Post-263: South Korea’s English-Language Newspapers, Contrasted

Posted on by Peter
There are two English newspapers in South Korea, the Korea Herald and the Korea Times. Both were founded during the Korean War and have drifted all over the place in editorial opinion, focus, target audience, tone, professionalism, and ownership over the decades, or so is my impression.

Below I’ll compare the two, as they exist today, at some length. Both newspapers are totally Korean-owned and almost-totally Korean-staffed, and both probably get a lot more revenue from Koreans who want to practice English in a “live” setting than from people like me (native English-speaking foreigners). A lot of the below should be viewed within this framework.

Within the foreign community in South Korea, both newspapers are influential, moreso than any other Korea-focused, English-language news media, I think. More importantly, though, when the big players in media abroad want to run a news story on something related to Korea, they will often quote one of these papers because they are in English, so the influence of these two newspapers is much bigger than you’d think. In a given month, I expect that many millions “get information” from these Korea Times and/or Korea Herald, indirectly, via material these newspapers originally reported on Korean affairs in English which is then quoted by other media abroad. This  happens, for example, in December 2014 in the Korean Air “nut” fiasco.

Here are my impressions of the two newspapers as they have existed from the late 2000s to the early-to-mid 2010s when I’ve known them and occasionally read them. I base the below on years of off-and-on observation. (Note: On a desktop computer, the two lists should display side by side. On other devices, they probably won’t be side by side, but the numbers will match up for comparison.)

.

Read More
Korea Times

  1. Politically center-left on socioeconomic issues.
  2. Leans anti-USA or at least anti-USFK (U.S. Focres Korea); tends to highlight stories that make USFK look bad.
  3. Noticeably anti-Japan; Times sponsors a “Dokdo Essay Contest” (Dokdo is an islet that Korea and Japan both claim but which is occupied securely by Korea; the Dokdo issue is a “political whipping boy” used by Korea). Times‘ choice of article titles on any matter related to Japan is generally hostile.
  4. More “racialist” in outlook. This may seem ironic for a foreign-language newspaper, but my impression has been that Times has a significant opposition to the principle of racial foreigners in Korea. Problems caused by racial minorities are played up (especially the transient White minority; in this they are in the mainstream of Korean media) (see also #2). There was one particular reporter for the Times, notorious among Western foreigners, called Kang Shin-Who, whose job title may as well have been “Racial Agitator” as “Reporter”.
  5. Parent company: Hankook Ilbo (a leading South Korean newspaper considered centrist)
  6. No direct international partners but will often reprint editorials from the New York Times and the like under the heading “Overseas Comment”.
  7. American Feel (which may be ironic given much of the above). By this I mean Times tends to feel like a mid-market American paper. (Tellingly, Times called the December 2014 “nut rage” executive “Heather Cho”.)
  8. Simpler writing style. Tends towards general-interest stories. More cartoons and horoscopes. In this way, a little reminiscent of USA Today.
  9. At times it drifts into “tabloid-ism“. I mean to say that a shade of yellow tinges its journalism (and that’s not a racial slur).
  10. Covers cultural affairs to an extent, but has no pretensions of being anything but a simple newspaper. Consider the sprawling one-third-of-a-page it devotes to TV schedules (12 channels) for the day.
  11. Relatively lower reputation among Western foreigners resident in Korea in recent years due to  perceived racial antagonism and biased/slanderous reporting [see #4 and #9].
  12. Seems to have fewer foreigners on staff.
  13. Despite #11 above, Times solicits and will often publish “guest columns” from regular people, and not just pro-Korean puff pieces or “Dokdo Contest” entries, either. I may seem harsh on Times in this rundown, but this is (can be) a distinctly strong point. Its guest columns can be very interesting and a wide range of views are to be had. This is the kind of thing the Internet may put under threat; it is easy to stay within a bubble of people with the same opinions. An old coworker and friend, B., was once published in Times. These guest columns are legitimized by being on the editorial page.
  14. Price: 1,000 Won at the newsstand (90 U.S. cents at current exchange). Home delivery six days a week: 20,000 Won/month ($18.00)
  15. Widely available for sale in central Seoul (wherever foreigners tend to go often, you’ll find this paper sold) and even in Incheon and other cities. In the case of a newsstand or convenience store selling only one English paper, it’s always Times, for some reason.
Korea Herald

  1. Politically center-right.
  2. More pro-USA, at least as the USA relates to South Korean interests (USFK). When it discusses U.S. or other Western domestic politics, this fades away (see #6 below).
  3. Much less anti-Japan. (Tellingly, it editorialized heavily in 2013 for the return of statues stolen from Japan by a Korean crime ring. These were originally stolen by Japanese “pirates” in the 1300s, some said; many argued to never return them; a big issue in 2013.)
  4. Can be seen as neutral on the Race Question within Korea. On the other hand, one of its most frequent editorial subjects is on the need to help the integration of multicultural families and children. Herald seems to call for a multiracial future for Korea (which, de facto, means accepting large numbers of Southeast Asians). This is probably a popular opinion among its core readership but (until very recently, maybe) a truly fringe view in wider Korean society.
  5. Parent company: Chosun Ilbo (a leading conservative daily newspaper)
  6. Partnered with an international network of newspapers including Washington Post and LA Times. Its foreign editorials, borrowed from these partners, are noticeably further to the left than its own pieces on Korean affairs.
  7. More Asian/Korean feel. (Tellingly, they Herald called the December 2014 “nut rage” executive “Cho Hyun-Ah”, in completely traditional East-Asian style including family name first).
  8. Somewhat more high-brow writing style/tone.
  9. It aims to maintain respectability and rarely forays into “yellow journalism”; I would view anything reported by Herald as a little more reliable, ipso facto.
  10. High-quality articles on cultural affairs; its weekend editions are “themed”, with many articles devoted to special matters of cultural interest (art exhibitions, poetry, fashion, architecture, history, language, etc.). Buying a weekend Herald is like buying a little magazine on the subject of that week’s theme. They are well done. You are out of luck if you want a TV listing in English, as Herald only lists three channels, tucked away in about 5% of a page.
  11. Herald‘s reputation among resident foreigners is relatively high.
  12. It seems to have more foreign reporters, and one guy whose job seemed to be to report on matters of interest to the foreigner community, which as far as I know Times did not have.
  13. Despite #11 above, Herald does not regularly publish guest columns from regular people on its editorial page, limiting its editorials to a select group, generally Korean intellectuals who are fluent in English, whom it deems acceptable. This aligns with #8 and #9 above. It does, though, occasionally publish readers’ feedback in special sections on key issues, like “Should the Koreas unify?” and suchlike.
  14. Same prices as the Times.
  15. Widely available but somewhat less easily found for sale at newsstands than Times.

I can also say this: Both Herald and Times now include daily loose-leaf insets for English practice, to appeal to the much larger “English learner” market in Korea. Among other English education goodies, these insets translate recently-published articles and highlight/explain key vocabulary/phrases from them (this might be called “controlled practice” in the ESL ‘biz, whereas reading the general newspaper, which is 100% English with no exceptions, would be “free(r) practice”). Note: I used to do get Herald delivered to my home when I lived in more regular conditions, and for fun I did the “GRE Prep” daily at that time. See post #72 for an example of this.

There is one other comment I can make. Look again at points #5 and #6 above for both Times and Herald, and then back at #1 (among other points). (With the caveat that the above list consists of my own impressions*:) Both newspapers’ stances are to the left of their parent (Korean-language) newspapers. Why is this? This is an interesting thing to consider.

* — I am reasonably sure that anyone familiar with both these newspapers will generally agree with me on most points above, and I am reasonably sure I can prove everything I said above with examples, but that would be a major project and no one is paying me.

Here are the two newspapers’ front pages from this past weekend.

Comment: Times published the “Korean Air nut rage” on its front page with rather humiliating photographs and use of the demeaning phrase “nut rage” (see, perhaps, #9 above). I would see this as reflecting its politics (see #1 above): This story makes South Korean big business, the chaebol system, look bad. Note also the little swipe at Japan (see #3 above) in the teaser to the story on Japan’s election, “Voters ready to give unenthusiastic yes to PM Abe”. Why ‘unenthusiastic’?

Picture

Korea Times of December 13-14, 2014

Here is the same day’s Herald  (called “Weekender” on Saturday-Sundays).

Comment: This issue’s theme is architectural design (See #10 above), with at least five full-length articles inside on this subject, among a lot of other cultural stuff; something about translating Korean classics into English, and lots about movies, art exhibitions, music and plays. The “Korean air nut rage” story is tucked away on page 5 with non-humiliating pictures of the CEO and the daughter, and carrying the bland title “Korean Air chairman apologizes” . There is a lot of power in titles. That one gives very little information to the casual glancer, and may even seem positive; after all, isn’t apologizing a good thing? (See #1 above — I interpret this headline as differing in tone from the Times‘ due to the political stances of the papers; this sordid story of nepotism and bullying of subordinates is widely seen as a black mark for the chaebol system, i.e. big business, so left-leaning Times jumped at it while right-leaning Herald played it down; they could not ignore it because it had become such a huge story in the American media).

Picture

Korea Herald of December 13-14, 2014

Comments

  1. I was wondering if you had any references to back up your blog post on the editorial political leanings of the two papers. I’m writing a paper for an MA on the differences between news stories from different countries and I’ve chosen one story from the Korean Herald, however, finding out the political views of the paper with sources good enough to use as a reference is proving hard to do.
    Thank you.

Comments are closed.