MUNCIE, Ind. – As a journalist, Hyoung Kook Bahng believes truth isn’t everything.

"I think facts are more important than truth," Bahng said, Bahng, noting that each individual has a different idea of what the truth might be, but facts can’t be disputed.

The South Korean journalist is turning his objective eye on Indiana, and Muncie in particular, over the next 18 months.

Bahng is a well-known journalist in his country with his specialty being the Southeast Asian economy and world market exchange rates. For 13 years he wrote for the Korea Economic Daily, South Korea’s equivalent of The Wall Street Journal.

Bahng, his wife and two daughters, ages 5 and 6, have moved temporarily to Muncie to soak up all they can of life in a typical Midwestern setting.

He chose Muncie at the suggestion of a friend, Kwan Eung Lee, a former adjunct management professor at Ball State and president of a Korean business consulting firm. Bahng is visiting at the invitation of Ball State’s Office of University Advancement. While Bahng’s stay is self-financed, he has an office in the Department of Management.

Nearly daily he will be writing to two Korean groups about Muncie, Ball State and Indiana. One is donga.com, an Internet journal publishing Bahng’s reports about the culture of "Middletown America," and the other is the Samsung Economic Research Institute, which wants stories about the region’s economy.

Bahng has several reasons why he is taking the unusual approach of moving himself and his family to get an insider’s view of his story.

"My first purpose is to study and look very carefully at the U.S. economy with the naked eye," he said.

Although an extensive traveler who has been to 21 countries with this being his seventh trip to the United States, Bahng believes that so far his observations can only be casual at best. Being part of the culture and economic situation will bring a depth to his and Korean readers’ understanding of the Midwest.

"So many newspapers in Korea focus on the east and west coasts of the United States," he said. "A friend of mine suggested that if you really want to know about American life, you need to go to Iowa or Indiana, where you can get to know the traditions."

A specific tradition that Bahng is interested and aims to participate in is American volunteerism.

"The United States is special in the world because of its many volunteers," he said. "I want to take part in some of these community activities."

Those activities will be everything from picking up trash along public streets to sharing his experiences with Ball State students.

Bahng knows his colleagues back home will be watching his progress closely.

"They are asking me, ‘How can you do it, how can you make a success?’" he said.

By Nancy Prater, Web Editor

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Bahng at (765) 285-2070, (765)288-9287 or hkbahng@bsu.edu.)