Anyone who has watched Korean movies, dramas or who reads the Korean press will get the impression that there are no happy Korean couples and that they all cheat on each other.
Korean movies and dramas know that they increase their audience by portraying extramarital relationships more than "normal" relationships. Any decent movie or drama needs something "unusual" to happen in the storyline, something that shocks the public and that makes them reflect on the issue. You will thus find way more extramarital relationships in Korean movies and dramas, as it is the easiest way to portray something unusual.
Let's take a look at media figures on infidelity: some newspapers reported that as many as 70-80% Korean men cheated on their wives and 20-30% women cheated on their husbands. How true is this? It is a known fact among sociologists that only frustrated people respond to surveys. Think about it for a second: would you bother to participate in a survey if you had nothing to complain about? My view on this is that figures on infidelity are much lower in Korea.
The other thing is that the Korean media portrays couples as frustrated couples. There are several reality shows on how men cheat on their girlfriends, husbands on their wives, news reports on how actors and singers cheat on their significant others. But think about it... how many people would read articles or watch television shows about couples living happily?
Finally, entire radio shows in Korea are dedicated to callers complaining about their love lives. How many people would call such shows to report that everything is
going fine with their couple? Wouldn't they destroy the atmosphere?
This is not something true only to Korea, it is true of most modern civilizations. Victimization in the media ends up making people feeling victims themselves, as happy couples may suddenly feel deviant for being happy, as the accepted norm for love and relationships in the modern world is that it should be complicated and extramarital relationships should be part of every relationship. My view on this is that most Korean couples live happy lives and have harder times struggling to make a living than to be happy with each other.
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media. Show all posts
Interpreting the "swine flu" media sensation
A lot has been said about swine flu in the Korean media. The government also took strict safety measures regarding swine flu. Schools had to close if a certain number of people caught the flu, company and school meetings were canceled... what was the government and media's message behind swine flu?
Every disease carries a message to society. In the 1920s, tuberculosis was a serious disease, which appeared in cities and was considered a lower class disease. The media's message at the time was that "people live too close together in cities, people don't have their personal space, and lower class people live too close from upper class people and are transmitting a disease".
Then there was cancer, and the media tried to give a message: "we live disorganized lives, don't eat healthy food, don't exercise, we are a lazy society pursuing comfort and luxury at the expense of hard work and chores, therefore we are getting those kinds of diseases". Though genetic factors are critical among cancer patients, the media usually omits that factor.
With AIDS, we saw the same thing. The media was telling people "we have accepted homosexuality, we have too many drug addicts and there's too much promiscuity and AIDS is the price we're paying for all that".
What's the message behind SARS, bird flu and swine flu then? Swine flu is said to have originated in Mexico and was revealed by US press agencies. US press agencies seemed to insist on the Mexican origins of the disease so much (though today no one is sure whether it really originated in Mexico) that some countries systematically refused visas to Mexicans. In Korea, the message seemed to be: the virus originated from foreign countries, Koreans have too much contact with foreigners, travel too much, we have no personal space, we live too close together...) thus the suspicion raised by Korean authorities on people who traveled, foreigners and people who went to crowded places.
Many took crowded subways in Seoul and did not get the virus, and less people died of swine flu than of other diseases. By renaming swine flu H1N1, the media also wanted to avoid offending cultures which considered pigs improper animals. Behind every news headline, there is a subliminal message to society.
Every disease carries a message to society. In the 1920s, tuberculosis was a serious disease, which appeared in cities and was considered a lower class disease. The media's message at the time was that "people live too close together in cities, people don't have their personal space, and lower class people live too close from upper class people and are transmitting a disease".
Then there was cancer, and the media tried to give a message: "we live disorganized lives, don't eat healthy food, don't exercise, we are a lazy society pursuing comfort and luxury at the expense of hard work and chores, therefore we are getting those kinds of diseases". Though genetic factors are critical among cancer patients, the media usually omits that factor.
With AIDS, we saw the same thing. The media was telling people "we have accepted homosexuality, we have too many drug addicts and there's too much promiscuity and AIDS is the price we're paying for all that".
What's the message behind SARS, bird flu and swine flu then? Swine flu is said to have originated in Mexico and was revealed by US press agencies. US press agencies seemed to insist on the Mexican origins of the disease so much (though today no one is sure whether it really originated in Mexico) that some countries systematically refused visas to Mexicans. In Korea, the message seemed to be: the virus originated from foreign countries, Koreans have too much contact with foreigners, travel too much, we have no personal space, we live too close together...) thus the suspicion raised by Korean authorities on people who traveled, foreigners and people who went to crowded places.
Many took crowded subways in Seoul and did not get the virus, and less people died of swine flu than of other diseases. By renaming swine flu H1N1, the media also wanted to avoid offending cultures which considered pigs improper animals. Behind every news headline, there is a subliminal message to society.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
