Straight talk on the Korean media

Jason Zahorchak

Jason Zahorchak, a 28-year-old American from Baltimore, experienced expatriate life in Korea through the eyes of the media.
He first arrived in 2002, taking a job as a copy editor at the JoongAng Daily.
“The Korean media is coming along,” he says, “but it’s nowhere near perfect. Particularly the state-funded media wants to paint this incredible, rosy picture of Korea that doesn’t ring true to anyone who pays attention to what’s going on,” he said. “The English newspapers are doing their own thing, though. They provide a great service for expats.”
After his stint at the JoongAng, Zahorchak went back to the United States for two years.
When asked how the Korean and American media compare, he said, “In Korea, there seems to be more of a reliance on one or two anonymous source stories, because everyone speaks on condition of anonymity. They don’t even name criminals. It makes it a lot harder to confirm a story. As someone coming from the U.S., it’s disconcerting not to know what sources you’re dealing with, because everything is so hush-hush.”
He is also concerned about the new press-room restrictions put into place by the Roh administration.
“I don’t trust who’s doing it. President Roh has had a really strange attitude toward the press, particularly as someone who comes from the left.”
Having returned to the peninsula to work at the Hankyoreh newspaper, Zahorchak is now planning to go back to the United States. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in international relations at M.I.T., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

By Richard Scott-Ashe Contributing Writer [richard@joongang.co.kr]