About the lecture

Based on in-depth interviews and analysis of news content, Dr. Seo looks into the causes of journalistic errors in coverage of North Korea, focusing on erroneous reports of seven prominent North Koreans between 2012 and 2019. Existing research shows that domestic interests and ideology greatly influence international reporting, with journalists relying heavily on elite sources. However, she finds that the journalistic errors did not originate exclusively from South Korean and American media, finding that Japanese, American and Chinese media have also become part of the ecology in which misinformation circulates. The clicks and revenue generated by salacious North Korea-related stories make them especially susceptible to distortion. Even after such stories were proven erroneous, corrections were rarely issued, with journalists conceding they do not think of North Korea as a subject worthy of clarification. 

About the speaker

Dr. Soomin Seo is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and a member of the Media and Communication Doctoral Program at Klein. Seo has written about global journalistic practices, journalism history and media policy. As a media sociologist, she has conducted fieldwork in newsrooms of New York, London and Seoul. A former journalist who worked for the Hankyoreh, Korea Times and BBC Radio, and has also visited North Korea six times from 2000 to 2008, Seo’s work has been published in publications such as Journalism Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Journalism Practice, New Media & Society, International Journal of Communication and Columbia Journalism Review. She received her PhD in communications at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and studied public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.