Interesting News from Korea

[Korea.net News, Society, April 13 2008] Seoul to host 2009 assembly on news dissemination technology

Korea will host next year's annual assembly of the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) on technical standards for the dissemination of news by news organizations, the Korea NewsML Forum said Sunday (Apr. 13).

The decision was made at a meeting Saturday of executives of the IPTC secretariat based in Windsor, United Kingdom. The IPTC is a consortium of 68 news media across the world organized for the development of news-related technology, the forum said.

Korea will be the second Asian country to host the assembly after Japan.

The forum hoped that the Seoul assembly would help boost the information technology of Korea in the world's news industry.

[The Hankyoreh, May 2 2008] U.S. scholar urges Korean media to diversify, and quickly

Korean media can’t keep up with rapidly changing media environment, professor says

Randy Covington, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of South Carolina in the United States, speaking at a recent seminar in Korea, remarked that changes in the South Korean media are slow compared with changes in its rapidly-developing IT industry. He was in Korea on April 30 at the invitation of The Hankyoreh Economic Research Institute.

Professor Covington observed that the Korean media was unable to keep up with the demands of the general public. Traditional media, including newspapers and television, should change their newsrooms to survive in today’s rapidly changing media environment, the professor added.

[The Chosun Ilbo, April 18 2008] FCC Approves Cell Phone Alert System

Federal regulators in Washington have approved plans to upgrade the nation's Emergency Alert System to include text messages to cellphones and other mobile devices. VOA's Paul Sisco has more in this Searching for Solutions report.

When disaster strikes, the Federal Communications Commission wants to make sure that as many Americans as possible know about it. The Emergency Alert System just approved by the FCC would send out warnings to cell phones about terrorist threats and imminent natural disasters. Law enforcement agencies could also use the system to help find missing children.