a. Occurrence of the accident
On the 16th of April, the first distress call was received at 8.50a.m by the 119 situation room. Prior to this distress call, the captain and the crewmen knew there was a problem with the ship. However, they figured that if they let people know about the problem, the situation would only get worse as people would start to panic. So, they made an announcement for people to keep calm and stay where they were. Passengers had to follow the orders until they found out that the ship was actually sinking, only after receiving the news from their phones. However at that point, it was already too late to escape and thousands of passengers, mostly young students, got stuck and had to wait to get rescued.
b. A Nation and people left behind
A recent index of people’s indignation and sorrow toward the incident rated 83.8% on average. They have expressed their sorrow by spreading out the “Yellow ribbon campaign”, which has the meaning of ‘safe return’. The image of the yellow ribbon and the background color of black, with the message written below saying “one small movement, leading to a greater miracle”, quickly spread both online and offline. Also, people all over the nation sent out care packages to Jin-do post office to give a little help to the people involved. Not only have the ones who have firsthand experience of the incident suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, but also other family members left behind, have had to go through the mental anguish. On account of this, the government cleared an enforcement plan to examine the mental status and stress levels of all people concerned. In particular, for this incident, there is a worry that the level of stress would be greater than usual for survivors, as most of them are adolescents. However, this entire situation seems to have nothing to do with the media reporters, as their interest is only focused on the actual ‘reporting’.
c. Rampant of media reports
The way that the media reports dealt with issues in relation to the MV Sewol, provoked intense criticism from people. Just to get the attention of their audience, the media sent out unconfirmed and arousing broadcasts, in a competition to create the biggest impact. The reason for the heated competition was to send out reports as quickly as possible and also for the reporters themselves to produce the most dramatic content. This obsessive competition had a direct influence on the victims. Within a matter of days after the tragedy happened, the media was broadcasting about the insurance fees of the dead, regarding the dead as money or property, not as a human beings. There was no emotional sensitivity. During an interview with a survivor, the reporters were asking questions like “Do you know that your friend is dead?” and asked how they were feeling at that moment. The immoral and unethical journalism came in for criticism from CNN (Cable News Network) and of course from the Korean people, that this was only hurting the victims and the people left behind.The media is not only being criticized for its reckless journalism, but also for sending out reports that vary according to their political tendencies. The reports differ by those in the radical point of view and those in the conservatism, making the essence cause of the disaster blur. Reports relating the disaster with political matters have put people into confusion.
d. Voice for change in attitude of media reports
This kind of attitude the media reports are showing has lead people to strongly insist a change to broadcasting. When media deals with disasters, the victims should be at the center of consideration, meaning that their pain and mental status should be considered first. As internet-based media has increased, the competition between the various media outlets has intensified and therefore has led them to send out reports that had not even been confirmed. Thereby, there are strong voices arguing that it is critical to send out information only when it has been confirmed and reports to be made in the stance of the victims.
e. The dignity of disaster reporting
While journalism in Korea is being criticized, the way that CNN dealt with the disaster provided some thought-provoking reporting. Unlike Korean broadcasts that were capturing images of crying families, CNN took a step back and depicted the scene with a matter-of fact description. Although the tone of the reports were dry, the message they were sending out was clear. In essence, Korea should be following the example of broadcasting whereby they deliver facts calmly. However, not all media reports made in Korea are being berated. The one that stood out in the middle of all of the reckless reports was Son Suk-Hee, an anchor from JTBC news. He showed a humane face when he kept silent for 10 seconds, when he read the news that the rescue mission was starting to fail.
The journalistic value of the reports surrounding this terrible catastrophe, clearly reflect how problematic Korean media is at this point of time. There should exist, media outlets that organize the situation and quickly send out correct and qualified information to people. It must make sure that the reports are based on reliable facts and especially when dealing with disasters, the media should stand with the victims and be able to understand their pain and speak for them as well. Every time a disaster has occurred, the same voices for change are raised and it is not much different this time. It is time for change, with the question still remaining of “when?”