Korean Job Discussion Forums

[daemyann]

How much media manipulation do you think goes on here?

For example, seeing as how no part of the iphone is made here, and the company basically bullied their way into the market, it's not surprising that there's some negativity toward Apple. But even given the aforementioned, and allowing for a country still due to have some xenophobic growing pains (perhaps 'nationalistic' would be a better word), it seems like articles such as the one I'll link below are a bit over the top.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2010/07/133_69737.html

It's certainly true that sensationalization isn't unique to the ROK, and there seems to be a lot of public anger aimed at Apple the world over right now, but that hasn't stopped me from wondering to what extent the articles may be 'guided'...

I have a friend who's a stock trader here, and he claims that media manipulation is rampant, particularly regarding businesses. He described it as basically no more complicated than someone powerful wanting to see an immediate return on investment A, and making a few calls to get a moderately favorable article written on company A in order to pursuade amateur investors to jump on the boat.

As soon as the jump starts to peek, the guys behind the article get out at a much higher price. The way my friend explained it, the durations are even relatively predictable, but hard to see coming if you're an amateur because there are, of course, legitimate articles and profitable tips to be found as well.

Anyway, while I'm sure it's not quite that simple, it does make me wonder...

What about you?

[Steelrails]

Anything from the media, Korean or otherwise, is taken with a massive grain of salt.

Any media dealing with business, doubly so.

[jonpurdy]

As a Media Studies major coming from a good Canadian university I find that Korean media needs to be taken with a whole bag of salt. From sourceless newspaper articles to TV news "interviews" that involved a script and filming the reporter's "reaction face" I generally don't trust any Korean news sources whatsoever.

[NYC_Gal]

Apple offered to buy back the phones from dissatisfied users, or give them the rubber-band fix.

People don't seem to want to sell them back, so the antenna problem can't be that serious.

[coralreefer_1]

While it does come off as a bit one-sided..it is not surprising since a foreign company has come into Korea and broken a wide margin into the portable phone market. The industry is being turned from traditional phones in the direction of the "smartphone" and the Korean companies are struggling to keep up.

We all saw how long it took for the Iphone to get here. The regulators held it up for what..almost 2 years claiming this or that, but what they were really doing was trying to protect one of the nations most important export industries by buying time for the domestic companies to develop a phone that could compete with the Iphone. Even after all that..Koreans were snapping up the phone left and right..much to the dismay of the local manufacturers.

This article reminds me of something that was in the paper a few weeks ago..saying that many of the parts that go into the Iphone were made by Korean companies..therefore claiming that the Iphone is actually more Korean that foreign. Not sure whether that is true or not..

Hard for a layman like most of us to know for sure whether Apple submitted approval for the new device or not. However I don't believe for an instant that if they did actually submit for legal approval, the government regulators would not do their best to slow down the process for domestic industry protection.

But, at the end of the day...this is how business in done is every country. Lobbyists/Politicians/Regulators all get into the fray, as everyone is trying to look out for their own bottom line. Tis the nature of international business, and simply par for the course.