Why the media gets it wrong when it comes to North Korea: Cases of ‘dead’ North Koreans in the Kim Jong-un era

Abstract

Journalists are more capable than ever of covering places they cannot visit in person. The same news environment that makes such reporting possible, however, can also facilitate a global cascade of journalistic errors. This article zooms in on the opportunities provided by a unique cluster of journalistic errors to understand factors influencing journalistic errors in international stories. It focuses on erroneous death reports of seven prominent North Koreans between 2012 and 2019. Existing research shows that domestic interests and ideology greatly influence international reporting, with journalists routinely relying heavily on elite sources. However, this article finds limited impact of national interests and political leanings, with the journalistic errors occurring across the ideological spectrum. News outlets developed a habit of quoting other – particularly international – sources without additional verification, citing lack of direct access to North Korea as a major reason. The clicks and revenue generated by salacious North Korea-related stories make them especially susceptible to distortion. Even after such stories were proven erroneous, corrections were rarely issued, with journalists conceding they do not think of North Korea as a subject worthy of clarification. This article thus concludes that in addition to national interest and the Cold War-era commercialization of fear, a culture of negative exceptionalism contributed to erroneous coverage, an idea that existing journalistic standards on ethics and fact-checking do not apply in dictatorial regimes like North Korea.