[Initial Insight] Planning to Cover China News Again Tomorrow

by Kim Dongpyo

Published 26 Apr.2023 13:07(KST)

If you are a reader who consumes news on portals, it is hardly possible to escape from Chinese news even for a single day. It is a common accumulated experience that bizarre and absurd topics often originate from China when they appear in headlines.

There is a certain type of reaction that inevitably appears in the comment sections of portals. "I’m not interested in Chinese news. (real***)" "Why do they keep posting Chinese articles?? Seriously, stop it! (yell****)" These are the top (most liked) comments on our online articles related to China from last week and this week. It would be better if they just cursed saying "don’t write it." Sometimes, reporters are personally attacked with remarks like "It’s because the reporter is Joseonjok." I try pressing the ‘dislike’ button with the thumb pointing down, but my single ‘1’ looks insignificant compared to the dozens or hundreds of ‘likes’ next to it.

[Image source=Pixabay]

No one is holding a knife to force reporters to write Chinese news (Nukalhyeop). It is even less true that the reporters writing Chinese news are Joseonjok. So why are there so many China-related news articles on portals?

First of all, China-related news is interesting. The number of episodes generated in real time by interactions among 1.4 billion people is on a different scale. Moreover, China is an internet powerhouse comparable to Korea. Social networking services (SNS) are very active. Since the number of users on certain SNS platforms is in the hundreds of millions, any incident easily spreads. If it is even slightly interesting, it immediately becomes an issue. In the borderless internet world, such issues are transformed into the ‘spirit of the continent’ and spread easily.

Also, people naturally pay more attention to neighboring countries than distant ones. According to a survey conducted by a civic group from the 13th to the 18th among 1,001 men and women aged 20 to 30 nationwide, the 20s and 30s generation answered that they "dislike China more than North Korea." Most Koreans have some kind of feeling toward China, whether positive or negative. The curiosity to check whether a neighbor is doing well or poorly is a universal fact.

In that sense, the answer to "Why write Chinese news?" is already there. The above comments with many likes ironically show this. The main contributors to the best-liked comments are enthusiastic readers who deliberately clicked and took the time to read the articles. The power to make even those who dislike China read the articles is the charm (?) of Chinese news.

This is not to point out the consumers’ problems while concealing the suppliers’ problems. It is well known that the responsibility of suppliers is the greatest. The behavior of media outlets obsessed with click counts and views deserves criticism. However, it is not easy to eradicate the phenomenon of daily production and consumption of gossipy Chinese news at once. This is a long-term task.

Instead, it is okay to find and start with what can be done immediately. The ‘clickbait’ that omits the information that the article is related to China is perhaps the worst bad practice that should be changed first. It is perhaps natural to get angry when you click thinking it is a strange domestic news story, only to find out it is Chinese news. Simply including the two characters ‘China’ in the headline can provide an option for readers who do not want to hear Chinese news.

Not only China but also the act of disguising bizarre incidents that happened abroad as domestic news to induce clicks and deceive readers is something I promise our readers not to do at least.