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Anyone else feel like there's a shortage of nuanced or well-researched English language Kpop news sources? (1 Viewer)

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Most of the English Kpop news sites that I'm familiar with are competent enough when reporting pretty standard events or promotional news. But whenever more nuanced reporting and more independent research is needed when more serious things / controversies happen, these news outlets' shortcomings really show through. Being an English-speaking kpop fan that can't read Korean, I don't even know where I would even start to look if I wanted to verify anything from these articles. I can only sort of do this indirectly by looking for Chinese language articles that are covering the same events bc I can read Chinese. A lot of times, I notice that the English articles are missing relevant information, or have different details entirely from the Chinese articles. Particularly when they are covering things about kpop activities in China, they really tend to get a lot of the details wrong.
So sometimes it's frustrating to see people take English reports as facts and spread misinformation. But I also know it's hard for every single person to do their own independent research. The other issue is that sometimes fans that may know some Korean may post more details about a story that they've found, but it's also hard to judge if these fans are sharing accurate info or just sharing info that support their assumptions and leaving out other details. I do think it's an issue at least when it comes to spreading misinformation and causing things to spiral out of control.
Any thoughts on this? Do you think maybe it's bc most of these news sites are profit driven (click-bait-y), and there just isn't enough of a demand and profitability for the type of "serious" journalism that requires more work and time? How do you all try to find reliable info as people that might not know Korean? Like I said I try to verify things by looking for Chinese articles, but those can be suspect too.
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Most of the English Kpop news sites that I'm familiar with are competent enough when reporting pretty standard events or promotional news. But whenever more nuanced reporting and more independent research is needed when more serious things / controversies happen, these news outlets' shortcomings really show through. Being an English-speaking kpop fan that can't read Korean, I don't even know where I would even start to look if I wanted to verify anything from these articles. I can only sort of do this indirectly by looking for Chinese language articles that are covering the same events bc I can read Chinese. A lot of times, I notice that the English articles are missing relevant information, or have different details entirely from the Chinese articles. Particularly when they are covering things about kpop activities in China, they really tend to get a lot of the details wrong.
So sometimes it's frustrating to see people take English reports as facts and spread misinformation. But I also know it's hard for every single person to do their own independent research. The other issue is that sometimes fans that may know some Korean may post more details about a story that they've found, but it's also hard to judge if these fans are sharing accurate info or just sharing info that support their assumptions and leaving out other details. I do think it's an issue at least when it comes to spreading misinformation and causing things to spiral out of control.
Any thoughts on this? Do you think maybe it's bc most of these news sites are profit driven (click-bait-y), and there just isn't enough of a demand and profitability for the type of "serious" journalism that requires more work and time? How do you all try to find reliable info as people that might not know Korean? Like I said I try to verify things by looking for Chinese articles, but those can be suspect too.
as if serious journalism exists any more on a large scale. It all profit or agenda driven.

To the bigger question. Basically i rely on a set of subbers i trust to get news about the acts i care about correct when its that nuanced.
What did x say in what context ect.
 

Abeamus

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The most reliable source of news is Oh Mes or Soompi for articles
 

Ahsoka

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For sure, people don't like to fact check especially when they have to go through the extra hurdle of translating a language. That being said even if you understand the language you need to be weary of what their biases are, everyone in journalism has an agenda they're trying to push on you.
 

LeeHoseok

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I think it depends on what you consider a kpop news site, because most kpop "news" sources are just TMZ wannabes. Some even allow users to write and submit stories without review, editing, or fact checking. Well-researched articles aren't profitable, pandering, controversy and fanwars bring them more clicks and many of them run an obscene amount of ads to generate revenue. There's also the "news" sites whose owners & operators are unprofessional and who fight amongst each other like children. Serious journalism is hard and takes a lot of effort. You need translators, editors, research, time, a lot of things kpop sites don't have to spare, or aren't willing to or cannot afford to invest in.

As a writer, I usually get my information from trusted sources/translators/k-news outlets, and then I try to verify/double check it myself. If it's an unverified story or rumour, I do my best to track down the origins. I have a few friends who speak the language including one in-country that I can contact if I desperately need to know something and a translator is not available. My hands will always be tied, however, due to constraints outside my control and my lack of ability to speak Korean. Each writer is dependent on their own skill levels as well as the support of the site they work for, which means quality varies even if multiple sites are reporting the same story.
 

VillageIdiot

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I've really been trusting DailyNaver but since the site is new, she still is fluctuating between news and tabloid to get traffic.
 

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I thought I was going crazy because I got such a strong feeling of deja vu reading the title of this thread and the text but now I’m pretty sure this account is some kind of weird bot who posts threads from r/kpop or they just steal them and claim them as their own. O_o



their other post on this forum

 

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Kpop news source usually are gossip focused.

OH Mes is perfect though
 
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If I could read Korean and if the market wasn’t so saturated I’d love to have a news platform of my own for Kpop because I can’t help but agree. I also feel like a lot of translating sites allow a lot of groups to go under the radar in favor of keeping clicks up Shareit app vidmate apk
 
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I personally feel that this is an issue with news in general. For one, news sources need to be read to stay relevant. If no one is reading your news, it's the same as if you never existed in the first place. This creates a shift in news reporting style where hashing out complex issues and nuance is secondary to putting out the broad strokes information. This issue is compounded by readers attention spans. News sources have to race to be the first to fill a readers' limited attention and bandwidth because most wont read more. As you already pointed out, it's hard for every single person to do independent research, but when a reader is only getting the broad strokes info minus the nuance and complexity, the reader will fill in the missing info themselves in order to process the information. When non-expert readers start to form opinions by filling in the gaps on their own, you get a seed for outrage culture which essentially divides the readership into those who agree and disagree. As a news source, you need people to keep coming back to read so you "dumb" down the content to cater to readers preferred narrative (agree or disagree), create clickbait titles, and sacrifice "serious" journalism for sustainability.
Of course this isn't every new source, but as far as kpop goes, take everything above, add in niche coverage, young readership, complex issues, and nuances of a different culture, and you get shallow English language kpop news. I would argue there are very few people in this world that are well versed with the relevant knowledges to dissect kpop issues accurately on their own, so it's very unlikely a writer for an English language Kpop news site is going to be able to. The best thing we can do as readers is realize this gap exists, read what limited "credible" English kpop news we have, and keep an open mind to the fact that things can be much more complex than what's being reported in 140 characters or less.
 
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