FOR THOSE Yonseians who may have taken a closer look at their tuition fees this semester, they might've have noticed a category designated "Yonsei Chunchu," and "broadcasting fee." Fees in this category are distributed to Yonsei's three official presses: the Yonsei Chunchu, The Yonsei Annals, and the YBS (Yonsei Educational Broadcasting Station).

  Students question how these groups work and where their money is going, because ₩5,900 for the "Yonsei Chunchu," and ₩1,500 for the "broadcasting fee" from each student of Yonsei, including graduate students, result in enough money to spark interest and perhaps concern. Although information concerning the broadcast and periodicals is open to anyone, not all are satisfied with the Yonsei's current standards. The lack of communication between the student body and the student press is also an on-going problem.

  Taking a closer look at how these media prepare, cover, edit, and represent their products may give students a better basis for understanding, and perhaps improve the student presses' productions.

YBS (Yonsei Educational Broadcasting Station)

  Due to the construction of the second Central Library, Yonsei's three presses have moved their offices out of Chunchu Hall. Accordingly, YBS has moved its broadcasting station and main offices to room 605 and 610 in the General Classroom Complex. YBS is in charge of all audio and visual news and other entertainment programs, which are broadcasted over 40 speakers throughout the campus, uploaded on the Internet, and featured throughout Yonsei's major events, including the Yon-Ko Fete.  

  YBS takes three steps in producing their annual video clips.

1. "First, for about two months, we brainstorm for any kind of idea that can be applied to the show. Through such spontaneous thinking and repeated discussion come the best material," says Cho Jae-min (Soph., Dept. of Sport and Leisure Studies.), a member who works in the reporting division.

2. Planning assemblies are held from time to time during the brainstorming term in order to decide the main theme of the show based on the ideas that are pooled.

3. A final overnight brainstorming conference is held before actual filming in order to settle on who will be featured, and what machinery and tools will be used. Each team has a month to shoot their programs before the final editing process.

  YBS conferences have a very free-flowing atmosphere. This is essential for fresh ideas to pop-up spontaneously during the process. Evaluation conferences, however, held every Friday, with the audience committee, are rather formal and serious. The members discuss the overall setbacks of the week's programs and evaluate the quality of their productions.

  On the other hand, YBS's audience committee monitors their work in order to minimize mistakes. This also serves to keep in touch with Yonseians' demand. Currently, 23 staff members in 4 different divisions are concentrating their efforts on the show "Festival in the Woods."

Yonsei Chunchu

  Yonsei Chunchu has moved to Miwoo Hall, a recently remodeled office building. The Yonsei Chunchu prints 20,000 copies of their newspaper every Monday during the semester and a special edition for each vacation. Since its primary role is to cover what is going on around campus, Yonsei Chunchu manages three reporting divisions: one covering the Shinchon area, another covering the Won-ju campus, and the last covering graduate students.

  "The Yonsei Chunchu tries to maintain a fair and objective point of view on controversial issues around campus, as reporters have easier access to all campus affairs," says Lee Sang-min (Jr., Dept. of Business Admin.), the Editor-in-Chief of the Yonsei Chunchu. Retaining such a viewpoint empowers the articles to keep a critical perspective. With 42 reporters working in 9 different divisions, the Yonsei Chunchu is the largest of the three official presses.

  Such a large and busy group can only be managed by efficient communication and well organized division of labor. Every Monday, an item conference is held on what subjects will be written for the current week, followed by an evaluation forum on the previous week's paper. The editor of each division presents the pages they are in charge of and the reporters discuss the merits and demerits of the articles, as well as the layouts.

  During the item conference, staff members discuss items for the current week's paper. This is mainly for making small adjustments and giving advice on topics. Most of the items are assembled, retouched and confirmed during the vacation period. These items can be represented as was planned, or new items can be introduced and improved.
Item conferences regarding reporting articles are held every Wednesday, whose participants are the editor of the reporting division and the assistant reporters. Each assistant reporter checks their beats by Wednesday and the editor assigns articles to the writers. Wednesday is also the final date for requesting photographs from the photo division. "Since the photo-journalist have to match their time with other reporters, we must know their schedules in advance," comments Wi Jung-ho (Jr., Dept. of Law), editor of the photo division. "But there are almost always exceptions and photo-journalists always stand-ready."

  All 42 reporters gather in the Yonsei Chunchu office every Friday to write, copy-read, and assemble the articles. This often takes more than 24 hours. Over half of the reporters stay overnight and continue working. A small bedroom is arranged inside the office for bushed reporters, but it is never fully occupied. "We stay overnight mostly because of the writing and copy-reading process. Since each phrase makes a difference, we continue rewriting until both the editor and the reporters are satisfied with the finished article," explains Lee Seung-ho (Soph., Dept. of Business Admin.), a reporter of the web-media division. Rearranging the pages with the finished articles is done mostly beginning Saturday morning. Final files are handed to a commissioned printing office Saturday evening and final prints of the newspapers arrive at Yonsei Sunday afternoon.

The Yonsei Annals

  The Yonsei Annals has relocated across the hall from the Yonsei Chunchu office. The Yonsei Annals is a monthly English magazine that prints 8,000 copies a month during the semester. There are 6 divisions, and 22 staff members. "Though the The Yonsei Annals is written in English, its first and main target is the average Yonsei student interested in English. We try to convey in-depth information involving various fields of the Korean society especially in the greater international context from a collegiate point of view. Considering that it is written in English and is also delivered to about 90 sister universities around the world, the Annals serves as an important international symbol of Yonsei," says Kong Hyon-bin (Jr., Dept. of Business Admin.), the Editor-in-Chief of the Annals.

  Since the Annals focuses on featured articles, five steps are taken for each month's issue:

  1. Article topics are selected by popular voting at the "Pre-Editorial Meeting."Each item is carefully perused by the staff and doubts or suggestions are freely articulated and discussed.

  2. A "Briefing Conference" is held one week after reporters have begun writing their articles. Periodically, they present drafts and outlines of their articles, along with details as to how they will lay out their pages.

  3. Final drafts are submitted after several copy-readings by division editors and guest editors. Each article gets a final proofreading from Yonsei English-language professors.
  4. The final layouts are completed and printed in a professional editing and printing office outside of Yonsei.

  5. After the printing, reviews are held on what parts need improvement, and what mistakes have been made.

  The Annals gathers every Monday and Thursday evening. At each meeting, they have conferences such as the regular Pre-Editorial or occasional seminars on advertisement, design etc. Though reporters don't have to stay up all night every weekend, in the Annals, one seems to feel as busy as reporters in the Yonsei Chunchu.

  "It's probably because we work with featured articles," says Kim Keong-hee (Jr., Dept. of Business Admin.), editor of the campus reporting and research division. "The deeper you examine your topic, the better the article gets."

Only a glimpse

  This article only presents a simple sketch on how these media work. Every member of the student press devotes nearly two months of each vacation to rigorous training and production. Any comments and encouragements that the reader may wish to offer to Yonsei's three media outlets would be greatly appreciated.

Divisions in YBS

The announcing division / The audio production division / The reporting division / The video production division  

Divisions in The Yonsei Annals

The campus reporting division / The research division / The international division / The social division / The culture division / The photo division

Divisions in the Yonsei Chunchu

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd reporting division / The planned reporting division / The web media division / The social division / The science division / The culture division / The photo division

Spotlight

Although the YBS, the Yonsei Chunchu, and The Yonsei Annals are titled the "three official presses," I never had the chance to know how the other two media strived for their final products. If I wasn't aware of the process, how would other Yonseians know what the student media were doing? This article was written for the many Yonseians who are curious about student press in the hope that greater student participation may provide for further improvements.

저작권자 © The Yonsei Annals 무단전재 및 재배포 금지