Fifth Blog: Writing as a Journalist
One thing I always share with my new students in the COMM 1130 Media Writing course (more popular here at University of Utah Asia in Spring term) and in COMM 1610 Introduction to News Reporting (Fall term) - the alternative all those in the journalism emphasis are encouraged to take) is that writing as a journalist is a challenge.
Why? Because journalists are empowered to be the gatekeepers of information the public has the right to know (about).
As an explanation of just how complex things can get, I will share how the two English language newspapers handled informing the public on Feb. 25, 2022 (the date shared in AP style).
First, I will reveal that it was not a great day for the sharing of good news - what in fact transpired was a resurgence of COVID-19, as perceived through an increase in the number of confirmed cases. A Korean governmental agency releases data every day, providing the latest COVID-19 statistics as public record. But looking back in retrospective, after updating this blog on March 25 (one month later) - many of you were probably anticipating I was going to share information about the start of the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Yes, it has already been one month since the invasion began. Your individual perception of what was important (back then) was invariably shaped by your culture, as well as your proximity to whatever transpired (and the possible impact/direct consequence it might have [for you]). Both newspapers did what I have observed them do repeatedly - defer to the wire news agency at first, a subscription service for news they rely on; in Korea it is AP - Yonhap. Let's look at how they portrayed the rise of the Omicron spread in early February - this is the Korea Times article. This is the Korea Herald version. Originally the breaking news stories were identical - both the news release from AP-Yonhap (identical text throughout, including paragraph breaks); the only difference was in the photo either chose to accompany the story.
Later in the day reporter Shim Woo-hyun updated the Korea Herald version to include more details and a quote. The wire news service most American newspapers would use is the Associated Press (AP).
That takes care of covering the major facts as shared from governmental statistics - but there is obviously more to the story here...particularly since it was Friday, and the trend set a new record high for confirmed cases (27,443 - a big deal, a major increase/up-tick of close to 5000).
These are the "follow-up" stories that also address what the government did in response to the test results:
Article from the Korea Herald Headline: How South Korea went from ‘test, trace, treat’ to ‘let it spread’
Article from the Korea Times Headline: 'Where to go for COVID-19 testing?': Korea's new testing scheme explained
Journalist's have a social responsibility to not only keep the public informed about breaking news, but also about changing policy/practice (as dictated through news releases shared to them, from the government itself. As you can see from the headlines above, both English language newspapers handled their responsibility differently. A policy change with respect to testing and protocol was announced late Thursday, set to go into effect immediately. Because of its complicated nature, reporters at either newspapers waited until the next day to "make sense of the policy" - to figure out how they should share this information with the public.
More to come...I will use this blog on Monday as an educating tool, as my Korean students complete the newspaper story they have tasked with producing - a story covering the COVID-19 outbreak resurgence in South Korea; a breaking news story set for release on Feb. 4 after the government updated its daily statistics.
I notice that the government public record site for COVID-19 statisitics is being very responsibly updated - that each day's initial testing result (the confirmed cases) is always being adjusted down (slightly; just a few cases lower, under 50 difference) due to inaccuracies or false positives. Feb. 5 (a Saturday) case numbers over 36,000 with Feb. 6 (a Sunday) over 38,000 cases. The other glaring rise is in the number of new hospitalizations - which unfortunately doesn't include richer detail - identifying those admitted that are released later that same day - something I'd want to know (about).
Why? Because journalists are empowered to be the gatekeepers of information the public has the right to know (about).
As an explanation of just how complex things can get, I will share how the two English language newspapers handled informing the public on Feb. 25, 2022 (the date shared in AP style).
First, I will reveal that it was not a great day for the sharing of good news - what in fact transpired was a resurgence of COVID-19, as perceived through an increase in the number of confirmed cases. A Korean governmental agency releases data every day, providing the latest COVID-19 statistics as public record. But looking back in retrospective, after updating this blog on March 25 (one month later) - many of you were probably anticipating I was going to share information about the start of the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Yes, it has already been one month since the invasion began. Your individual perception of what was important (back then) was invariably shaped by your culture, as well as your proximity to whatever transpired (and the possible impact/direct consequence it might have [for you]). Both newspapers did what I have observed them do repeatedly - defer to the wire news agency at first, a subscription service for news they rely on; in Korea it is AP - Yonhap. Let's look at how they portrayed the rise of the Omicron spread in early February - this is the Korea Times article. This is the Korea Herald version. Originally the breaking news stories were identical - both the news release from AP-Yonhap (identical text throughout, including paragraph breaks); the only difference was in the photo either chose to accompany the story.
That takes care of covering the major facts as shared from governmental statistics - but there is obviously more to the story here...particularly since it was Friday, and the trend set a new record high for confirmed cases (27,443 - a big deal, a major increase/up-tick of close to 5000).
These are the "follow-up" stories that also address what the government did in response to the test results:
Article from the Korea Herald Headline: How South Korea went from ‘test, trace, treat’ to ‘let it spread’
Article from the Korea Times Headline: 'Where to go for COVID-19 testing?': Korea's new testing scheme explained
Journalist's have a social responsibility to not only keep the public informed about breaking news, but also about changing policy/practice (as dictated through news releases shared to them, from the government itself. As you can see from the headlines above, both English language newspapers handled their responsibility differently. A policy change with respect to testing and protocol was announced late Thursday, set to go into effect immediately. Because of its complicated nature, reporters at either newspapers waited until the next day to "make sense of the policy" - to figure out how they should share this information with the public.
More to come...I will use this blog on Monday as an educating tool, as my Korean students complete the newspaper story they have tasked with producing - a story covering the COVID-19 outbreak resurgence in South Korea; a breaking news story set for release on Feb. 4 after the government updated its daily statistics.
I notice that the government public record site for COVID-19 statisitics is being very responsibly updated - that each day's initial testing result (the confirmed cases) is always being adjusted down (slightly; just a few cases lower, under 50 difference) due to inaccuracies or false positives. Feb. 5 (a Saturday) case numbers over 36,000 with Feb. 6 (a Sunday) over 38,000 cases. The other glaring rise is in the number of new hospitalizations - which unfortunately doesn't include richer detail - identifying those admitted that are released later that same day - something I'd want to know (about).
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