Now is the Era of Culture (文話) What Does the Film <Assassins> Ask of Our Society and Media Today?

On August 15, 1974, the film <Assassins> traces the truth of that day, which seemed to have frozen with the sound of a tragic gunshot, and poses weighty questions to journalists living today.

"What should the media see and record in the face of turbulent times?"

In the film, Metro desk chief Jae-hwan and rookie reporter Young-il persistently pursue 'facts' and grasp their pens to record 'truth' even in the vast shadow cast by power.

This echoes the 'Declaration of Free Press Practice' made by Dong-A Ilbo journalists on October 24 of that year, who declared against the Yushin regime's stringent media control that "free journalism is a task of practice by journalists themselves."

The senior journalists of that time, who proclaimed that media freedom should not be permitted as a favor by state power but rather secured through journalists' own practice, resisted, and citizens supported the struggle through voluntary solidarity. Truth-finding was the very reason for the media's existence.

From Control by Power to Silence of Systems

Yet more than half a century later, the landscape of media has changed dramatically. While the physical control of authoritarian power has disappeared, public trust in the media faces a profound crisis. What exactly is the source of this eroded trust? Is it due to external unjust pressure, or is it self-inflicted by media failing to fulfill its duty in a changed media environment?

Today's media landscape is deeply trapped in extreme political polarization and algorithm-driven competition for breaking news and viewership. Rather than in-depth investigative reporting and multifaceted context, public discourse is filled with sensational frames and lightweight articles that induce factional consumption.

If media, which should mediate society's pluralistic conflicts and form public discourse, instead incites factional conflict and deepens social distrust, this amounts to admitting that media has become not a public utility but a weapon, turning itself into an assassin and sniping at journalism's inherent values and our society's trust. Whereas media freedom was once threatened by power in the past, the present moment calls for a cold-headed self-reflection that media itself is now eroding trust and diluting its calling.

Is It an 'Accomplice to Assassins' or a 'Guardian of Public Discourse'?

"What are we writing for now?" The question posed by the film <Assassins> does not stop at the historical event of 1974.

A crisis of trust is a matter of survival that threatens journalism's reason for being. Confirmation bias reporting that rides on factional logic and the breaking news competition fueled by algorithms may attract short-term viewership, but they only destroy both the public sphere and the media's own place to stand. Journalism that does not question and articles that abandon fact-checking are nothing different from condoning 'another assassination' that silences truth.

Will media remain an 'accomplice to assassins' while ignoring substance, or will it stand again as a 'just guardian of public discourse' serving as a public utility? Now it is the media's turn to answer.