Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Smee]

Hi, I'm curious if anyone can break down the political leanings of the newspapers in Korea. I bring this up b/c I'm curious which ones are considered liberal (and by whom), which are considered conservative (and by whom), and which are among the most popular.

Another reason I ask is b/c I got sucked into a couple of conversations about American beef and about the teachers' union, and when I presented articles from the Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, and Joongang Ilbo to support my opinons, they were outright rejected as being "government newspapers."

I know trying to talk current events or politics with most Koreans is ridiculous, and I try to avoid it at all costs, but, anyway, I'm just curious about this. I mean, my point remains that if something is printed in the Chosun Ilbo---liberal, anti-union or not---it at least represents the bias held by a large chunk of the country. That paper may pick on the union all the time, but it's not as if they're fabricating anything, they're just grinding axes.

So, yeah, any insight?

[in_seoul_2003]

I always thought that Joonang ilbo was one of the more liberal leaning papers, chosun ilbo the conservative, hankoreya, the most left leaning and the hankook ilbo (Korea Times) being somewhere just to the left of the Chosun.

But this doesn't cut it for me. The conservativeness of all these papers comes out on certain issues, jingoistic articles being a case in point. The Hankoreya also is no exception: stupid cartoons belittling Africans, radical jingoist articles, and a bunch of stories I can't remember that they had to apologize for. Most recently, The Chosun also had to do damage control for a dumb article they did on Korean princes and Vietnamese brides. Wonsoo, that crazy illustrationist for Joonang ilbo used to work for the Hankook Ilbo before he was picked up by JI. Every once in a while there's a good article, but mostly it's the same banana.