common sense? chew, digest, make it your own

I used to read only one newspaper. Then I realized that that’s the worst idea ever for a non-party affiliate like myself, especially in Korea. If you, like myself, do not have a specific party affiliation or would like to get a panorama view of current events rather than a glimpse from one corner, I would advise you to read more than one newspaper that will give you a better understanding of the Korean political spectrum.

Case in point: the on-going controversy over the planned construction of three transmission towers in Miryang, one of which will be built within a kilometer to a village, causing disruption and evacuation.

The photos of the story on the front page of the newspapers make the difference clear from the get-go. Chosun Ilbo shows a photo of the construction site and the pit dug by protesters (not-people-centered). Hankyoreh, on the other hand, shows a large photo of the protesting senior citizens and villagers (people-centered).

 

October 7th, 2013
Chosun Ilbo’s front page photo of Miryang transmission tower protest coverage

October 7th, 2013
Hankyoreh’s coverage of the Miryang transmission tower protest

 

Chosun’s article focuses on the unnecessary intervention of the Unified Progressive Party and ‘outside parties’. It chooses to center its story around a certain police officer’s Facebook updates which emphasizes the ‘warm relations between the police and villagers’ (“We are confronting the situation with respect to our villagers”) and how outside forces are ruining a respectful confrontation to a political swamp. Hankyoreh’s article revolves around the voices of the elderly citizens (“we are not outside forces”) and the emphasis on the political power game that is at play to which people like Lee Chi-woo (73) who took his own life as an act of protest are a pawn and victim.

Both are geared to evoke emotional responses. One for sympathy toward police officers, who are humanized and only doing their jobs, and trying to introduce objectivity to a situation that is portrayed as nothing less than political. The other towards the ‘innocent’ elderly citizens who have a right to go on living in peace without needless transmission towers and power games.

See the danger of reading only one story yet?

Facts are not mere facts. Media has biases, platforms, and different colored lenses that can shape one’s views unknowingly. So make sure to try on a couple of glasses to appreciate a comprehensive landscape. Unless you have strong political affiliations that are stubborn to opposing views. In which case, just patiently enjoy life until a shutdown.

 

(Postscript: Does this piece of writing have a bias? You bet. I’m being biased toward “un-bias” and objectivity. So don’t take it for word value; chew it, digest it, and then make it your own.)