In January 2012, MBC staged a strike demanding the resignation of President Kim Jae-cheol, who is a close associate of MB. In March, KBS and YTN also went on strike to defend impartial reporting and to demand that their working conditions be improved. KBS called off its strike after 94 days, YTN after 100 days, and MBC after 170 days, putting the movement at the state of temporary suspension. The media strike, however, brought to the citizens’attention the fact that the media, the most general source of information in the society, has a serious problem. To know how the university students should approach the media, ST met No Jongmyeon, a famous announcer and a former union head of YTN.
No Jong-myoun: News anchor of YTN, passing news reporter, and broadcasting producer. Produced “News Chang,”the most popular news program in YTN, until August 2008. When he became a union head, he was fired and imprisoned, but he was eventually released after a review of the legality of his confinement. The current affairs accusation program “돌발영상” is representative of his works.
ST: How are the people involved in the strike doing?
No: MBC is operating a reeducation program, the so-called“Shincheon Training Center,” targeting dozens of returned union members. MBC has a total of eight discharged people,and of these, two were rehired rather than being reinstated. After careful consideration, the labor union agreed to the proposal. Six other people are still officially discharged. There are also six dismissed workers from YTN. That is the present situation, simply put.
No: To keep other people, the media, and the older generation from messing up with you and your life, you should be concerned about the current issues. This is not easy, though.
ST: In accessing the media, what should the students pay attention to especially?
No: NEVER read only one press. In other words, do not rely on only one particular medium. Maintaining a sincere attitude, and developing the habit of comparing information, will enable one to determine which one is lying and which one is telling the truth. The starting point is the realization of one’s limits, that an individual has no chance of winning from the media no matter how smart he or she is. Wanting to know everything shows greed, and knowing everything is impossible. Sum up the important issues you’re interested in, where you are at the center, like “tuition cuts,” “in-depth reporting about the Four-River Project,” or “who will become the head when the new government is launched.” Do not try to know everything; instead, identify the issue you’re interested in. Then read articles with much caution, comparing information. I subscribe to at least five media for each issue. After comparing them and organizing my thoughts, I could speak out in public. In so doing, and especially for a person like me, who has been operating for more than 20 years as a journalist, I could see the flow of information and the drift of issues. Nevertheless, it is easy to be cheated. It is vanity for the students to think that they could protect themselves from all media. This isn’t possible. Even for a media practitioner like myself, I am an infinitesimal thing. I should realize this fact and should condense the subject that I should know about and should find information about. Then gather information in various ways. These three steps are the basic, the core, and the whole.
No: Nonetheless, it is easy to see only what we want to see. What you need at this time is a person who can communicate with you. Regardless of the difference between your tendency and theirs, those who can see the information more deeply than you can are the right ones to talk with. Talk with these people in person or online. Try to find out what they think is most important, or why they think the articles that you read are wrong. Establish a rough network of 20 people or more. Once you screen your network, you will be able to obtain the hard facts.
ST: That sounds difficult for university students to do.
No: It’s annoying to do, but not difficult. The habit of relying on portal sites
exposes one to media. Becoming aware of this is the first step to perceiving the
realities. Information and knowledge are like food that’s given to us. If you’re being fed by someone, that person will have a good chance of deceiving you.
No: The most dangerous things are cynicism, evasion, and indifference, like saying “Well, the media can lie, so I don’t care about the media and I don’t listen to politicians either.” Individuals can perhaps do that. I can’t say that that’s totally wrong because the media nowadays is in a real mess, but when it comes to the collective populace, that kind of attitude is exactly what the people who are cheating want. If people become indifferent and don’t vote, the politicians can do everything that they want to do and don’t even need to cheat as they can steal openly. It’s important to understand this very well.
Before the end of the interview, No Jong-myeon added this comment: “Please don’t forget that there are people in the world who are constantly attempting to deceive you and to steal from you.” The positive attitude is not seeing a bad thing as a good thing but looking straight into the reality and trying to overcome evil with faith, although the situation is desperate.“The real positive attitude is looking things over thoroughly and never getting frustrated.”
