Monday, August 11, 2008

[The Chosun Ilbo, June 19 2008] Should Portals Bear Responsibility for Cyber Violence?

At 3 a.m. on Tuesday, the Internet edition of the Chosun Ilbo reported an official announcement by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that the young American woman who was suspected of having died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human form of mad cow disease), as reported by MBC news program "PD Diary", had in fact died due to a different illness.

Internet portal Daum had led the candlelight vigils in cyberspace since the mad cow fears began spreading by posting on its main news corner articles about the dangers of U.S. beef and writings by bloggers and setting this issue as the main theme on its Agora web board for days on end. But for eight hours, Daum did not even bother to select the Chosun Ilbo article, which could mark a turning point in the mad cow disease controversy. It wasn't until 11:30 a.m. that the portal began posting articles by other news media that followed the Chosun report. If the CDC had announced that the American woman had indeed died of vCJD, how would Daum have handled that news? It probably would have plastered its main page with articles reporting that as well as links to previous articles.

No comments: