Credit: Public domain.
The South Korean public has a persistently low trust in the media. In a 40 country survey conducted recently by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, only 21% of Koreans trust the news - the lowest among the surveyed countries for four years in a row and one point lower than the previous year’s study.
This low trust in the news media has led to the displacement of traditional news outlets. In a survey conducted by KBS, the fifth-most trusted news media in Korea - including television, newspaper, and online media - was Youtube (5.48%), edging out the news-only cable channel YTN (5.47%). The top four spots were KBS (17.7%), MBC (10.6%), JTBC (7.9%) and TV Chosun (6.7%).