[선발]ING-영자신문

Fake News From The Press

20416 An Hyeryeong

  Where do we get information about events happening all over the country? All the information goes on SNS is form each press. The press can be divided into newspaper publishing company and broadcasting company. The newspaper publishing company include the progressive tendency, Hankyoreh newspaper and Kyunghyang Shinmun, the centrist temperament, Hankook Ilbo and Seoul Shinmun, and the conservative tendency, Chosun Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo, and Donga Ilbo. The broadcasters include liberal KBS, MBC, centrist SBS, JTBC, YTN, Yonhap News Agency, and conservative MBN, Channel A and TV Chosun. So, does all this information from so many different media outlets contain only the truth, are we not being uncritically receptive to that information?

  The only mission of the press is to let everyone know the truth. Recently, there’s been a flood of indiscriminate and undiscerning fake news about the former justice minister, and it’s happening repeatedly in a place called Major Press saying ‘Never mind if it’s not, it’s good if it’s real’, and lot’s of media outlets taking over and distributing it to the public. In this case, nearly 100,000 news about a former minister appeared, and most of them were not true. Fake news is not only said to have occurred internal confliction among the Korean through numerous pro-Japanese activities and fake news beneficial to Japan in the past trad strike, but also did for individuals like above. The untruthful information provided by major press is like a cancer in a country that sides the public and misleads the case.

  In this situation, it is common for the press to pass on their articles without reflecting on them, even though they later proved to be fake news. How much of our nation’s journalists are following ‘the spirit of press’ -determined to sacrifice their lives for one truth- as important as the doctors’ ‘Hipppocratic oath’? There is a saying that a pen is stronger than a sword. Fake news can save people or kill them. Furthermore, it can serve as a complete block to a country’s politics. Our society will not be able to develop further unless our country makes extensive efforts to deal with fake news.

  Then what kind of effort can we make to prevent this reckless distribution of false information? Most importantly, we should not trust the media unconditionally. We should always be careful and watch out for the myriad of information we encounter around us whether it’s true or not, and that the information is mixed with a single lie or an exaggeration. In addition, people should join together to demand changes in the media industry to the country. It is the nation that has won the public’s power that can fight with the power of the press, implicitly shaking Korea’s politic. If the public gather their opinions through civil groups or petition and make suggestions to the state continuously, there will be regulations requiring the media to provide only true information, and if legal measures are taken one by one, Korea will be able to impose a 60 billion won fine on the press for neglecting fake news like Germany.