The news story I chose to analyze for this blog post is this article published on December 28, 2019: Why the past decade saw the rise and rise of East Asian pop culture, written by Julia Hollingsworth of CNN.
As described on her CNN and LinkedIn profiles, Julia Hollingsworth joined the CNN news team in 2019 as a Digital News Producer. She is currently based in Hong Kong and has a number of accolades under her belt including a Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her work. Based off the profiles made available on Julia Hollingsworth and who she currently works for (CNN, an established news media company), I believe it is safe to say that as a reporter on this topic, Julia Hollingsworth is definitely credible.
In the article, Julia Hollingsworth cited a variety of sources that she used to write the piece ranging from quotes taken from a Korean Studies associate professor at the University of Australia, an Asian Studies professor at the University of Oregon, and even a K-Popcentric YouTube channel co-host. In addition to quotes from reputable and relevant sources, Julia Hollingsworth also provides a number of hyperlinks throughout the piece to back up the facts that she states. By having numerous sources and using them well, Julia Hollingsworth cranks up the overall quality of her article. An article with no cited sources or linked websites makes it difficult for readers to verify the content of the article as accurate.
Julia even provided an embedded video demonstrating how South Korean culture is being spread in a small way on in-flight videos for airlines! However, I think the article may be lacking slightly when it comes to provided links to sources. There were a few areas in the piece where I was hoping a link would be provided so I could see a full study, or the video of an interview done with someone she quotes, but they were not there. A few of the quotes provided were attributed to people who had no additional background added on who they were or why they were credible as well.
As far as persuasive tactics or bias that lacks transparency about the writer’s view, I don’t believe that any are present. The article isn’t trying to persuade anyone that East Asian pop culture is on the rise throughout the globe, it’s merely presenting the facts as the Julia Hollingsworth and those she interviewed or quoted have seen to be true. There’s proof behind everything that Julia Hollingsworth states in the article and when opinions were presented, they were presented with good arguments as to why they were believed to be true.
If I were to give this story a letter grade as if I were teaching Julia Hollingsworth a course on Digital Media Literacy, I think I would give it a solid A. The article was well written, it used a variety of sources to compile information for the article and a decent amount of hyperlinks, embedded videos and pictures were added that were relevant to the topic and added substance to the story at large.
