The Irrelevance of Truth in Korea

So begins my first real angry rant against the embarrassingly low level of Korean journalism in general, and lack of a sense of professional ethics specifically. After talking with a journalist friend of mine about the possibility of blogging and podcasting about certain topics, I have now come to realize, up close and personal, how little the truth matters in Korean journalism. And before some of you knee-jerk nationalists start tearing your hair out and pounding away at your keyboards, let me just make this clear from the git-go: according to Korean law, having told the truth is completely invalid as a defense against accusations of libel.

For those of you who are already aware of this fact, you can move on down already to a juicier part of this post. For those of you not in the know, think about the chilling effect this has on efforts to report on substantial issues here, as well as the suppressive function this plays in a society that has never really valued a truly independent and critical media. Libel is defined as any news that causes a party damage, regardless of whether or not what has been reported is, in fact, true.

This is irritating as all hell, and according to my knowledge of history, places the Korean media on a par with the state of things for the American media circa 1733, in the case of New York v. John Peter Zenger, when truth wasn't a recognized defense against libel. Oh, wait – even though there was no legal basis for doing so, the court still found for Zenger. So I guess that particular court in the 18th century is still more liberal than one you'd likely find in Korea in 2005.

I don't like to be comparative and thereafter judgmental, but American journalism, despite its many problems, corporate connections, recent pattern of pussyfooting around the President, and general lameness, journalists are still beholden to a high standard of professional ethics.

For example, there was the Jayson Blair embarrassment that plagued the New York Times. Basically, a young reporter had simply reported on things he hadn't actually seen, events he hadn't actually attended, or interviews he actually hadn't conducted, with people he had sometimes not even met. For this, the New York Times received a black eye and perhaps a permanent scar; this was something that, on any level, is completely unacceptable and would lead to the end of any journalist's career.

In Korea, all of the above practices are standard practice. I have personally been asked or privy to conversations in which Korean reporters have asked the promoters or organizers of events to write their own stories, then submit them to the reporter for "cleaning up" and final publication. The mutual benefit is supposed to be that the interested parties get to have a glowing report or review on their event or organization, while the reporter gets to do less work and cool his or her heels.

As a photographer and sometimes de facto photojournalist, I pay close attention to the basic standards of ethics and participate in the extreme handwringing that goes on over how to not step over the many fines lines dividing truth and misrepresentation with visual images. Take the case of Colin Crawford, fired over manipulating a portion of a digital image purely "to improve the composition" – an aesthetic choice, but one which altered reality and crossed way over the line. Yet when he was fired and blackballed from the industry forever, there was no debate at all as to whether he had stepped over the line and indeed deserved to be finished as a photographer forever. Because once you step over that line that divides the very separate worlds of fact and fiction – and no matter how postmodernists want to reduce everything to text and make the very good point that many truths are in fact textual, contextual, or just plain relative, photomanipulation is actively lying if passed off as a raw image – once you step over that line, you lose trust.

Journalists in the States understand the seriousness of making even the tiniest alterations in images, even if there are, of course, infractions, as there inevitably will be. But that's why photo editors and others responsible for preserving journalistic integrity are vigilant against just this kind of abuse and take such actions with a great deal of draconian seriousness. Once you lose the trust of your readers and viewers, once the line between fact and fiction is understood to be porous, you might as well through up your hands, check in your notepads and pens, and leave to reporting to rank amateurs who will make up any story that seems most convenient or palatable. Well, that's what OhMyNews.com is famous for – it's no wonder that it sprang up first in Korea.

Not that "citizen reporting" is bad – as an alternative to a news media that is overwhelmingly rightist and in the pocket of the government, it's no surprise that this pops up as an appealing alternative. But looking at the heaps of the just plain false information and obviously biased reporting that was apparent in the media during late 2002 around the deaths of the two middle school girls, the state of the Korean media is simply embarrassing. Why? The Korean media, taken as a whole, from ample observation of my own as well as the input of friends who have worked in and around the business, is:

Unprofessional. Many of the "reporters" and "interviewers" are little more than college kids with a Sony VX-2000 and a short deadline to get soundbites along the lines of stories already pretty much written. Around the protests, I was approached by several camera "crews" with stickers from major networks on the camera, asking me what I thought "as an American" about the protests. When I offered my opinion that a lot of the anger here revolved around simple misinformation or accepted "facts" of the case that simply weren't true, in difficult-to-redit, complete sentences, they simply went through the motions and made haste to move on. I wasn't giving what they wanted – and angry, crazed American defending his country or the bleeding-heart liberal calling Bush dirty names. I also saw my picture show up on OhMyNews.com with the caption reading something along the lines of "foreign reporter covers the story" without my names or any other attribution. Probably, the photographer was either too lazy to bother or was too sheepish about have to "speak English" with me to get the proper information. Either way, he or she didn't know the proper protocols and didn't really seem too concerned about accuracy.

Unethical. I personally saw photographers posing members of the crowd, changing the compositions of elements of the pictures to make the perfect shot, stopping and interfering with the action of the scene for their convenience, and so on. The sadder thing is that people are used to that and find it acceptable, acquiescing and cooperating for the shot. On the reporting end, every time I have been interviewed by a Korean reporter, my quotes were completely changed into the realm of complete fiction, while words were attributed to me that I never, ever came close to uttering. Proper names were mispelled, dates were completely wrong, and even the basic gist of what I said has been more wrong than right. I've never been recorded to increase accuracy, and in most cases, even without a recorder, the amount of notetaking was light enough to make me nervous. I have seen reporters simply not show up and ask me or another person to simply write the story altogether to simply be submitted to the reporter. In fact, it is so bad that I am completely surprised to see a reporter not just taking good notes or trying to really get the facts straight, but often I am happy to even see the reporter show up at all.

Arrogant. For some reason, one that mostly must have to do with the self-importance that comes with walking around with the authority that comes from having expensive recording equipment and the mobility afforded by a big, laminated "PRESS" pass, Korean journalists are, as a whole, the most arrogant and self-important assholes I have ever seen. I once saw a crew from KBS walk right up to a grandma from the "House of Sharing" which houses former "comfort women" who are very media-savvy and suspicious of people worth being suspected – she was sitting taking a break from loud protesting, eating a bit of lunch, when the newscaster and her camera operator basically tromped through a crowd of kids sitting on the ground and got up in her face and didn't ask, but TOLD her "We're from KBS." Grandma basically told them to fuck off, but the lady kept insisting "But we're from KBS?! Don't you want to do an interview?" to the point where I wanted to go up and kick both their asses myself. Unfortunately, I have never met a non-arrogant news crew like that in Korea; the arrogance itself is something I could tolerate, but it's usually accompanied by either or both of the factors already listed above. This attitude trickles down to even the most juvenile journalistic outfits. At the opening of Suji's in Itaewon, some early-20-something, half-drunk, English-crazed girl came up to me with a camera and said "I wanna take your picture. So get together." I told her I didn't want my picture taken. She informed me, with an air of matter-of-fact arrogance, "It's for K-Scene Magazine," which covers the expat lifestyle here and is the student newspaper of the magazine world. She seemed genuinely shocked that I wasn't jumping at the chance to appear in a badly-done montage of party shots of mostly white men making stupid faces next to mostly red-faced Korean women trying to look non-plussed and cool around these "wild-n-crazy guys" at a (JOY!) real-live Western-style party! I'd rather appear in a love hotel sex scandal video, thank you very much. But she was acting as if she had been Weegee himself, reborn as a Korean girl in a frumpy party dress and bad shoes.

Now, you may be saying to yourself – this post is just me taking straight sucker punch shot at the Korean media. Or you might say it's arrogant of me to hold the Korean media up to American standards. I'd have to agree with you on both points. But it doesn't mean I'm not right.

"Korea" – especially through its media – seems to be constantly demanding more respect from the outside world, and/or more responsibility as a global player, with some of its own weight and influence to throw around. Well, playa, you either play according to big league rules or you get called bush league and thrown back to grow some. One can't have one's cake and eat it, too.

And I'm not complaining about dirty bathrooms or polluted factory towns. Ethical standards and basic professional ettiquette are not expensive, unattainable aspects of rich and monied moderntiy, determined by relative levels of economic development. The old argument "but Korea is still a developing country, cut us some slack" doesn't fly anymore; in fact, those wings should have been clipped some time ago. You don't see the "we're still a developing country" argument when Korea bids to host Olympic Games or major international conferences such as APEC this year.

But when there is an obvious lapse or sign of something left wanting, "poor me" comes out. Spare me. Korea wants to be treated like an international player, a true global citizen who wields great power and commands the world's respect? Then I'll say that Korea's media and sense of ethical conduct is on a par far below the radar of the positive image Korea feels it deserved. But I think that time hasn't come yet.  To put it bluntly, the laws around the media, as well as the ethics held by those who produce it – are simply abysmal and need to be changed. It's simply embarrassing. Or at least it should be.

Comments

[Aaron]

A really interesting post. I have noticed that a high degree of "staging" is considered normal for photo and video media in Korea. I have had my comments in English or Korean distorted in various (mostly amusing) ways. I was also particularly upset by watching media behavior during the commemoration ceremonies for the Kwangju Uprising. The cameras got right up in the faces of grieving mothers weeping at their sons' graves. Korean journalists also seem to frequently follow the paradigm of coming up with a thesis for the story, getting interviews with the intention of supporting that thesis, and then twisting the interviews to fit the thesis if they don't already.

[Todd Thacker]

I'm an OhmyNews editor.

One thing you seem to forget in your criticisms of OhmyNews is that there is an editorial desk. Professionals. They work extensively with the "rank amateurs" to clean up their work, double-check the facts, etc.

Perhaps you've not worked at a newspaper, but captions are often written by editors, especially on a deadline. The info about you in the photo should have been there, it's true, but if the reporter didn't ask, and you didn't tell, what did you expect? You can always call a newspaper...

In any case, it was probably a harried editor with a deadline writing as much as he or she could for the caption -- but I bet you they tried to call the citizen reporter for more info. Editors here are on the phones all day long with such inquiries.

As for making up stuff, I think your criticisms apply more to the mainstream press. The people working at OhmyNews have a much, much stricter code of ethics. So too the citizen reporters. No freebies to events, dinners. Break it and you're out.

[Dylan Davis]

Hey Michael,

Interesting post. A while back, I read the transcript of a "Korean-American Society, Friendship Award" acceptance speech given by the late Dr. Horace G. Underwood. While the topic focuses on a specific issue, the Korea-America relationship, the central theme follows some of the same issues that you bring to light about the media. The speech is not too long, but long enough to just include the link. So, click below and read on.

http://www.i-kaa.org/eng/kaalibrary/speech_view.asp?b_id=383

[Mike Byun]

Todd,
While you deserve some credit for bravely signing your name to your earnest retort, it doesn't amount to much in light of the fact you've got the wrong idea about journalism. But that's okay because so do your colleagues at Whatthe?News.

If the caption in question was indeed made up by a harried professional editor on a deadline "trying to write as much as they could", they should be fired for being a rank amateur. If you don't have the facts, YOU THROW IT AWAY. What in the world is an editor doing ADDING mistakes anyway? And what are you doing defending such practices?

If the reporter didn't ask, and YOU didn't tell, what would YOU expect? Probably not a lie, Todd. By the way, are you saying Michael should have walked up to the citizen reporter and say, "Contrary to what your harried editor will make up, I'm not actually a foreign reporter covering the story."? Not asking the question was the error here, made a great deal worse at the editors desk. Just because they get paid to do the work doesn't mean that their work is good.

Perhaps you've not worked at a newspaper (Whatthe?News is not a newspaper) because you don't seem to know most readers only glance at the picture, read headlines and captions and move on to the next item. It's sad but true. Online news reports pretty much the same way. You've got a pretty cavalier attitude about a factual error in a space that will undoubtedly get read. Your website deserves to get smacked around a little. Suck it up.

I read OhmyNews often and, although I have some reservations, I generally like it. The trick is to be aware of its shortcomings and not defend them. It only makes the whole thing sound that much more amateurish.

MB

[Todd Thacker]

It sure would be nice to speak with the real "MB" rather than anonymous.

[Ken Eckert]

Unfortunately true. I work at a university near Jochiwon which teaches a skills upgrading program for Korean teachers of English. KBS arrived this summer, ostensibly to publicize the program, and the administrators trustingly let them interview students and instructors. It amounted to nothing more than a multi-day slam against the credentials of Korean English teachers, tacked on to the overall journalism vendetta against foreign English teachers as of late.

The English newspapers of Korea are little better. Primarily, they focus on feel-good stories and irrelevant events. Hurricane Katrina receives less coverage than a South American CEO praising Korean products, or Korea exporting more lunchboxes to the Philippines than Japan. This is high-school level editorialship.

[NotForAttribution]

Like a Korean government official speaking to the press, I must remain anonymous, but after having worked in the "journalism" field in Korea for a few years, I have to say you've only touched on a fraction of how unprofessional and incompetent newsgathering is in this country. Two examples: at one newspaper, a senior editor told me that some of the desk editors were pocketing reporters' travel stipends when the reporters were not travelling. He said said this had been going on for "years." At another company, the managing editor told a colleague of mine to kill a story, an interview with a Korean-American golfer, because she criticized the aggressiveness of Korean reporters. The editor said it "made Korea look bad." While I realize every country's media has its faults, S. Korea's is in some ways indistinguishable from N. Korea in its over-the-top nationalism, as Mr. Eckert alluded to, and is closer to what one encounters in a banana republic than an advanced nation.

[NotForAttribution]

Also...I find OhMyNews to be a lively source of reading material, like Metafilter in the U.S., but wouldn't regard it as a reliable news source. Reason being, despite Mr. Thacker's assurances that it has professional editors, its "citizen reporters" are not trained journalists and might have hidden agendas--of course, there's no guarantee a mainstream reporter is any different, but believe me, most reporters are indifferent or even skeptical observers, which I prefer to "motivated" and credulous ones.

[Alfred]

Truth & Ethics in Journalism? Does it even exist? Truth & Ethics in Journalism is an Oxymoronic term invented by the American J-School system.

Photography itself is an alteration of truth, you choose the scene u want to shoot, u choose the aperture, u choose the shutter speed... there is no truth in the whole process... check out Lange's "MIGRANT MOTHER" during the FSA days with Roy Stryker... this is the epitome of Journalism in America... Lange's composed her subjects and so did Roy who chose imageries to put his political point for FSA across to the American people... tell me... where hence is the truth in Journalism...

Thus... before the ranting of Korean Journalism "standards" i would suggest that the Americans look in their own backyard for comparison...

All in all... there is NO truth or ethics in Journalism

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/photojournalism

[Won Joon Choe]

Mr. Thacker,

I am absolutely amazed by your response to Mr. Hurt's post. You are essentially saying that the pressure of deadlines excuses a reporter or editor making up facts? In fact, you seem to be saying, the reader should EXPECT such fabrications!

In the case at hand, i.e. Mr. Hurt's example, why couldn't the editor have written a caption along the lines of "unidentified foreigner..." instead of making up "foreigner reporter...."? Isn't that what professional and ethical reporters or editors are taught to do?

As we say in our profession: "Res Ipsa Loquitur"--further criticism of your statement is not needed. In your defense, I am going to assume that you are neither an unprofessional journalist nor an unintelligent man, but the pressure of deadlines elsewhere temporarily robbed you of your "nous" when responding to Mr. Hurt here.

[calliope]

Very interesting.

LOVED your very fitting description of the photo montages in K-Scene magazine. Just mind, though ... "non-plussed" sounds like the very opposite of what it actually means, and that's why most people (including you in this instance) use it inappropriately. DOH!

p.s. Another imitator of the defunct K-Scene has popped up. It's called Groove.

[Hugh]

Dude, you have shit-for-brains. Another Derrida-brainwashed wannabe-academic.

Attn, Intellectual-Retard. Bin Laden did not blow up the projects because the projects are dollar-wise worthless. Bin Laden blew up a finance building because he wanted to hurt America. Hitting the projects would be a minor blow to America.

Second, Osama Bin-Laden is an Arab. He spits on black people. Black people are sub-human slaves to him. By the way, slavery did not exist in Europe or Africa, well, until Arabs brought that around. To an Arab, a black guy dating his sister immediately means "Where is my fucking gun/knife?" So MosDef is a retard, and you are the fool who follows a fool by praising him. Bin Laden would consider MosDef, and you, as beings worthy of cleaning his latrine. Wake up, dummy. Black Studies has rotted your brain.

[Jerome Carujo]

Well, according to Reporters Without Borders, South Korea ranks 31st in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006 while the US of A rank 53d.

So much for your "knowledge of history, plac[ing] the Korean media on a par with the state of things for the American media circa 1733"... (but that made for some catchy writing, tabloid-style)

http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=639