Korean Job Discussion Forums

IncognitoHFX · Joined: 06 May 2007 Location: Yeongtong, Suwon

I'm correcting my school's annual newspaper, put together over the period of a year by a dedicated few.

The articles are generally impressive, demonstrating to me that there are students who can write English at a high level, nearly equivalent to average high school students in Canada (though I haven't determined how long it took them to write this).

There are a couple of things, however, that have been bothering me in these articles. Aside from some minor "Sea of Japan" squabbling under the Olympic Review and some strange adjectives, there is one article that I personally feel is quite offensive and I really want to call them out on it, but I'm not sure its my place.

Here's a snippet from an article on ADHD and athletes:

"Michael Phelps has ADHD. It was caused by his parents divorce."
"ADHD makes children annoying..." (Actually, there is truth in this.)
"ADHD is curable after hard work, but some people are too lazy to work hard and cure themselves..."

I have ADHD myself. It manifests internally most of the time, not externally, so most people aren't aware of it.

I find this article quite offensive and am considering fixing the content before submitting it back to the students. I am doing this work as a favour, anyway.

Is this way out of line for my position or should I just go ahead and do it?

withnail · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul, South Korea.

Why don't you have a chat to the writer(s) first and get more info?

jadarite · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject:

ReeseDog · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Location: Classified

poet13 · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:36 pm Post subject:

Granted, but at what point as an editor do you have to say that something is simply incorrect? Opinion is one thing, but knowingly allowing things that are untrue to be printed isn't acceptable.

Perhaps the OP ahs to split the difference and make the staff member in charge of the students aware of the issue.

Jammer113 · Joined: 13 Oct 2008

If you're in charge of content, call them out on it. If not, you should be more diplomatic. It has only been in the last few years that americans have viewed conditions like ADHD as being diseases and as not being the person's fault. Is it really a disease, or are we just seeing a new fashion in diagnosing? These are valid questions for reporters to ask.

I would perhaps go to the editor in charge of content and point out that the western medical community strongly disagrees with those particular statements and ask if the students can cite valid sources for those statements. I wouldn't go to the students themselves. They wrote it, and they obviously think they wrote something good. The editor is responsible for setting the tone of the paper.

Edit: Whatever you do, don't just fix it. That's bad form all the way around.

ReeseDog · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Location: Classified

gangpae · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Location: Busan

Michael Phelps would walk around with the crack of his arse showing. This made him ficking annoying.

I think your student nailed it.

ytuque · Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Location: I drink therefore I am!

emilylovesyou · Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Location: here

I would go back to the editor and ask, "Where did the student get these quotes from? In writing a newspaper it's important to back up your statements with facts and references, so people are delivered the most accurate news instead of something biased."

It's not censorship if you explain how newspapers work and how reporting works (ie: backing up with facts and references). Besides, we (western-medicine-based) obviously see what they wrote as an opinion/old ideas of ADHD rather than fact, so you don't want to crush what they wrote...only 'lightly nudge' them in the right direction Wink