The Greatest Way to See the World Widely and Deeply
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The Greatest Way to See the World Widely and Deeply
  • Kim Seol Jieun
  • 승인 2015.10.12 18:42
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John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States of America.  Most people might know that, but did you know he had a unique habit that started when he was young?  He used to make newspaper scrapbooks.  Though he seldom did his homework, he diligently kept up with his collection of newspaper snippets.  Later in life, he would use the background knowledge he learnt from those newspaper clippings to discuss and implement policy as president.  A newspaper conveys generally accepted social common sense, economic situations of nations, and current education culture, so people can learn a lot of information widely and deeply through a newspaper.  However, today young people in their twenties rarely touch an actual newspaper because they read articles over the internet.  Therefore, reporter Jieun decided to start a newspaper scrapbook.  She collected newspaper clippings over 5 days in order to relay the benefits and disadvantages of hardcopy newspapers to Sookmyungians.

 


Making a Scrapbook that Embodies Me

Before becoming the Sookmyung Times reporters, all cub reporters must go through intense training during the summer vacation.  One of the exercises involves newspaper clippings.  Because the reporter also went through this training, it was not something she was unfamiliar with.  First, in order to gather newspaper clippings, the reporter had to collect various newspapers and purchase a notebook.  Rather than using one newspaper, the reporter chose two or three newspapers to feel differences in article tone among reporters regarding the same event.  To avoid being pulled to one side of the story, wise newspaper readers should read and compare articles on the same topic from at least two or three newspapers.  The reporter chose the Hankyoreh, JoongAng Ilbo, the Hankook Ilbo, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Dong-A Ilbo and the Korea Times from which to clip articlesAfter picking up a newspaper, the reader read the articles comfortably but through a critical eye.  The purpose of reading a newspaper is most and foremost for amusement, but they also provide diverse information when readers read various reporters' articles on the issue.  Next, the reporter picked several articles of interest to her and proceeded to highlight the key messages in those articles.  In order to create a scrapbook that best showed her interests, she continued the procedure over a 5-day period.

 

Various Viewpoints Show the World

On Monday, September 21st, the reporter read though the Kyunghyang Shinmun and Dong-A Ilbo.  Interestingly, both the Kyunghyang Shinmun and Dong-A Ilbo both focused on the same issues and had similar content.  However, the reporter found herself more attracted to Dong-A Ilbo articles because not only did they include expert interview quotations but they had more intriguing headlines. 

 

On the second day, the reporter once again read the Kyunghyang Shinmun and Dong-A Ilbo.  Both newspapers again covered the same topics, especially topics related to the Korean government, but the tone of the two newspapers’ articles differed.  The Kyunghyang Shinmun criticized the government for method of dealing with its low citizen happiness index; however, Dong-A Ilbo praised the government for its donations to youth programs.  Just as this indicates, each newspaper reporters write the issues from different perspectives, so it is really important to read at least two or three newspapers.  Reading only one type of newspaper would lead the person to have bias opinions.

 

On Wednesday, after reading the Hankook Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo, the reporter sparked interest in the culture field.  Especially, the articles on the generation were impressive.  She was fascinated by people in their 40s who pursued fun and excitement like Peter Pan.  Through newspapers, readers can learn about new cultural trends and terminology.

 

On Thursday, the reporter decided to read the Kyunghyang Shinmun and The Korea Times, which are English papers.  Interestingly, the Kyunghyang Shinmun and the Korea Times both presented the same issue, the Itaewon murder case, a controversial event in Korea nowadays.  After reading and comparing the murder case as presented in the two papers, the reporter sympathized with victim’s pain and felt that the most important factor in an English article is not the word choice, but the simple sentences.

 

On the last day, the reporter read the Hankyoreh and JoongAng Ilbo.  From these papers, the reporter clipped out articles related to the elderly.  According to one article, the elderly depend on television for entertainment rather than outdoor activities due to a lack of money and energy.  The reporter thought that it is the serious problem, so people need to come up with solutions to the problem. 
 

 

Beneficial Experience

Before starting her scrapbook of newspaper clippings, the reporter was just another newspaper reader.  She read the papers passively.  However, the 5-day experience made the reporter become an active and critical reader, which will improve her own article writing.  Additionally, as the Sookmyung Times reporter, Jieun learnt the value of writing without bias and to always work toward writing trustworthy articles.  Our reporter recommend Sookmyungians to engage in this type of activity as it will diversify one’s appetite.  The reporter more than ever felt that newspapers are reflections of the world.  Papers highlight activities and events happening all over the world.  Frankly speaking, because it requires a great deal of time and effort, student might feel the activity time-consuming.  Therefore, to avoid any ill-feeling and burden, the reporter suggests doing newspaper clipping twice a week.  Even just two days a week will greatly increase one’s knowledge and expand one’s view of the world.


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