“When it comes to any news item or article, the wording really matters because one wrong word or sentence can be misunderstood or even misinterpreted. It has been too long, that ARMYs have been fighting for BTS’ better representation in news articles, whether it is wrong facts, lies or downright disrespect. Many news articles have been reporting on BTS Jimin’s latest achievement on the Billboard charts.
Jimin is the first Korean and only second Asian artist to debut at #1 on Billboard Hot 100. As such he has been making headlines in his hometown, country, and the rest of the world. Major News outlet CNN has found itself on the receiving end of criticism over how they worded their recent article about Jimin. The headline was “Other members of BTS have gone solo, but none as big as Jimin”
On the surface, it might seem like just an ordinary article, but fans are finding the headline offensive due to its nature of comparing the BTS member’s success instead of just talking about Jimin’s achievement. They do not have an issue with the article praising Jimin, but it mentioned the other members comparing them.
The fandom already has its own issues with negative solo stans who pit the members against each other to other fans and hate one another because they love another.
Objectively speaking, the company has a right to publish whatever headline they choose but in doing so, they need to know whom they are targeting. The article seems to be ‘shading’ or, for lack of a better word, shitting, on the rest of the members who have not achieved what Jimin achieved. The article was about Jimin, and its major role should have been focusing on Jimin, it can mention the other members’ solo works without making it seem like the others failed or their success in their projects was not all that.
This is not the first time that fans are calling out news outlets, or online media. A few months ago British GQ was called out after publishing an article about a K-pop idol and instead of focusing on that idol and what the article was about, they brought in BTS who had nothing whatsoever to do about what they were writing about. At this point, I think the Western media likes no name-drop BTS in everything just to get a reaction from the fandom because they know how protective they are of the members.
There will come a time when they will try to use BTS to gain attention and they will get cricket sounds instead. The fandom will have grown tired of their antics and will ignore and not interact with such articles, individuals, or institutions because when you ignore something, it quickly goes away fading into oblivion.
In comparison, this is how a headline shoul look like, if your goal was to spotlight Jimin’s sucess on the charts,
Swahili Bangtan 