A fast search within the nation’s press database yields a wave of sensational headlines that illustrate how the native media usually cowl a celeb’s fall from grace. Beforehand one of many brightest younger stars in South Korean cinema, Kim was condemned and ridiculed for driving drunk, for speaking about her monetary struggles after dropping roles, for taking a job at a espresso store, for trying a comeback in theater, for going out with pals as a substitute of “displaying regret,” and for being seen smiling on set whereas taking pictures an indie film.
After the 24-year-old actor was discovered lifeless at her house on February 16, the headlines predictably swung to calling for modifications to the best way celebrities are handled within the public area.
Kim’s demise, which police take into account a suicide, provides to a rising record of high-profile superstar deaths within the nation, which some specialists attribute to the big strain celebrities face underneath the gaze of a relentlessly unforgiving media that seizes on each misstep. Here’s a have a look at the extreme strain confronted by South Korean celebrities who fall from grace.
A SUDDEN FALL FROM GRACE
South Korea is notoriously harsh on its celebrities, significantly ladies. Kim rose to stardom as a toddler actor with the 2010 hit crime thriller “The Man from Nowhere” and garnered acclaim and recognition for her appearing in films and TV dramas for years.
However that modified after Could 18, 2022, when Kim crashed a car right into a tree and {an electrical} transformer whereas driving drunk in southern Seoul. She posted a handwritten apology on Instagram and reportedly compensated round 60 retailers that misplaced energy briefly due to the crash, however that did little to defuse unfavourable protection and he or she struggled to search out appearing work.
When a Seoul court docket issued a 200 million gained ($139,000) positive over the crash in April 2023, Kim expressed her fears concerning the media to reporters, saying many articles about her non-public life have been unfaithful.
“I’m too scared to say something about them,” she mentioned.
RELENTLESS NEGATIVE COVERAGE
Within the wake of Kim’s drunken-driving crash, superstar gossip channels on YouTube started posting unfavourable movies about her non-public life, suggesting with out offering proof that she was exaggerating her monetary straits by working at espresso retailers, and arguing that social media posts displaying her socializing with pals meant she was not displaying sufficient regret.
Different entertainers, particularly feminine, have struggled to search out work after run-ins with the regulation, together with drunken driving or substance abuse, and specialists say lots of them are reluctant to hunt therapy for psychological well being issues like despair, fearing additional unfavourable protection.
Kwon Younger-chan, a comedian-turned-scholar who leads a gaggle serving to celebrities with psychological well being points, mentioned celebrities usually really feel helpless when the protection turns unfavourable after spending years rigorously cultivating their public picture.
Kwon, who stayed with Kim’s relations throughout a conventional three-day funeral course of, mentioned her household is contemplating authorized motion towards a YouTube creator with lots of of 1000’s of subscribers for what they describe as groundless assaults on Kim’s non-public life.
Peter Jongho Na, a professor of psychiatry on the Yale Faculty of Medication, lamented on Fb that South Korean society had turn into an enormous model of “Squid Sport,” the brutal Netflix survival drama, “abandoning individuals who make errors or fall behind, appearing as if nothing occurred.”
MEDIA BLAMED FOR CELEBRITY DEATHS
The Nationwide Police Company mentioned officers discovered no indicators of foul play at Kim’s house and that she left no notice.
However a spate of high-profile deaths has sparked discussions about how information organizations cowl the non-public lives of celebrities and whether or not floods of crucial on-line feedback are harming their psychological well being.
Related conversations occurred after the 2008 demise of mega film star Choi Jin-sil, the demise of her former baseball star husband, Cho Sung-min, in 2013, the deaths of Okay-Pop singers Sulli and Goo Hara in 2019, and the demise of “Parasite” actor Lee Solar-kyun in 2023.
Sensational however unsubstantiated claims like from social media are broadly recycled and amplified by conventional media retailers as they compete for viewers consideration, mentioned Hyun-jae Yu, a communications professor at Seoul’s Sogang College.
Battling a pointy decline in conventional media readership, he mentioned, media flip to overlaying YouTube drama as the simplest option to drive up visitors, usually skipping the work of reporting and verifying information.
Following the 2019 deaths of Sulli and Goo Hara, which have been broadly attributed to cyberbullying and sexual harassment each within the public and media, lawmakers proposed numerous measures to discourage harsh on-line feedback. These included increasing real-name necessities and strengthening web sites’ necessities to weed out hate speech and false data, however none of those proposed legal guidelines handed.
REFORMS REMAIN ELUSIVE
South Korean administration businesses are getting more and more lively in taking authorized motion to guard their entertainers from on-line bullying. Hybe, which manages a number of Okay-Pop teams together with BTS, publishes common updates about lawsuits it’s submitting towards social media commentators it deems malicious.
However Yu mentioned it’s essential for mainstream media corporations to strengthen self-regulation and restrict their use of YouTube content material as information sources. Authorities authorities might additionally compel YouTube and different social media platforms to take higher duty for content material created by their customers, he mentioned, together with actively eradicating problematic movies and stopping creators from monetizing them.
YouTube mentioned in a press assertion that it’s imposing pointers towards threats, harassment, and hate speech, and channels that repeatedly violate its insurance policies might be prevented from monetizing their content material and even be terminated.
Heo Chanhaeng, an govt director on the Heart for Media Duty and Human Rights, mentioned information organizations and web sites ought to take into account shutting down the feedback sections on leisure tales fully.
“Her non-public life was indiscriminately reported past what was essential,” Heo mentioned. “That’s not a reputable matter of public curiosity.”
