Ten days after the death of a victim of sexual violence on the campus of Inha University, the media could not avoid criticism that he had become a second perpetrator again. Although the number of false positives has gradually decreased due to the raising of the issue of sensational reporting, the traces of reports that were misleading from the first step and competition for breaking news remain intact.
On the 15th, the first report of the incident was reported by Yonhap News Agency, a national news agency, “”The woman fell naked and bleeding at Inha University”… The article is titled ‘Police Investigation’. A woman in her 20s who had collapsed on a university campus was reported by a passerby and taken to the hospital by 119 paramedics, the first breaking news that the police are investigating the incident. The information preceded by the title was the name of the school and the physical condition of the woman.
The title of the article exposed around 7:40 a.m. was later, ““A woman fell down with blood at Inha University”… changed to ‘police investigation’. At 9:59 am, it took about 2 hours and 20 minutes for the comprehensive article titled ‘Female college student found bleeding at Inha University to die (comprehensive)’. In the meantime, many media outlets dictated Yonhap News, and the expressions ‘without clothes’, ‘without clothes’ and ‘without clothes’ appeared in most titles.
Even though news of the victim’s death was announced on the same day, the description of the victim’s physical condition did not disappear. Seoul Economic Daily ‘A woman in her 20s found naked at Inha University… ‘He died in the end’, News 1 ‘A woman in her 20s found naked and bleeding at Inha University dies… It’s like a police investigation. About 227 articles were reported on Naver alone that day.
As an Inha University male student was revealed as the perpetrator and the investigation proceeded, reports reminiscent of a specific crime followed. A typical example is reports of victim clothing found on campus. The Segye Ilbo used the words ‘women’s clothes’ in the title, while Seoul Economic Daily and E-Daily wrote ‘underwear’ and ‘bottoms’ in their titles. It is confirmed from the reports of other media that it was not an inevitable report. The Hankyoreh reported the same issue under the title, ”Inha University’s death case’, clothes were collected from the toilet and investigated.”
This behavior was also prominent in reports of the alleged illegal filming of the perpetrator. On the 20th, JoongAng Ilbo wrote ‘Video of the Day’ instead of ‘Illegal Filming’ in the title. On the 21st, the private news agency News 1 (Lee Su-jeong “Why did a male student’s phone at Inha University have a ‘wall’ on it…I was trying to film a sexual assault”) is in a similar vein. Among the remarks of experts who are not directly related to the incident, the title of the subject is a guess or reminiscent of the situation at the time of the crime.
Needless to say, this is against the ethics of reporting and reporting. The Reporters Association of Korea Empathy Standards and Guidelines for Reporting on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Harassment Reports states that “If you focus on the perpetrator and describe it in detail, it will make the victim associate and recognize the victim as a target of provocative sexual activity, thereby fixing the negative image.” The Korea Newspaper Ethics Committee’s Guidelines for Journalism Ethics also states that “When reporting illegal or unethical behavior, you must not use sensational or provocative expressions, and you must not treat them vulgarly.”
University students who had no choice but to transfer to this case also pointed out the problem of media coverage. A 26-year-old woman, who first came across the incident through an article shared on an online community, said, “I felt that I was provocatively reporting the victim’s gender and victimization.” He said, “I especially saw the title ‘Inha University Falls After Refusing to Rape a Female Student’. She said, “The bullying male student sexually assaulted a female student, and the article focused on the victim’s being ‘raped’, and I thought it was a problem by provocative reporting.
The practice of ‘community dictation’ also reproduced secondary harm to victims. As of the 18th, some media have published articles on the Inha University community (everytime) that seem to ask about the victim’s identity. News 1 added blatant secondary injurious remarks such as “What about the school’s honor” and “I wonder if she is pretty” in the title of the article.
A 25-year-old man, B, said, “I thought, ‘It’s a news report focused on victims again’. It is also pointed out that the necessary reports have been pushed back. “The responsibility of the perpetrator is the greatest, but how about reporting why the school failed to prevent this and what the next countermeasures are from the perspective of the school’s responsibility?”
B’s point makes us think again about the reason why the name ‘Inha University’ was allowed to be disclosed. The Sexual Violence Reporting Guidelines recommend that the victim’s school or other personal information not be published. In this case, the name of the university was known as the first report, but the weight of the incident on the university campus should be given more importance. Inha University is a key player in diagnosing the root cause of sexual violence and death on campus and preparing countermeasures.
Previously, there were criticisms that Inha University’s measures to expand closed circuits (CCTV) and curfew at night were not essential responses, but there are only a handful of reports focused on this issue. The Korean Women’s Association pointed out on the 20th, “It is necessary to review how sexual violence cases have been handled at Inha University, what is the community culture at the university, what has been tolerated in the student community, and how the school has responded to it.” The Reporters Association of Korea Guidelines for Reporting on Sexual Violence and Harassment also stipulates that reporting should focus on organizational culture and social structural issues that spread damage beyond concern for the incident itself.
Among hundreds of reports, the case that dealt with this issue was reported on the 20th by the Kyunghyang Shinmun (Who is interfering with the ‘time of remembrance’ of Inha University students?[플랫브리핑]), the Seoul Shimbun on the 24th (‘gender education’ and ‘severe punishment’ are the key to eradicating sexual violence crimes on campus), and the Yonhap News on the 25th (repeated university-wide sexual violence…“resolute measures and prevention education are required”).
Fortunately, efforts have been made to rectify the errors centered on some media. On the 15th, the Citizens’ Coalition for Democratic Press announced that SBS removed the victim’s physical condition from the title 1 hour and 40 minutes after the first report, and avoided specific and sensational descriptions of the situation at the time of discovery in the text. On the same day, the Kyunghyang Shinmun changed the title of ‘Arrest of a college student who killed a female college student after refusing to sexually assault them’ to ”The death of Inha University’ and the arrest of a male student on charges of rape and murder.
The Hankyoreh voluntarily revealed and reflected on the fact that the article title was revised, and received favorable responses. Jeong Eun-joo, head of Hankyoreh’s content, wrote a column (in the editorial office) ‘Sexual and sexist titles, I confess’ through online on the 18th and the paper on the 19th. At 10:43 am on the 15th, the first headline of the Hankyoreh article was ‘A college student found naked in college dies… It was a police investigation, but a digital news editor who felt a sense of problem said, ‘A student found bleeding in the campus of Inha University died… changed to ‘police investigation’. This is an example where daily gatekeeping (news selection) played a role before the Hankyoreh gender desk started working.
On the 22nd, Jung Eun-joo, the content manager, said, “If someone had captured (the first report), we would have become the same media company. Fortunately, the editor was a competent person,” he said. Whether to change ‘girl’ to ‘student’ or whether to write the name of the university, etc., cannot be answered uniformly. If the Hankyoreh, not Yonhap News, had seen 1, he might have had another concern. However, general manager Jung said, “We raise a lot of problems late. (This article too) I have a belief that bright-eyed people would have raised the issue, and it would have been sorted out through the gender desk.”
It is said that some readers expressed their intention to support the Hankyoreh through this article. Jung said, “I was a little embarrassed when I saw so many compliments in the comments. He thought, ‘Even with this level, people are regaining their trust in reporters.’ Not only the Hankyoreh, but many media companies are especially concerned about this these days.” This shows that, when recognizing and worrying about the problems of reporting, the media that admits errors and reveals them transparently can regain trust rather than the media that hides and rationalizes them.
