Media plays a pivotal role in shaping public opinion and cultivating perception in the minds of common man. The five basic ethics of journalism are Truthfulness, Accuracy, Objectivity, Impartiality, Fairness and Public Accountability. A media should deliver only the truth - accurately and objectively about an happening to the public without being partial or painting their personal opinion and accountable for what they deliver.
Recently in Kpop community, a huge wave of disappointment on international Kpop media has been widely registered. It's all business, the article nowadays does not carry a valid content, click bait titles, contents triggering fan wars, shading artists, unnecessary mentions of other artist in articles irrelevant to them, unnecessary comparisons, highly biased, spreading rumors, false accusations, baseless information, lack of professionalism and mostly their source is twitter! There is just so much negativity and toxicity in kmedia nowadays - is what the people in Kpop community feels now.
The media that tops the list of most hated news channel in Kpop community is KBUZZ, a youtube channel, with 203,808 subscribers, seems to have forgotten their journalism lessons, especially on the topic of journalism ethics, or who knows if they actually studied journalism or not! Because they seem to be lacking in everything a journalism should be - is what fans in every fandom feels and complains on the unfair and unnecessary content they deliver with an attempt to defame Kpop artists which is highly toxic, unethical and unprofessional.
On Nov 2, EXO released their 5th album Don't Mess Up My Tempo. The album was well received by fans and common Kpoppers, as the album is one of a kind, well actually - first of it's kind. Their lead song Tempo was massively appreciated as the song showcases every talent in EXO - impressive rap, powerful vocals, mesmerising visuals, mind blowing dance, catchy beat and the fact that the music features several genres - switching from smooth R&B to retro pop to hip hop and A CAPELLA bridge! No Kpop band has ever done it before. EXO has lived up to its name "The Trend Setter of Kpop". They are massively appreciated for their versatility as each of their comeback is very different, unique and beautiful. EXO simply doesn't repeats their music. Everytime, they bring something new to the Kpop world, and that is one of the main reasons for the band's success consistently for the past 6 years. Don't Mess Up My Tempo is undoubtedly a super mega hit. With pre-orders for over a million albums, topping every Korean music charts, No.1 in World iTune albums, and No.1 in music charts in several other countries and the list goes on and on - and all of this is without a proper promotion ! Even EXO antis won't be able to come at the success of this album.
But KBUZZ thinks otherwise. On the exact day of the release of the album, they posted a video in their youtube channel with title "EXO's latest song - "Tempo" received criticism as people think it doesn't deserve to be a hit"! without even waiting a day or two to actually collect the reviews of people. Not sure if this is the opinion of actual "people" or it's their personal opinion, well too bad, the album is already a super hit and there's no stopping from it and loved by everyone except the people at KBUZZ. Fans expressed anger and frustration on the channel and suspects this could be one of their attempts to spread negativity on the artist and their comeback. But well yeah, seems like their attempt have no impact at all.
Comments under the video by "actual people" -
3 weeks ago, they posted a video which fans feel as an attempt of trying to defame EXO once again with title "EXO topped the group with the highest number of albums returned". In the video, they claimed that the statistics was posted by Gaon, but the truth is - Gaon did not release any ranking for returns of the albums. Anyone can go and check the Gaon site. But few days before the video was released, a twitter account claimed to have made the chart and spread just to prove a non existent fact. Seems like the source of the video is the twitter. Well anyways, for a Quintuple million seller group who has around 10 Million album sales, the number they showed as returns is less than 1%.
There are more videos in the channel showing anything related to EXO in negative light.
Their hate does not stops with EXO. KPoppers noticed that KBUZZ really seem to hate Twice, BlackPink, BigBang and other Kpop artist as well.
On November 4, they posted a video in their channel "The reasons why idols are becoming lazier when it comes to singing". In the video it is said "TWICE has been lip syncing for 3 years but is still popular and the album sales are wild." and also said IZ*ONE lip synced. They received massive criticism from the fans for making this video. Everyone who's into Kpop knows how hard it is for every Kpop artist in the industry. The competition is tough and without solid talent an artist won't be able to survive. In an industry like that, they say "idols becoming lazier to sing"! like seriously?!
On October 30, the channel posted a video "Despite receiving more praise, BLACKPINK is really better than TWICE and Red Velvet?". The question mark in the title says all about the content of the video. Fans criticised the video triggers fanwar between the three fandoms.
Under the comment section of the videos, fans from all fandoms has always said the channel to stop being toxic and to stop creating fanwars and to be more professional with the content. Many have blocked the channel, but KBUZZ doesn't seem to mind all that.
"The pen is mightier than the sword" rings true to this day. That's why a media should be very careful of what they write. Journalism is no joke. Every word a media says has an impact. A positive impact is well and good, but a negative impact can destroy anything, especially in the field like KPop, an artist's future highly relies on public opinion. With every word a media writes, they create an opinion. That's why with every word they write, they always carry a responsibility. Fans hope that someday KBUZZ realizes the responsibility they have in the Kpop society and act accordingly.
Truth Only,
-The KTruth
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