editions, is that it’s primarily the three major conservative dailies — the Chosun, JoongAng and Dong-A — doing it. If you rely on what those three have to say, you can come away with a very skewed view of things (which might in some way be fitting, given that said three papers account for over 60% of the Korean newspaper market). In this regard, it’s good to see the Hankyoreh upgrade its English service, but the other leftish papers — the Seoul Sinmun and Kyunghyang Shinmun, for instance — aren’t translated.
I should probably save my take on the Korean-language press for a separate post. Suffice it to say, though, that while “PD Diary” is often full of shit, there are reasons why your coworkers are likely to trust it over the Chosun Ilbo, and not all of them are because your coworkers have ideological blinkers on. I might also say, “Of course your coworkers hate the Chosun Ilbo. You live in Jeollanam-do!”
I don’t have a problem with anti-foreigner stories in the English-language papers. I’d rather know what is being said than live in ignorance. I’d like the English-language press to mirror the Korean press as much as possible, so basing my decision of what paper to read on whether I agree with the editorial line seems counter-productive.
If foreigners refuse to buy papers containing stories we don’t like, then we can’t complain if we aren’t told what the Korean press is saying.
I would like to support Robert’s comments. He is emphasizing one thing which is not widely understood by the expats and diplomats, most of whom do not read Korean language press. Both KH and KT are not widely read in Korea! To be frank, they are not read by regular Korean public at all, and whichever you say there remains unknown outside expat circles.
Not to mention that the English press, for the benefit of its foreign readers, may give a different reporting of the same story in the vernacular press.
A timely example of this is the stark differences in content and organization between the Korean and English versions of Mike White’s story. The English version is NOT even a partial translation of the Korean version. It is a completely different write-up with some of the same information. Even the titles are curiously different: English version - Expats chafe at boys’ death; Korean version - Mysterious Drowning of 180cm, 110kg American boy in 40cm sauna bath.
#1
Korea Herald’s writing level is probably the easiest, and therefore best to bring into a conversation class, but IMHO the quality of journalism is sometimes on par with a “Korea, Sparkling” tourist brochure (though I also liked the Expat Living section)
I says pardon? ‘Quality of journalism’? Polar oppposites. The former being a unbiased approach at reporting, the latter a promotional aid, sprinkled subjectively with colourful writing and glossy pics, with a specific audience in mind.
I recently befriened a guy who writes for the JoongAng Daily Eng-vers. Most of their staff is made up of Korean-Americans, Koreans who speak a high level of English, and foreigners living in Korea. Their recently hired editor is a guy from the Rocky Mountain News. I think they do a very nice job…these days. It wasn’t always that way.
The JoongAng Daily wins without a doubt, in my mind. They are the only Korean daily with a foreigner as editor, and I think it clearly makes a difference. Finding a place that sells it it can be a bit frustrating, but not to the extent that I’d give in and spend money on either of the other two.
I find the JoongAng Daily in general the best English language paper here. They have decent coverage and translations from the mother paper not to mention that the IHT is a premier paper. Also as far as I know it’s the only company that hires American journalists for its editor positions unlike the other English language papers that use local staff. Their new editor has won two Pulitzer prizes I heard. Editors have worked for the Baltimore Sun, Boston Herald and other papers well known in the States. Also many of the daily’s reporters are graduates from American schools or abroad not the typical college graduate here. It is my understanding that their better pay scale enables them to hire better people.
For your money, the Korea Times is the best buy.
#8 G. Curley: exactly my point. The international, and especially domestic news feels like it was written by a nationalist P.R. department instead of journalists.
(Case in point: the ongoing “High Tide of the Korean Wave” series)
If the headline for the recent soccer championship game reads:
“PARK JISUNG SCRATCHED FROM CHAMPIONSHIP ROSTER!!!”
(p.s. Manchester United wins)
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
(that’s for the Korea Herald, by the way)
Go IHT!
Every one of them is a tabloid. None of them practice real journalism. None check their facts, all misquote their sources, each is an amateur endeavor. The IHT has gone downhill from a not very lofty height in the past couple of years, and the other two - sigh…how can they still be that bad after so many years of being that bad? Simply no ambition to make anything at all of their franchises.
Yes, I check Joongang’s site 3 or 4 days a week to get some tabloid headlines, but if I see a headline that interestes me, I know I’ll have to leave their site to find any quality reporting.
I refer to the news articles. Of course there are occasional contributors of good opinion or analysis columns in all of them.
I think they all run on a common (unchecked) information pool as well. So it is all basically the same crap.
In fairness to The Korea Times (I assume the JI and KH are in the same boat) they have to do a lot with limited resources.
As has been noted above, KT has a relatively small readership. They have the sales and resources of a small city paper but are expected to put out a 16-20 page paper in a second language six days a week. That is no easy task on a limited budget.
International wire services can only go so far in filling pages. For example, in today’s KT 19 staff reporters wrote 32 stories (not including editorials and various guest columns).
I’ve always thought that the best paper for more in-depth articles in English is the Joongang Ilbo. On the site now is an article about deaths in the military and the steady suicide rate there over the years (it crashed firefox):
http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....id=2889984
If only they’d format their articles better and not cause anything but IE to crash from time to time - especially in the features section, which usually has the best, most in-depth articles. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
I refuse to read the KH or KT anymore, at least until they hire a copy editor who knows how to do his job.
I think they’re all horrible.
I remind myself that I’m about to read comedy whenever I pick one up. The alternative is anger, based on barely or not-all-all hidden racism; There is the prevalent , nationalistic chest thumping on achievements by Koreans or Korea; There is usually a healthy dose of hyperbole, which reminds me of cold war Russians telling us socialist production of heavy industrial items was up 84% in one quarter, for each quarter, from 1957 to 1966..
The economics reporting of them all reminds me of popular mechanics where they tell you what’s happening in science NOW on the cover, and then when you read the article, it’s something that MAY happen in 10 years.
Instead of flying machines, it’s the market share of some Korean chaebol in some sector they’re chasing. OR the technological challenges and R and D prowess that is about to put a Korean firm in the top 3 globally. Little of it will turn out to be true in the end.
IMO they try to balance out all this bullshit by putting , with regularity, some bullshit editorial in that criticizes Korean society in the idiom of a western national. It will invariably be written by a Korean who Bitches as We Would Bitch.Education is poor. Rich poor gap is widening. We do not welcome foreigners. We drink too much in the biz culture.
Then it’s back to the story of how the Korean mechanics team took the world by storm in Helsinki by taking apart and reassembling Ham radios faster than ANYONE else.. hahaha
You need to read all of them to get the whole picture. It takes time, but that’s the way it is. Don’t forget Yonhap, the Daily NK, and the Korea sections of the Asia Times and Kyodo.
Back in the days I worked for the KH, the “newspaper” depended a lot on the monies paid by the government to the KH to produce useless propaganda ‘zines in various languages. This, according to the rumour mill, paid for a lot of the overhead.
As for the limited resources, I can testify that many of the people working there were indeed *very* limited, some borderline psych ward cases. When they moved to computers for production — Macs Quadra, yeah! — they transferred the old guys who did the type-setting to the computer room. Scary. The proof-readers were cheapo non-native Koreans, and this still shows, I think.
I met a few brilliant people, who left as soon as they could — one of them is with Bloomberg I think.
All the way up the #3. The Chosun and Joongang have been ‘government papers’ since the Mr Lee became president in February. Did you read the Joongang today, the real, Korean edition? It’s full of criticism of the government! Did your co-workers read the Chosun before Mr Lee was inaugurated, when it wasn’t a ‘government paper’? I reckon not. Your co-workers’ reasons for not trusting them are wholly political and ideological.
And #4. ‘the Chosun, JoongAng and Dong-A … If you rely on what those three have to say, you can come away with a very skewed view of things.’ All newspapers are skewed. Everyone knows the political tendencies of a nation’s papers. Need I remind you of the NY Times’ history of ‘balanced reporting’? There is no ‘balanced’ paper. We choose to read a newspaper in large part because of its political tendencies. ( I subscribe to the Joongang Ilbo, and I read the Dong-A, Chosun, and Hankyoreh online.)
More generally, if one desires to know about Korea, or any nation, he must learn her language to read her press. Too many foreigners presume to speak of Korean affairs without enough knowledge and background. And the same is true of Koreans on American affairs.
FD — Yes, all newspapers are skewed. I didn’t mean to suggest that the Hankyoreh, Kyunghyang, Seoul Shinmun and others (or, for that matter, the NYT, WaPo, WSJ, etc.) aren’t. Of course they are. All I meant was that for a long time, the 조중동 were the only major Korean dailies with English editions, meaning that English speakers had few options to get “the other side.”
I tend to get most of my news from Naver.com, but my preferred read is the Dong-A Ilbo — like you said, we choose our papers for their ideological slant (and I happened to slant to the right), and I like their style.
I agree, with a caveat that is probably included in your last sentence. Just because you can speak the language doesn’t make you necessarily knowledgeable, either. The fact that I can read Korean newspapers in the vernacular (and, in fact, used to work as a translator for the Chosun Ilbo) doesn’t make me an “expert,” or even knowledgeable, about anything Korea-related. Likewise, many Koreans can read the New York Times in English, but that doesn’t necessarily make them knowledgeable on American affairs.
My choice is simple. I am English illiterate.
lol
One student, in one of my classes, had a brother who subscribed to both the Chosun Ilbo and the Hangyorae, and read them side-by-side, figuring that by reading them both and ignoring the areas where their reports conflicted, he would get to the reliable facts about a story.
I wish i read Korean well enough to do the same. . . sounds like an interesting exercise.