Grey-haired news consumers turn to YouTube

Korea Times graphic by Cho Sang-won

Falling media credibility behind surge of YouTube news channels: experts

By Kang Hyun-kyung

In the past few years, there has been a significant change in Koreans' news consumption patterns ― people in their 50s and older are increasingly turning to YouTube.

This perhaps signifies that the older generation is seeing YouTube news channels run by non-journalists as more reliable sources of information than TV or newspapers.

A survey of news consumption trends in the first half of the year showed people in their 50s and older were the age group that spent most time on YouTube, surpassing teens or 20-somethings who are classified as the digital generation.

According to Gundolle, a local website tracking up-to-the-minute social media trends, internet users in their 50s and older spend an average 101 minutes per day watching YouTube videos, and over half of them do so for the news services.

Twenty-somethings came in second with 81 minutes, followed by teens and those in their thirties. People in their 40s were found to spend 57 minutes per day on YouTube, the least active users.

A Nielsen KOREANCLICK survey found a sharp rise in gray-haired consumers of YouTube news channels.

According to the survey, approximately 25 million Koreans used YouTube to search for information in June alone, and about 30 percent of them were people in their 50s and older.

It found they were the age group seeing the fastest-growing age group on YouTube with an increase of over 1.8 million from last year.

Lee Sang-ho, a professor of Kyungsung University School of Digital Media, said the surge of gray-haired YouTube news consumers appears to be associated with a credibility crisis of the media in Korea.

"We've seen a political upheaval (the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye) in the past years. Since then, Korea has become polarized and the clash between the right and the left has become more evident," he told The Korea Times after the Seminar on Problems of YouTube Journalism and Alternatives at the Press Center in central Seoul, Thursday.

"The older generation doesn't trust traditional media and became tired of their news reports. They turned to YouTube because they believe YouTubers, although they are not trained as journalists, provide more reliable, trustable news services."

Asked to specify why the older generation was tired of TV and newspapers, he hinted at the management reshuffles in KBS and MBC and its aftermath on their TV news as a possible root cause of consumer distrust.

"People felt TV news coverage became slanted toward liberals to curry favor with the ruling camp, and this is something that many people know about, although few of them talk about it openly. Earlier this year, there was a survey conducted by a Seoul National University team, whose findings confirmed that TV news programs are liberal friendly," he said.

Tired of "biased" news reports, the older generation turned to YouTube as some conservative commentators and political pundits publicly addressed such problems in their channels.

The Digital News Report 2019 released by Reuters Institute in June shows the continued fall of Koreans trust in the media.

Asked to indicate their level of trust of media coverage, only 22 percent of Koreans responded they trust most news most of the time, which is the lowest among 38 countries that were surveyed for the annual report.

The figure shows a four-year consecutive fall in the category, down 3 percent from the previous year.

The Digital News Report is based on a YouGov survey of over 75,000 online news consumers in 38 countries, including the United States, Japan, European countries and South Africa.

The Reuters survey also found a surge of YouTube in Korea as a source of news.

Ma Jung-mi, a professor at the Politics and Communication Studies Department of Hannam University, said the Reuters survey shows "the credibility of the media in Korea keeps doing down, whereas YouTube is on the rise" as an alternative source of news. "The survey also shows news consumers are tired of traditional media outlets and an increasing number of people are looking to YouTube news channels."

Ma called the 2017 management reshuffles at KBS and MBC after President Moon Jae-in took office "an effort to normalize public TV stations," saying the reshuffles pushed some "problematic political commentators" out of cable news services.

"They're critical of KBS, MBC and even cable news channels, calling their news services 'biased.' They created their own YouTube channels (to deliver fact-based news)," she said. "Many YouTube channels became popular as they provide political analysis and on-the-spot news."

Ma said it was embarrassing to find that the credibility of media continued to sink even after the normalization of public television.

Amid YouTube's increasing clout in the local news market, the government has been gearing up to crack down on some YouTube news channels, calling them a source of disinformation.

Han Sang-hyuk, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), has spearheaded the campaign to fight fake news.

During a courtesy call to floor leaders of the ruling and opposition political parties on Friday, days after he took the helm of the KCC, Han said the spread of fake news has become so serious that government intervention is necessary.

"Although the KCC is not authorized to define what makes certain information fake news, I think it certainly has the authority to create measures to prevent and crack down on the spread of disinformation," Han said during a meeting with ruling Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Lee In-young. "I think there are various ways to handle fake news."

Han proposed the creation of "a system that can help check whether certain information is based on fact or not," noting he is willing to create a team dedicated to drawing a consensus from the public about disinformation.

His remarks caused a stir. Opposition parties voiced worry about Han's idea to crack down on fake news, saying doing so could violate the freedom of expression.

Experts say regulating violent or abusive YouTube content is necessary. But they say the crackdown on news channels, however, is a different story because the government may be tempted to use regulation to censor YouTube news channels.