ChosunBiz journalists Jang Yoon-seo, Ryu Hyun-jung, and Lee Jung-ah have been selected as the recipients of the '2025 Mid-Year Science Reporting Award.'
The Korea Science Journalists Association announced on the 2nd that ChosunBiz's series '53.9%, I am an elderly disabled person' was among five project series selected for the '2025 Mid-Year Science Reporting Award.'
The '53.9%, I am an elderly disabled person' project by the elderly disabled special reporting team of ChosunBiz was selected for the Merck Medical Journalist Award along with the JoongAng Ilbo's 'The Dream of Immortality: Bio Revolution.' This project compellingly highlighted the urgency of transitioning Korea's medical and welfare paradigms by structurally tracking the connection between aging and disability through in-depth data analysis and four months of field reporting.
This year, Korea officially entered a super-aged society, where the population aged 65 and over exceeds 20%. ChosunBiz noted that among registered disabled people, those aged 65 and older reached 53.9% as of 2023, but 'elderly disabled persons' had not even been considered a separate category within policy and medical systems until now. Through a project series encapsulating statistical analysis, field reporting, institutional criticism, alternative solutions, policy reflection, and content innovation, it explored the essence of the medical and welfare challenges Korea will face in the future and created societal impact.
The panelists evaluated, 'Through the full analysis of eight years of data from the elderly frailty cohort and nearly 100 interviews conducted in the field, we tracked the connection between aging and disability and vividly illuminated the suffering they experience,' adding that 'the structural limitations of the health insurance system and the gaps in care compellingly raised the urgency for transitioning the medical and welfare paradigms in our society.'
Ryu Hyun-jung, a journalist at ChosunBiz who participated in the project, explained, 'Based on solid field reporting, we captured the consciousness of issues with the current health insurance system as "it was right then but is wrong now," and what we learned through interviews with nearly 100 elderly individuals, caregivers, medical staff, and social workers was that the loss of "community function" in our society is a greater issue than aging itself.'
This project article was also produced in a digital news storytelling format with the support of the Google News Initiative program. The panelists rated it as 'a case that visually and sensorially conveyed the message that elderly disability is not an issue for a specific minority, but for all of us, realizing public journalism in a digital environment.'
View the serialized article [53.9%, I am an elderly disabled person]
The JoongAng Ilbo's 'The Dream of Immortality: Bio Revolution,' which also received the award, addressed major issues and treatments in the biomedical field such as dementia, vascular diseases, and health check-ups, providing easy and accurate explanations that match the general public's level through interviews with domestic and international experts while harmonizing the delivery power of digital content and the practicality and reliability of scientific information.
For the Science Journalism Award, selected were 'Elites in Engineering and Science Leaving Korea Because They Dislike It' by Sim Hee-jung from the Industry 1 Department of the Kukmin Ilbo and two others, 'The Sparks of Climate Change: Science Tackles It, During the Era of Wildfires' by Kim So-yeon and two others from the Dong-A Science Science Dong-A team, and 'The Large Import of Monkeys Suspected of a Virus with a Mortality Rate of 70%' by Park Soo-jin and six others from the SBS Investigative Reporting Department.
The Kukmin Ilbo's Industry 1 Department reported the current state of engineering and science talent outflow with 'Elites in Engineering and Science Leaving Korea Because They Dislike It,' verifying and criticizing the engineering and science pledges of presidential candidates, while also proposing solutions from experts. The Dong-A Science Science Dong-A team diagnosed the risk of year-round wildfires occurring in South Korea due to climate change based on empirical experiments with researchers and field coverage of wildfire damage recovery, suggesting multifaceted wild firefighting measures linked to people's lives. The SBS Investigative Reporting Department's 'The Large Import of Monkeys Suspected of a Virus with a Mortality Rate of 70%' project addressed the public's responsibility based on science by highlighting the lax preparedness against infectious diseases that loosened after the pandemic, leading to institutional improvements following the report.
The 2025 Mid-Year Science Reporting Award was open for submissions covering domestic science, medical and pharmaceutical, and environmental weather reporting articles published from December 2024 to May 2025, with a total of 21 articles received for recommendation and submission. The association formed a panel of seven experts in science journalism and scientists and conducted document review from June 20 to 24, selecting five articles based on high scores. On June 25, a Zoom meeting was held to finalize the award-winning articles and discuss evaluation opinions and improvement measures.
The panelists stated, 'Overall, the quality of the articles was high. We awarded high scores to in-depth projects aimed at providing thorough reporting,' noting that they selected reports that addressed important scientific issues in our society such as the outflow of engineering and science talent, year-round wildfires, elderly disabilities, high-risk virus quarantine, and the verification of the latest treatments from vibrant field reporting and diverse perspectives.
The award ceremony for the 2025 Mid-Year Science Reporting Award is set to take place on the 16th at 1 p.m. at the Korea Science and Technology Center in Gangnam, Seoul, as part of the opening ceremony of the '2025 Science Journalists Conference.' The Science Reporting Award is sponsored by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity (KOSAC), the Council of Directors of Science and Technology Institutes of Korea, and Merck Ltd. Korea.