From Ojŏk to Nakkomsu: Media and Satire in South Korean Democracy

Introduction to Dr. Jung Ji-woo

In this section, the speaker introduces Dr. Jung Ji-woo, an associate professor of Korean literature at the University of Michigan and author of "Writers of the Winter Republic: Literature and Resistance in Park Chung-hee's Korea."

Dr. Jung's Background

This section provides information about Dr. Jung's background and her work as a co-editor of "Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era." Her writings on literature and films related to the Korean War and Vietnam War have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals.

Topic of Discussion

The speaker introduces Dr. Jung's talk titled "From Five Bandits to a Petty Cheat: Media and Satire in South Korean Democratization," which focuses on satire during South Korea's democratization process.

Acknowledgments

The speaker thanks the organizers for inviting her to speak at the event.

Contextualizing Satire During South Korea's Democratization Process

This section discusses how satire played a role during South Korea's democratization process leading up to 2016-2017 rallies.

• The three talks presented in this panel are responding and building upon one another.

• The speaker shares her personal experience visiting Seoul National University campus during summer 2016 where she witnessed students removing concrete from brick pavers.

• The removal of concrete was symbolic as it represented how little possibility there was for protests similar to those that occurred in the 70s and 80s.

• The speaker discusses how the images of the candlelight protests have commercial value.

• Satire proliferated during the 2016-2017 rallies, and this section aims to contextualize satire by focusing on the period prior to that.

The Spread of Satire in South Korea

In this section, the speaker discusses the use of satire during two key moments in South Korean history and how it spread to become a meme before social media.

Kim G Ha as a Prophet for Democracy

• Kim G Ha was a poet who became an anthem for an entire generation of dissidents in Korea in the 1980s.

• He entered the public imagination as a satirist, writing "By Bandits," which turned those powers-that-be into five ended and charged that the Park Jeong-hee regime was not serving the people but robbing them.

• The poem took news items that were beginning to fade and recirculated them, becoming a medium for concentrating and recirculating news.

The Use of Satire During Two Key Moments

Molotov Cocktails to Candlelight Vigils

• The speaker wants to expand the timeframe and focus on two moments prior to the bookends that were given from Molotov cocktails to candlelight vigils.

• Specifically, he wants to focus on the use of satire during those two moments to ask how something spreads and what are possible venues by which those things can spread.

Night of Kim GI Literature

• Poor Kimchi's name was called night how kim jiae's literature at an event held in January 1979 at the Catholic Center in Wonju.

• A poem written by Ko Un turned Kim Jia's name into an invocation no fewer than 26 times, making clear that Kim G Ha was no longer just one physical body incarcerated by a dictator but had become a martyr and potent call for revolution.

• "By Bandits" included the famous saccharine smuggling case of 1966 which led to Samsung founder Yonkers resigned.

The Death of a High-Priced Escort and the Collapse of Wow Apartments

This section discusses the death of a high-priced escort who had names of some of the highest men in the country, including those who walked in and out of the Blue House. It also talks about how her death became a political scandal that was revisited in Five Bandits, which culminated in the collapse of Wow Apartments.

Death of High-Priced Escort

• A young woman who turned out to be a very high-priced escort died.

• In her black book were names of some of the highest men in the country, including those who walked in and out of the Blue House every day.

• She actually had a love child, and it seems very likely that Chong Li Guang was actually the father.

Collapse of Wow Apartments

• The collapse revealed that instead of 20 or 30 rebars, there were only a couple used for construction.

• The story is amplified by its medium as it appeared first in this magazine called World Thought Satsanga where it was let go by the government.

• When it reappeared as part of Minjoo Johnson or Democratic Front, which was sort of bulletin for Kim Young-sam partition Minden, then that's when they rounded up and tried everyone involved.

President M. Young's Presidency

This section talks about an episode during President M. Young's presidency before candlelight protests exploded. It reveals unsavory allegations raised against him regarding his son's real estate purchase with blue house.

Funny Arrangement with Blue House

• The blue house had made a funny arrangement with the president's son over some real estate.

• The property was to be the site of the president's post-retirement home, which means that the government ends up paying for it.

• The highly irregular contract revealed that the president's son had paid 20.74% of the purchase price but owned 54% of the property while the blue house had paid for everything else.

The Negev Dong Deal

This section discusses the scandal surrounding the Negev Dong deal, which involved President MB and his family members seeking to profit from their political power.

The Inverted Means and Ends

• The scandal was not that a monstrous crime had been committed, but that a relatively petty profit had been sought with such ingenuity.

• Presidents abusing power for material gain is not uncommon in Korean political history, but this case was different because the means and ends seemed to have been inverted.

• The presidential office had been sought and attained for the express purpose of materially benefiting specific persons related to the president by personal ties.

Personalism Irradiated Outward

• Personalism irradiated outward and created a complex web of influence.

• Corruption had always been an unfortunate byproduct of power in Korea's political system, but it had never been so blatantly an end in itself.

Park Geun-hye's Election

• Park Geun-hye was voted into power as a reaction to President MB's privatization of the presidency.

• However, it turned out that she too was corrupt.

How It Came Out

This section discusses how the Negev Dong deal came to light through investigative reporting and political podcasts.

Investigative Reporting

• An investigative report in the liberal weekly She High In brought attention to the scandal.

• No further bullet points for this subtopic.

Political Podcasting

• A political podcast called "I Am a Petty Cheat" (Knock Home) delivered allegations of presidential misdemeanors to millions of Korean listeners.

• The podcast was wrapped up in a mix of rival humor, wealth of details, and creative guesswork.

• Four men gathered information for the podcast, each playing a different role.

The Emergence of Naneun Ggomsuda

This section discusses the emergence of Naneun Ggomsuda, a political podcast that gained immense popularity in South Korea.

Key Players

• Yong Chun Software: Involved in wrongdoing that led to backlash and Kim Young-min losing his National Assembly seat.

• Kim Young-min: Political commentator and former radio program producer who oversaw technical aspects of production and did impressions of various political figures for added comic effect.

• Chuji Knew: Reporter for Shaheen who broke the story about Yong Chun Software.

• Chema's: Presided over detective work necessary to fill in details about Yong Chun Software scandal.

Podcast Production

• Technical aspects overseen by Kim Young-min.

• Recorded conversations shortened to 90-120 minutes on average and uploaded on iTunes and Android equivalent.

• Podcast platforms remained a blind spot due to government regulation not catching up with advancements in communication technology.

• Naneun Ggomsuda provided a medium for averting and subverting state censorship as samizdat had done in the past.

Explosive Popularity

• Naneun Ggomsuda went viral, reaching top of global iTunes charts on November 1, 2011.

• Weekly sessions logged as many as 2 million downloads according to New York Times report.

• Provided in-depth evaluations of opposition politicians on eve of major elections, cast doubt on controversies of national importance about which mainstream press had provided only partial view if at all.

Impact

• Helped unseat conservative mayor of Seoul nicknamed "Little LMB" who was gunning for presidential office by transforming urban landscape of Seoul.

• Discredited National Assembly representative and major star from Conservative Party who sought to replace him.

• Created alternate system of message circulation in a country where major media outlets had been monopolized by the right for good 400 years.

Democratization of Information

The democratization of information has enabled the proliferation of content by receivers, eliminating the need for monopolies and physical channels. Content generators must have insight and judgment to create good content that can enter the proper distribution system. Political agendas must be mindful of voluntary spontaneous action on the part of information receivers.

The Relationship Between Form and Content

• Language is important in determining whether something gets retweeted or not.

• A consumable political content had to be in the language of the popular to enter wide circulation.

• Language invoking famous teachings about how a finger pointing to the moon is not the moon emphasizes that consumable political content should focus on pointing to its message rather than itself.

• Language had been heroic and ennobled or didactic abstract, but it needed plasticity rather than rigidity and self-mockery rather than self-importance.

Characteristics Required of Language in the Age of Girls

• Plasticity rather than rigidity and self-mockery rather than self-importance are characteristics required of language in the age of girls when politicians must make their appeal to the public not on debate floors or campaign stumps but on variety shows.

• Sue became famous when she appeared on a variety show, which highlights how important it is for politicians to appeal to audiences through entertainment media.

Shedding Rhetoric for Wider Circulation

• The South Korean Left had to find a way to shed its rhetoric of enlightenment, which characterized its 1980's sacrosanct movement culture, along with its attitude of solemnity that demanded from listeners just by mode address.

• Language had to share the idiom of power, but it needed plasticity rather than rigidity and self-mockery rather than self-importance.

• Fiction writer Humming You foresaw how unbearable any kind of study language would become to the Korean public.

Georgie Ma: The Mantra of Nagumo

This section discusses the establishment's control over resource distribution and how Georgie Ma became Nagumo's mantra. It also talks about the key merchant's understanding of the common man's plight in the MB era.

The Establishment's Control Over Resource Distribution

• The establishment controls the distribution of resources.

• Key merchants understand the plight of a common man in the MB era.

Georgie Ma as Nagumo's Mantra

• Georgie Ma became Nagumo's mantra repeated at the end of every episode.

• Georgie Ma is more than a mantra; it is a maxim, an imperative, and a call for repudiation.

Understanding Petty Greed and Con Men

• If military dictators are like thugs, then MBE Myung-bak was a con man.

• A con works by assuming that petty greed exists in you and devising a plan to bring it out under cover of respectability.

• The victim of thuggery may feel anger but not much shame while the victim of a con feels more shame than anger.

Knock Oh Masses Relentless Indictment

This section talks about Knock Oh Masses' relentless indictment of President Lee Myung-bak as a petty cheat.

Relentless Indictment

• Knock Oh Masses' relentless indictment of the president reinforced over and over again.

• Georgie Ma is a call for repudiation; Dojima refuses to be what the MB era says you are and must ever be, that is to say, a petty cheat.

• The allegations, investigations, and detective fictions revealed by Knock Oh Masses emanated from their single premise - the insistence on that truth.

Breaking the Specularity of Relationship

• The insistence on that truth was simultaneously an attempt to break the specularity of the relationship that President Lee Myung-bak forged with the Korean voting public to gain access to his private blue house in the first place.

Nokchomseu as Political Fan Culture

This section discusses how Nokchomseu is working off fan culture and should be located between politics and entertainment.

Online Fan Clubs in South Korea

• Online fan clubs have been a familiar feature of South Korean political landscape since no moo-hyun.

• Park Geun-hye had the biggest fan club of them all.

Excessiveness of Nokchomseu's Popularity

• The excessiveness of Nokchomseu's popularity suggested it exceeded available frames of reference.

• Cho Yong Cheng has talked about this using Lacanian terms; it should be located between politics and entertainment in many ways.

The Figure of the Sovereign and the Primal Father in Korean Political Context

In this section, the speaker discusses how the figure of the sovereign has been analyzed in political discourse. They argue that Park Jeong-hee would be the locus classicus for the primal father in Korean political context.

The Primal Father and Exceptional Plenitude

• The figure of the sovereign has been analyzed in terms of this logic.

• The dictator is a commonly analyzed figure of the modern-day primal father in Korean political context.

• Park Jeong-hee would be the locus classicus for such a figure of exception of plenitude that underwrites the continuance of universal privation in post-authoritarian Korea.

Samsung's Wild Head as Fantasy Primal Father

• It is legally Samsung's wild head and other chaebol figures like him to carry this fantasy of the primal father.

• The central problem with MB presidency was that while it operated under an exception, he could not adequately occupy the place of a primal father because he's not fully AI.

• His monstrosity is due to his continuing to act like a poor man still in private wealth accumulation when he actually is in this position of power.

Logic Framed by Feminine Formula

In this section, we learn about different strategies used by Nokomis and how they framed their logic using feminine formula.

Different Strategy Used by Nokomis

• Nokomis followed a different strategy and logic framed there's a couple of negative statements one of which was a double negative.

• The feminine formula, "the logic of not all," was imminent and non-universalizable.

Two Negatives Do Not Make A Positive

• It is also built upon the modest but terribly important inside.

• The two negatives do not make a positive, and there is no exception to the lack.

• If there is still someone who is not submitted to the lack, he is not someone who has gained the outside but someone who continues to cry from within the reality of castration.

Voice of Intellectual with No Education

• It's the voice of an intellectual with no education, Boo Hargitay Chigan, who does not so much as opposed a mere commercial spirit that motivates A and B but validates it all together right from a different ground.

• At the same time, it is a voice of Tom normal ruffian who follows no rules of polite society.

Knock'em Sue and Podcast Revolution

In this section, we learn about how Knock'em Sue group started podcast revolution in Korea.

Knock'em Sue Group

• The knock'em sue group is real and relentless expose of all the ways a president remains faithful to the essence of who he is which is a small man in Confucian sense of term.

• Job mixing and convergence in digital age are particularly important value for that reason voice of Tom normal ruffian who follows no rules of polite society.

• The MB era was an age of girls, BBK for rivers and tannin gay that voice named and conferred on it specific timbre.

Podcast Revolution Started by Knock'em Sue Group

• This section talks about how knock'em sue group started podcast revolution in Korea.

• Many issues brought out in Binaca masu podcast were dismissed as conspiracy theory at first but have since come out as being absolutely true including National Intelligence Agency supporting and paying people to create public opinion online in favor of candidate Park.

• Resource diplomacy ended up buying a company worth $1 billion dollars which caused controversy.

• Knock'em Sue group has continued to keep the issue of fraud committed by President In Youngberg prior to becoming a candidate for presidency alive and has recently turned it into a powerful meme called "who."

Satire on Korean Netizens

In this section, the speaker shares an image of how Korean netizens have used satire to circulate a question about who owns something.

Justin Turner's Historic Home Run

• The Korean netizens have put Justin Turner's interview after his historic home run.

• They have added a caption asking "Who owns that's right?"

• This is an example of how satire is used by Korean netizens.