Monday, June 11, 2012

[Moon-dæg] Two Takes on North Korea - Part 4

Recap & Introduction
The Same
Basic Differences
Differences in War
Truly Curious
Wrap Up
Closing

{Where is that camera pointed, and what will it see? Image from the Agnes Kunze Society Hope Project website.}



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Recap & Introduction

Two weeks ago we looked at how the North American media reacted to the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong. Last week, we looked at the South Korean treatment of the same. So what’s the same? What’s different? And what can be told from all that? Let’s find out.

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The Same

Both North American and South Korean news sources covered the Five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, Why. This is practically a given, but an important thing to lay down. So both sources reported the facts, in one way or another. However, aside from this, there aren't many remarkable similarities between these two sets of articles.

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Basic Differences

North American coverage often buried its facts in analysis, and this analysis was always the core of the story. Why was Yeonpyeong bombarded? What was the North’s motivation for doing it? What does it all mean?

Because of this, North American news sources were much more likely to trumpet various conclusions: the North was growing hostile and dangerous, it was a show of power to help usher in Kim Jong Un’s ascension to power, it was deeply related to North Korea’s growing nuclear testing and supposed capabilities.

On the other hand, South Korean news sources stuck closer to the facts. They reported what happened, and sometimes added in extra details for various effects: official statements, personal anecdotes, etc.

Plus, no real assumptions were made in any of the South Korean sources looked at. Since the event directly affected them, South Koreans were more concerned, or interested in, what the attack meant for them specifically and what their leaders had to say about it.

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Differences in War

Curiously, though, none of the three North American sources that were looked at cited Kim Tae-Young, the South Korean Defense Minister, replied to a question about being at war by saying “Didn’t it start already? We must stop it from expanding.”

Since this quote appeared in an article from 23 November 2010, it wouldn’t have been difficult to work it into the slew of stories that came out around the incident. And it even has an action movie kind of a ring to it. But perhaps this omission speaks the loudest to the difference of the two in their coverage of the event.

Not including the quote suggests that it wasn’t deemed newsworthy over here. Even though it is a reflection of present reality in the Koreas – an armistice was signed, but there never was a peace treaty. So, technically, the Korean War carries on, though in a definitely colder sort of way.

But that’s not how North Americans see war. Even something like the Cold War strikes fear into the hearts of many, and for the most part that fear was the product of the media.

The people of South Korea didn’t need to speculate about Kim Jong Il’s plots or ploys or machinations behind the bombardment. They just viewed it as the tragic even that it was and declared it an action that is unforgivable and spoke of how it’s necessary to keep things from getting worse.

But those are the people in power, those completely unaffected by it might have hardly blinked at the story – the same way that something about a shooting in a different part of the country might cause the average North American to simply turn to the next page in the paper, or to scroll onward to the next story.

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Truly Curious

This also illuminates another essential difference between reporting styles. For better or worse, the North America news media is all about finding out the “why” of an incident, whereas South Korea news media seems to be more about the “what.”

While the articles that have been looked at are about the same length, North American coverage dwelled on speculation about motivation, and South Korean sources focused on just what happened and how it effected the people involved.

But that’s exactly it. That’s why the media can inspire so much fear in North America – because it works on the imagination. It relies on thinking of things that may or may not be true, and the human imagination is ingenious at scaring the human wielding and/or listening to it.

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Wrap Up

So, at heart, the difference between the two is really the North American media's social curiosity calling itself out.

North American news doesn’t just look into the abyss and paint a picture of what it sees, it stares into it with all of the steady focus of an open-eyed stone gargoyle and all the tenacity of a determined squirrel. And nothing can terrify like that which looks back from the abyss, especially when it’s put under so much scrutiny it could be called duress.

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Closing

Check back here on Wednesday for a look at the newest news, and on Friday for another search for the good in a terrible movie.

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