Dating on Sunday

The media wields great influence in modern society. This is because the media forms public opinion by providing explanations and critical perspectives on issues. It presents social issues to members of society by quickly and accurately delivering topics that are currently issues. There are four media outlets at HUFS including the Oe Dae Hagbo, Hufsjournal, The Argus, and the FBS HUFS Educational Broadcasting System.

The Argus plans to introduce these important media outlets in school. In order to understand how the school media operates and plays a role, The Argus would like to take time to introduce the Oe Dae Hagbo, which is only published in the form of a Korean newspaper at HUFS. The Argus met Kim Young-hwan, editor-in-chief of the Oe Dae Hagbo.


The Argus: Hello, please introduce the Oe Dae Hagbo.
Kim Young-hwan (Kim):
The Oe Dae Hagbo is a college press with a history of over 60 years since its launch in 1955. It is a 12-page newspaper, which publishes 10,000 copies per issue. All journalists for the newspaper are working to provide fair and objective information to students, faculty, and staff in and around our school.

The Argus: What kind of columns does the Oe Dae Hagbo have?
Kim: We always contain two columns for each station. Each of these two columns will be filled out by the reporter in charge of one semester, and the topic will be changed each semester depending on the reporter. This semester features a column on psychology and literature. Fortunately, both of these two topics are the favorite fields of interest for this semester’s reporters in charge. So many good articles are being published.

The Argus: Could you talk about the publishing procedure?
Kim: It is issued every two weeks. The first week is “conference week.” It is a week of searching through preliminary coverage to see if there are any stories worthy of this issue. On Friday, we hold a regular meeting to discuss articles, newsletters, and proposals from reporters and select articles to be published in this issue. The second week is the “deadline week.” During this period, we cover the news stories chosen at the meeting and write articles accordingly. Thursday is the deadline, and all articles should be written in Korean by this day. Then the next day, when I go to work at a design firm on Friday, I design the layout and composition of the articles which signals the end of the rough preparation that goes into publishing. It is issued the following Wednesday after fixing minor errors such as typos.

The Argus: How does the Oe Dae Hagbo run its editing meeting?
Kim: There are two coverage reports and a planning (item) proposal that journalists should prepare for the meeting. First of all, the coverage report is for a straight article (news report). It is a report in which the reporters talk to the reporter of each article, and write down a report about what might possibly be included in this issue. The editor will review this coverage report and select straight articles to be included in this issue.
The planning proposal is intended to create a “planning article” that places the greatest emphasis on the Oe Dae Hagbo. The planning article of the HUFS newspaper is a feature article that occupies the whole of one page in one issue, of which there are about 25 pages in total. The reporters have a description of the item brought up in the planning proposal, and when it is announced, we choose the items of the planning article to be published in this issue through the meeting.

The Argus: What is the atmosphere of the meeting amongst its members?
Kim: The meeting atmosphere is always good. I often hate a harsh atmosphere, as sometimes the words that members use are quite critical. Also, in a rigid meeting atmosphere, reporters cannot speak freely, and I think that such meetings are meaningless.
Passing items is also free. This is because reporters bring a lot of good items, but even if it is not an epoch-making item, we can make it good by discussing the opinions of all the reporters through meetings.

The Argus: What is most important when reporters write articles?
Kim: The most important thing for reporters to get a proposal for a planning article is “novelty.” I think, of course, that subjects such as “timidity” or “justice” should be included in the article, but the most important reason for the novelty should be rooted in the fact that the Oe Dae Hagbo is a university journal. As college students are the smartest and most alert members of society, I think they need to have edgy approach or write a lot of fresh articles that the mainstream press cannot publish.

The Argus: What are the most rewarding or memorable articles you wrote and why?
Kim: The most memorable article is the first article I wrote at Oe Dae Hagbo. The subject was about the “public official exam frenzy.” When I wrote my first article, I did not know how to tackle it and did not know how to cover it. However, the editor at that time was a good leader, and somehow I wrote the article. At that time, I thought it was a really well written one, but now when I read it, I think it is a shameful one with many errors.

The Argus: Have you ever had any hardships in your Oe Dae Hagbo activities? What kind of difficulties have you experienced?
Kim: In fact, I think it is hard to work here every moment. When I was a staff reporter two semesters ago, the Oe Dae Hagbo only had five reporters, including the editor, so I had to write too many articles for each issue. I became a conduct reporter after one semester and it was difficult because I did not have a plan article to write anymore. The item warehouse was exhausted because I wrote all the items I thought of at the time. Now that I am the editor, I feel the pressure to create a good journal.

The Argus: Please tell us about the advantages and disadvantages of publishing in newspaper form.
Kim:
I think that being able to carry it easily is the biggest advantage. Because it is a light newspaper comprised of six sheets, it seems to be easily portable. One more advantage is that when you eat takeout food, you can lay this newspaper down and eat on it. (Laughter) But because it is light, it can be easily discarded as it is.

The Argus: Is there any difference between the Oe Dae Hagbo and the HUFSjournal which is the in-school media that delivers the news of HUFS as a different form of publication (newspaper / book)?
Kim: I think the biggest difference is the difference in issuing cycles. The Oe Dae Hagbo publishes twelve times a year, and the HUFSjournal publishes four times a year. This creates a difference in the time and depth of preparation for each article. For example, when an incident occurs, Oe Dae Hagbo focuses on “covering something quickly” so that articles about the event can be included in the next issue. On the other hand, in the HUFSjournal, the focus will be on “covering in-depth” with more time for investigation. Because of this, we write superficial articles as opposed to the in-depth reporting of the HUFSjournal, enabling us to deliver the news more quickly. Thus, it would be slower to finish it if we wrote more in-depth articles.

The Argus: Are HUFSans interested in your newspaper?
Kim: In fact, there is no big interest. This is a problem not only for us but also for all the university press, and I think it is related to the decline of the paper newspaper. Nowadays, people tend to prefer online articles from children to adults and the news is viewed through computers or mobile devices. Therefore, we attempt to put more weight on new media such as SNS. Also, we are trying to attract more students. I was not been able to utilize SNS until last semester, but I am making efforts to make some new SNS contents utilize it more this semester. We are preparing card news which is optimized contents for SNS to publish articles on Facebook.

The Argus: What is your ultimate aim for the Oe Dae Hagbo?
Kim: The reason why we are writing articles is because we want to make HUFS better. There are two basic things that make students feel dissatisfied with the school: the inconveniences they have and the school’s response regarding said inconveniences. As we get a hold of stories on these issues and publicize them, we write articles with the hope that our school will be a better school for our members, especially students. 


By Jeon Eu-min
Reporter of Campus Section
toria@hufs.ac.kr

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