Q: The best way to learn foreign country is to read newspappers and magazines.
Some people say that the best way to understand foreign country is to read newspapers and magazines. Even though the jury is still out, I completely disagree with the statement. The rationale behind this is that the materials on the press is seldom objective since they are based on the view of the writers. Moreover, there is no way to learn something better than personal experience.
First, in general, articles and even pictures in the press are definitely biased into editor's viewpoint. Therefore, real life in the foreign country might be different from the images of the press. This tendency is more intensive when the nation takes the opposite position against the certain country. To put it in the extreme way, take the case of people's in North Korea perspective of South Korea, for example. The government of North Korea, the only intact communist country, has the absolute power to control the media. All the press show only negative aspects of South Korea, considered as their enemy, and even manipulate the fact to indoctrinate their people. That's the reason why most people in North Korea think that South Korean live in the poorer environment than they live. Therefore, this clearly shows the press is so impartial that learning through them is not appropriate.
Additionally, learning thorough the media cannot be compared to experiencing other culture in person. If we go to the country personally, we can find out so many things which cannot be earned through the media or books. In other words, they cannot see other country on their own view until they have been to there. For example, a report recently released by the World Tourism Organization shows that more than half of general public who have been to foreign country change their thought about certain country after traveling there. The underlying cause of this is identified to be the fact that experiencing something in person is definitely the best way to learn it. An old saying goes that our knowledge is the amassed thought of innumerable experiences and we have to keep it in mind when learning about what a country is. Therefore, I think that even though it cost much money and time to go abroad, it's the best way to learn foreign country while reading newspapers and magazines is only the second best.
In conclusion, I wholeheartedly disagree with the statement that reading newspapers and magazines is best way to understand other nations. The reasons are not only that materials of the media cannot help reflecting writer's standpoint, but also that we cannot deny that traveling foreign country is the best way to learn it. Therefore, these are the two most convincing reasons my contention.