English media get a shot in the arm

The oligopolistic market for English-language media in Korea has been given a friendly shot in the arm with the introduction of an English-language content aggregator, the first of its kind in the country.

Since Korean News Feeds (http://koreannewsfeeds.com) launched in October last year, it has steadily grown in popularity. And while it still comes nowhere near challenging the top English news sites (The Korea Herald currently sits atop the group), its scope and usability far exceed anything else available.

The website is basically a news aggregator, but unlike Google News, Korean News Feeds only lists headlines. And whereas Google News has been accused of "stealing" readers, KNF doesn`t display opening sentences of stories, thereby driving readers to original sources.

"Aggregation is not only the raison d`etre of search engines, it`s growing in popularity and diversity with media sharing services," says lecturer of convergent and online media in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney, Dr. Fiona Martin. "So while Rupert Murdoch calls aggregators freeloaders, he`s really missing the point. They add value to his product by linking people back to news sites. They point whole networks of people back to its stories. And if the curators make a buck out of that useful work in the process, we should cheer them on."



But here`s where the shot in the arm comes from: The website takes all this Korea-generated content and places it nicely onto one page. Over thirty-five sources in all. All of the sudden, newspapers producing sub-par content are almost literally placed beside sources producing better content. Also, sources that utilize popular technology, like RSS feeds, have an advantage over media firms that are slow to adapt to the new media environment, since that`s how Korean News Feeds generates its content.

Readers say that boosting KNF`s credibility is its scope and the number of different sources the site displays. It is more objective and thorough than any single mainstream news source.

There are eight mainstream media outlets represented, including The Korea Herald, about 20 blogs and other sources that cover anything and everything related to Korea. Korean News Feeds presents corporate media first, followed by expat blogs, a military section, a North Korean section, Korean pop culture and then food blogs. There are also photo resources, currency information and video links to popular Korean TV dramas. And what would a Korean media source be without a Starcraft section?

So who is the man behind this media behemoth?

Todd Zitin is a teacher by training and is doing a masters degree in applied linguistics.

"When juxtaposed together, blogs, social media and corporate news aggregation promotes critical media awareness leading to a more democratized digital ecosystem. The overall result is a critical thinking public who may also choose to participate in the process of information dissemination," says Zitin.

Zitin says certain sites were chosen simply because they were popular, while others were chosen to provide a counter balance to traditional news sources. He states that it is important to note that he doesn`t choose the content of the news feeds. The process for his site is fully automated and his influence ends at the selection of the feed. He also points out that if the feed is from Google, the aggregation is algorithmic.

After spending time studying media theory and even incorporating theoretical material into his university lectures, Zitin figured the next logical step was to start a website.

Single page aggregators such as popurls.com, which provide news through a visually palatable Really Simple Syndication flow quickly became the conceptual template Zitin was looking for. He wanted his model to provide Korean news, blogs, and social media through RSS feeds, which he would choose. For the plan to see fruition, technical help from some friends back home was required.

Hailing from Philadelphia, Zitin was looking for a way to expand his cultural and humanistic understanding of the world when he decided to give life in Korea a try.

"Teaching is my profession, world travel is my passion. Korea was a good match for me," says Zitin, who has been here for eight years.

Currently teaching at Chungnam National University, Zitin had a desire to place alternative news sources together with traditional ones. A fan of sites such as Reddit.com, he likes sites where top stories are chosen based on votes rather than editorial discretion. Zitin feels that providing the news in such a way includes information that would never make it past an editorial meeting in a corporate-only news environment.

"I initiated a collaboration with my close friends, Michael Shannon and Nidhi Krishen who run SolutionMedia.net back in Philadelphia, to do the programming (which is open source) and Web design."

Korean News Feeds was up and running as of Halloween 2009 and things have gone fairly smoothly with only a couple small technical glitches. Though, he admits that a bit of creativity was required to obtain sources for sites that lack RSS feeds. "I can understand why some news publishers may not want to utilize RSS, but the reality is that sites like mine are driving Web traffic back to the source."

Zitin says that so far feedback has been very positive. Much of the praise has been in the form of simple thanks for putting such a mass of news together for people`s perusal.

When reached for comment, Korea-commentator Brian Deutsch, whose popular blog is listed on Zitin`s site, says it`s "clean, simple, and easy to use, and people seem to like it for those reasons.

"The site seems in line with the trend of aggregating information into a single place. ... Organizing all those feeds in one place is convenient for English-speakers in Korea looking for something to set as their homepage. It can be particularly useful for those new to the country, since it takes a while to learn where to go for Korean news."

Dr. Martin sees things in a similar way to Deutsch. Martin feels that Zitin`s site is a really useful service for news junkies or people traveling to Korea.

Her views, however, differ slightly from those of Zitin with respect to the scope of influence sites such as Korean News Feeds can have on the populace. Martin says that what Zitin does is a form of curation because he is the one who selects which sites are deemed "important" for reading.

"To suggest the site will promote critical media awareness or a more democratic media is stretching the point. Readers need to understand the political economics of Korean media, as well as something about each site`s history, place and importance in Korean society, to read these sources `critically`. What is and who are Kaipaparazzi for example, and what makes their take on Korean culture worth noticing?" asks Martin.

She also pointed out that for aggregated news sites it`s important to know how things are filtered, whether there`s premium content for paid users, what is known about the authors and whether or not they can be trusted.

"On that note," she says, "Who is Todd Zitin?"

For those sites that are deemed trustworthy, Martin says that feeds are a great tool for the collection and dissemination of information.

Zitin, meanwhile, is looking to expand.

"Currently Korean News Feeds provides an illustrative snapshot of what`s happening in Korea, but it`s not quite thorough enough."

He says that the next step is for a new section to be added that will list hundreds of new feeds and also the development of a mobile friendly version so that people can check his site while on the go.

(adamwalsh@heraldm.com) (mattlamers@heraldm.com)

By Adam Walsh, Matthew Lamers