On April 16th, Koreans were shocked and sorrowful because of the ship carrying more than 400 people sinking in the ocean. There were more than 300 students on a school trip aboard, so parents bewailed the loss while thinking of the children. However, the press caused the victims and the parents, who are mourning, to feel outrage due to the competitive spirit of the press. Two newspapers reported incorrectly, “The rescue of 325 people who are all school excursion students.” They just placed the announcement of the Gyeonggi-do Office of Education in the newspaper without checking. In addition, the main broadcasters announced, “Most of the dead bodies are confirmed to be in the inner ship”, on the afternoon of April 18th as breaking news, but it was wrong, so people were plunged into shock. One of the broadcasting channels interviewed a private diver on the 6 p.m news on the 18th. She said, “There are survivors who talked to the members and spoke with a crew member through the wall of one deck.” However, it was an apparent lie. This woman is a habitual liar. People showed considerable distrust of the media because they gave lots of misinformation that has not been considered to be precise.
  Most people know that delivering a scoop and rapid information is important between media. However, if the scoop and information are not fact, people would not trust them even if the stories are scoops or delivered promptly. Without the viewers and readers, the media are meaningless. That’s why the media must check the truth of every scoop and information when they announce or deliver them. Exposing the truth of information is more important for reporting the serious stories connected with people’s lives like the deceased passengers or survivors of the disaster. The media didn’t keep this promise, so people criticized them severely.
  The victims’ families finally burst out in resentment and broke equipment of the press and forbade the press to enter or leave because the wrong information kept getting announced by the media.
  Recently, some people who distrust the media made new media. It is called alternative press, and it blames the media’s attitude of only concentrating on the scoop and speed. This phenomenon is not good news for mass media. I think this time the media needs to reflect on its own existence, and they have to regret their wrong behavior. I want the media to become trustworthy.