[Letters] Room for improvement in news coverage, choice of words

I want to be a loyal reader of the JoongAng Daily. But after reading the newspaper for a month, I have my doubts.

I have normally subscribed to Korean-language newspapers because I find their stories to be more comprehensive. But I decided to try the JoongAng Daily because I wanted to see how the same news is covered in English.

So far, I really like the contents and have enjoyed reading the stories.

But I think there is room for improvement.

First, I want the articles to be more accurate. Compared to other English-language newspapers in Korea, I find the Joongang Daily to be credible.

But leaving aside some spelling mistakes, some errors have damaged the reputation of the journalists.

For instance, an article titled “Officials struggle to find cause of ship’s explosion” on March 29 quoted “military sources,” but did not identify them further.

Naming sources doesn’t necessarily strengthen the credibility of a newspaper, but simply referring to unnamed “sources” can bring down its credibility. This was a lesson I learned was important in news writing class.

I realize this is a problem not confined to the JoongAng Daily, but is common throughout the media. But the reliance on unnamed sources should force journalists to double-check the facts.

Another suggestion, related to the first point, is that the paper should use new terms more carefully and precisely.

On March 27, an article titled “In an uptrend, women marrying younger men,” in the article, referred to older women dating younger men as a yeonsang-yeonha couple. I found the article interesting overall since it reflected well social trends in Korea.

However, I am still curious about whether the term is only applied to an older woman-younger man pairing.

Another article on March 12, “Korean derivatives to be traded in Europe” used the abbreviation KRX to refer to the Korea Exchange. But this abbreviation was unfamiliar to me.

Although the article was written by Yonhap, not the JoongAng Daily, I still believe that your newspaper should have given an explanation about what is unfamiliar term to many. Such explanations help readers to understand articles.

All in all, I sincerely do wish the JoongAng Daily to be a better newspaper not only in Korea, but overseas as well. To be so, I hope the JoongAng Daily considers what readers want and does it best to meet their expectations.

When the paper shows its loyalty to its readers, the readers will become loyal to the newspaper. Then I have no doubt that I will be a loyal reader of the JoongAng Daily.

Chung Eun-hye,

student of politics & diplomacy at Ewha Womans University