As I hit the “upload” button, I peeked at the clock on my desk which flashed 11:52 p.m. Rubbing my eyes, I sighed heavily and traced back the list of things I had left for the night.
It was a Friday. Not just any Friday, but a Friday where there were no emails, no meetings, no revisions, no edits, no writings, and no announcements that had to be made or done for the Ewha Voice editor-in-chief. The day was rare, but it came once every two weeks.
Except a fire broke out at Ewha Campus Complex that day, and every Ewha Media Center newspaper and broadcast had to get their hands on a breaking news report. The fire evacuation article was the first breaking news report that I had ever dealt with over the two years that I worked at Ewha Voice.
As soon as the school announced that the firefighters had successfully put out the fire and everyone had safely evacuated, reporters rushed to make phone calls to collect accurate information on the accident. Interviews were conducted on the spot. With their professional cameras stuck inside the office, photographers had no choice but to pull out their phones instead to take pictures of the site. Meanwhile, the managing director and I fiercely texted each other on what to revise, what facts needed to be checked, what pictures to upload, and how to alert the news. Hitting that “upload” button after undergoing hours of unexpected and unwanted stress, I nervously double-checked the article to see if it had been properly published.
The stark reality of working at an English newspaper in a Korean university is that the work itself is not as rewarding as expected. As students can access more in-depth information through media platforms, interest in college newspapers has declined compared to the past. Since the content is in English, the number of readers is inevitably lower than in other Korean campus media outlets. While there are many appreciative compliments and encouraging comments from peers, there is as much ignorance and apathy from “I never heard of that before” to “I don’t get why our school needs to have an English newspaper.”
With all the hurtful comments in mind, I was frequently momentarily lost for words whenever someone asked me, “Why do you do Ewha Voice? I heard that the workload there is a lot.”
Cut to a few days after I uploaded the fire evacuation article, and I passed by an exchange student who I know from class. She excitedly tells me how she would not have known about any of the details of the fire evacuation if it was not for the article that was published on our website since most campus information is announced in Korean. Although I did not write the article myself, I felt quite proud of how the hard effort that the reporters and photographers had put into it paid off to make at least a single person enriched with new information.
While Ewha Voice may not be the most mainstream media out there and may not be the most palatable newspaper for every reader, we strive to keep a more inclusive and informative school environment for those who lack access to English content. The small, but powerful impact that 21 reporters, photographers, digital marketers, and editors can make is what keeps us moving forward. And I believe that every single person living in this modern society that misleads youths into living up to the conventional idea that minimal input and maximum output is the ultimate goal of life should venture into a challenge that transcends self-interest, experiences self-growth, and provides help.