Kenichi Ohmae on Dodkdo 독도는한국땅 입니다!!

I read with great interest in yesterday's Chosun Ilbo English edition that Kenichi Ohmae, Japan's well-known management expert and futurologist suggests Japan should recognize Korea's effective control of Dokdo. In a Japanese weekly publication, Omae said no nation which failed to occupy territory effectively has obtained it through dialogue between parties concerned or UN arbitration. Everybody knows that a war, the only means possible, is not suitable as a way to solve the Dokdo issue. For a moment, I thought that this was going to be an enlightened statement on the issue by a well-known person from Japan. Then I read that Ohmae had stressed Japan should "continue claim" over the islets, while recognizing Korea's effective occupation, but without criticizing or irritating Korea. He further suggested that, in the future it was necessary “to expand the East Asian economic sphere by skillfully pulling China and Korea into it." Japan, he wrote, "should build a hypothetical great power in the future, when the meaning of national territories will become blurred." What this amounts to, in part, is that Ohmae is suggesting Japan can lay claim to Dokdo in cyberspace. What else will Japan lay claim to in the future? What about the future of history? In one sense the information age may blur the meaning of national territories or boundaries, but at the same time it will offer an opportunity to preserve and protect the memories and history of what actually happened over the past several centuries and more.

Korea's Beef Infodemic and Cyber Defamation Law

The international news agency Reuters took note today of a subject treated in several of my earlier posts on the Korean "Beef Infodemic." The Reuters headline cast the subject as "Bruised South Korean government takes on infodemics." The lead sentence in the Reuters report says that "South Korea's unpopular young government is having second thoughts about the benefits of running the world's most wired society."   Not a bad lead, except for the fact that much of Korea's networking these days is wireless, and is aiming to become "ubiquitous."  South Korean government efforts to deal with media convergence are one factor that has led to a full fledged debate here about the role of the traditional print media powerhouses here and the nation's leading internet portals.  The Justice Ministry is working on what it calls a Cyber Defamation Law. "The reality is that we lack the means to effectively deal with harmful Internet messages," a ministry official said.  The Korean Communications Commission, which regulates the industry, has come up with its own rules to oblige portals to suspend sites stepping outside the limits and force Websites to use real names of anyone posting comments. The commission says the measures are designed to improve security and reduce the spread of false information.  Predictably, voices are rising that the government moves are attempts to erode freedom in a country that has had only two decades of democratic elections.
"The regulations violate the autonomy of the Internet and are an effective tool for tighter media control by the government," said Lee Han-ki, senior editor at the popular citizen news Website OhMyNews.  For a better overall picture, read the complete Reuters report.

Dokdo and Cyber Diplomacy: YouTube Exchanges

While the real-world political war over Dokdo may be entering into a lull of sorts, the exchanges taking place over YouTube have picked up pace.    The following is an interesting version of Arirang as commentary on Dokdo.

Dokdo and Cyber-Diplomacy

Dokdo is in the news again. References to the island as Japanese territory in newly published guidelines for middle school teachers in Japan provoked widespread anger and demonstrations in Korea. In fact, last night some of the participants in a candlelight vigil against the import of American beef apparently moved over in front of the Japanese Embassy to join the protest against Japan's latest actions. Others took the message about Dokdo to international media and into cyberspace. According to the Korea Times, vocalist Kim Jang-hoon, 41, teamed up with a freelance Korean public relations expert Seo Kyoung-duk to publish a full-page ad in The New York Times. Headlined "Do You Know?" the ad stated that``For the last 2,000 years, the body of water between Korean and Japan has been called the `East Sea.' Dokdo (two islands) located in the East Sea is a part of Korean territory. The Japanese government must acknowledge this fact.''  There is a great deal of information about Dokdo on the internet and this site provides a good starting point for anyone interested in more information about the issue. The official web site of the Korean government, Korea.net, also carries a great deal of information on the Dokdo issue. Korea.net also includes a Cyber Dokdo History Hall.

Korea's Beef "Infodemic"

This is a follow-up to my earlier post on President Lee Myung Bak's speech to the National Assembly, in which he warned that Korea must guard against "infodemics." President Lee may have, intentionally or not, given a big boost to the international use of this recently-coined term. The term was apparently coined by David J. Rothkopf, who used it in a 2003 Washington Post article to describe how the circulation of misinformation about the SARS epidemic had implications more far reaching than the disease itself. By "infodemic," Rothkopf meant the following: "A few facts, mixed with fear, speculation and rumor, amplified and relayed swiftly worldwide by modern information technologies, have affected national and international economies, politics and even security in ways that are utterly disproportionate with the root realities." He further noted that "Infodemics are emerging as one of the most virulent phenomena known to man, able to transit continents instantly. In virtually every respect they behave just like any other disease, with an epidemiology all their own, identifiable symptoms, well-known carriers, even straightforward cures. Yet to date many in power seem unable to contain them or unwilling to acknowledge their existence." Continuing the epidemic analogy, Rothkopf suggested that infodemics can be cured, stating that "... if information is the disease, knowledge is also a cure. We should react to infodemics just as we do to diseases. Understand how these ideas are introduced into the population, how they spread, what accelerates their spread, what their consequences are, and what localized outbreaks may be contained. That does not mean repressing information. It means effectively managing each outbreak and presenting the facts fully and quickly to critical audiences."

President Lee says "We Must Guard Against Infodemics"

In his address to the recently convened National Assembly, President Lee Myung Bak stated that "We must guard against infodemics." President Lee was not the first to use the term "infodemic." A quick Google search shows that it has been used by representatives of international organizations with reference to saturation news coverage of disasters. The Korea Times published a full English-translation of President Lee's speech to the National Assembly. The portion of his speech dealing with "infodemics" went as follows: "An advanced society is characterized by the dominance of rationality and civic virtues. A society rampant with excessive emotional behavior, disorderliness and rudeness cannot be called an advanced society by any measure. In this connection, we have to guard against "infodemics," a phenomenon in which inaccurate, false information is disseminated, prompting social unrest that spread like epidemics. It is about time we began to firmly respect and understand each other better and extend generosity and thoughtfulness to other people. Generosity and thoughtfulness are instrumental to overcoming the age of confrontation and divisiveness and forging ahead with the age of harmony and partnership. society." What President Lee left unsaid, but which is clearly implied by the term "infodemic" is the manner in which information spreads so rapidly via the internet and new mobile networks. This is the "six degrees of separation" phenomenon that is such a powerful factor in South Korea's emerging political culture and was touched on in an earlier post in this blog.

Anti-Americanism, Anti-American Beef Protests and Televised Images

Although the number of people participating in the demonstrations against importing American beef has decreased in recent days, the demonstrations have become more clearly political in nature and more violent. Public opinion polls show that nearly 60 percent of Korean citizens think that the candlelight vigils have accomplished their goal and should cease. Polls also show that many Koreans understand that the demonstrations now continue largely to push other political issues such as opposition to privatization and reform of public TV networks or opposition to the KORUS free trade agreement. The video embedded in this post was taken some days ago, before the violent protests of this weekend. However, I share it with you because it happens (almost or surely by accident) to include some powerful symbols. Those symbols--the golden arches of McDonalds and the Burger King logo, appear in the video only because this demonstration occurred at the Sinchon Rotary where these two fast-food establishments are located.

Where's the Beef? The Sources of Public Anger

One reason that the 1980s Wendy's commercial keeps popping into my mind is that I, like most observers of the political upheaval in South Korea these days, wonder what are the true or genuine sources of public anger. Few people who observe the repeated candlelight vigils and the evolution of the anti-Lee Myung Bak government movement would question that the people seem angry. Koreans are passionate about many things, including their politics. But what are the sources of this current passion? According to press reports, they include:

• Opposition to President Lee's proposal for a Grand National Canal.
• Disagreement with the new President's media reforms, including changes in relevant cabinet ministries and creation of a new Broadcasting and Communications Commission.
• Opposition to education-sector reforms instituted by the new government.
• A general opposition to the way in which President Lee's government implemented its policies, without considering the wishes of the Korean people.

The list could probably go on, but it appears the primary source of public anger in South Korea was pinpointed in an insightful New York Times article by Choe Sang-Hun. That is, it has to do with nationalism and with Korean pride. Powerful television images from Camp David instantly conveyed to some Koreans that President Lee had kowtowed to President Bush by bringing him an agreement to resume imports of American beef in exchange hopefully for approval of the KORUS FTA. As correspondent Choe notes, when faced with the wall built from shipping containers, "... people pasted identical leaflets on it, their message dramatically summarizing Mr. Lee’s image and alienation from many of his people: “This is a new border for our country. From here starts the U.S. state of South Korea.”

Korea in Cyberspace: National and Brand Images

The current political uproar in South Korea and the flood of images it has released are important politically, economically and culturally. The images emanating from South Korea these days help to create the image of this nation in North America, Europe an other parts of the world, as well as here on the peninsula. Use of the term "flood" to describe the flow of images is appropriate insofar as the internet and modern digital communications accelerate the diffusion of political information. Here in South Korea, former President Kim Dae Jung and others have observed that the country is experimenting with "Direct Democracy." Without doing a quantitative empirical study, I would hazard a guess that the current political activity in South Korea, centered as it is around the internet and new digital media, is having an effect on Korea's national image in the world. According to an article in the Korea Herald, South Korea's embassy in Washington D.C. surveyed 136 U.S.-based experts on July 12-13. The survey found that 60.2 percent of the respondents believed the anti-U.S. beef rallies and candlelight vigils would damage Korea's image among Americans, while 27.2 percent said that they would not.

Candlelight vigils in the Spring are an ideal place to exploit the new media. Think how easy it is to snap photographs or record videos with your cellphone, and then share these with netizens. By definition, sharing such images with netizens means that they are available to anyone in the world. In other words, they help to define Korea's national image and its place in cyberspace. The point of this post is simply to note that South Korea is building its national image, or its place in cyberspace. Once constructed, national images cannot easily be altered or torn down, for the simple reason that the digital images stay there in cyberspace. Some elements of the emerging image also seem clear: candlelight vigils, labor demonstrations and anti-government protests, anti-Americanism, genuine fear of American beef, gullibility to rumors about Mad Cow Disease, and so forth. These elements are mixing with South Korea's existing national image which includes such aspects as being an "IT Powerhouse," "Broadband Leader," and a country which places a high priority on education, science and technology generally.

Where's the Beef? It's in the Images

One thing is certain. The current political uproar in South Korea over the import of American beef has produced a flood of visual images of all kinds. They include the placards held by participants in candlelight vigils which, although individually small, create quite an impression when carried by thousands or tens of thousands of vigil participants. Images circulating on the internet range from still photos through doctored photos, cartoons and caricatures. Of course, the most powerful images of all are probably the live or timely video portrayals of events. To see a representative sampling of such images, check out one of South Korea's major internet portals such as Daum , or the site of an organization promoting the anti-beef-import campaign, http://www.michincow.net/ , or search the many videos that have been uploaded to YouTube.

Still photographs are very easy to distribute via e-mail and the internet. They are routinely used by print media, in both their print and web editions, and by the major international news agencies. A recent photograph by Reuters is included here as an illustration. In this connection, it is worth noting that major search engines, such as Google, provide an image search option for quickly locating photographs and video images on the internet. Despite the obvious origin of most images in Korea itself, mostly from Seoul and other large cities, the anti-beef protests quickly generated a response in the U.S. and in other countries around the world, as illustrated by the image of Koreans in France staging a sympathetic protest near the Tower of Eiffel.

The main media outlets in South Korea today are reporting that the number of people participating in anti-beef import vigils decreased notably over the weekend. Some of the articles attribute this to the fact that the "anti-U.S. beef" movement is being politicized to include anti-FTA concerns, the concerns of labor unions, broadcasting and other media concerns, and so forth. However, one of the most interesting images from today's news in South Korea was a before/after shot of Seoul Plaza, showing the wear-and-tear on grass that is an inevitable effect of the nightly vigils. Another powerful visual image emerging from this month and one-half long political movement was the construction of a barrier made of shipping containers on the north side of the Kwanghwamun intersection, right in front of the statue of Admiral Yi. Although the barrier itself was short-lived, the image was extremely powerful. The first image included here is a photo taken as the barrier was being constructed. The second shows how it was used during that evening's protest.

Finally, please take a long, hard look at the final still image included here. It says volumes about the role of the internet and new media in South Korea's current political situation. The image is a photograph of a reporter broadcasting the anti-beef protests live over the internet via his notebook computer.

"Where's the Beef?" Information Age Politics in Korea

The candlelight vigil demonstrations against the Lee Myung Bak government's decision to allow importing of American beef began on May 2, have occurred almost daily since then, and show no signs of abating. As time passes, they seem to involve every conceivable political issue on which the new administration of President Lee Myung Bak might be opposed, reminding me of the famous line from a Wendy's commercial in the mid-1980s, "Where's the Beef?" These powerful political developments in Korea can be better understood if we pay attention to several main features, from a political communication perspective.

• The new networks are employed to organize and sustain the political movement. These include mainly messaging with mobile phones and the internet.
• The "six degrees apart" phenomenon allows fast mobilization of large-scale demonstrations, especially in Korea's close-knit culture.
• The use of digital images, graphics and videos is widespread. At the latest candlelight vigils, not only the candles and cups, but placards carried by participants, seem to have been mass produced digitally for each event.
• There is an immediate global aspect to the sharing of videos of the demonstrations that feeds the movement, as each night's vigil becomes a promotion for forthcoming demonstrations. The growing number of videos posted to YouTube in recent days illustrates this global dimension.
• The current flurry of political activity shows a spotlight on the manner in which rumor, half-truths, can be spread via the internet and other modern media. The South Korean press has been full of stories speculating on the origins of some of the rumors and stories circulating on the web and via mobile messaging. Many speculate that the political opposition to Lee Myung Bak's government, or young hackers, and the like are behind the developments.

Politics, Emotions and Television

Anyone with a bit of experience in Korea will acknowledge that Korean people are passionate. This cultural characteristic is on display in the current political upheaval over importing American beef and the FTA with the United States. If you doubt this, view the following video presentationNot surprisingly, one of the factors that ignited the current wave of political emotion was a documentary on mad cow disease aired by MBC. Some of the television images from that program reminded me of the time, as a high school student, that I toured a Swift Company meat-packing plant in rural South Dakota. Surely, seeing cows slaughtered and cut apart is something that we consumers of pulgogi, ribs or hamburgers seldom think about, and many of the images can be frightening, especially to young people seeing them for the first time. In an earlier post I mentioned the role of instant messaging on mobile phones in Korea's current political upheaval. Equally important is the emotional and visceral impact of graphic visual news on television. To see some of that, look at another video that is circulating widely in South Korea via television and the internet.

Koreans Trust the Internet, Blogs as News Sources

More sense can be made of the current political upheaval in South Korea over importing American beef against the backdrop of a 2006 survey conducted in ten countries for the BBC, Reuters and the American Press Institute's Media Center. What made Korea stand out among the ten countries in this study was the degree of trust shown in the internet as a source of news. Approximately 85% of South Koreans asked said they put a high value on accessing news over the internet, a much higher proportion than in other countries. As shown in the graphic to the left, over a third of Koreans named the internet as their most important source of news. Especially amoung young people, there has been a switch from reliance on television as a news source to the internet. This pattern can be seen in all ten of the countries in the survey, but it is most pronounced in Korea. The survey cites the impact of Korea's advanced communications infrastructure, noting that over 86% of households (that percentage is now well over 90 percent) are online. "The supremacy of TV is in danger of being usurped by the internet. A third of Koreans cite the net as their most important source of news, rivalling the 41% who cite TV. It is also one of the most positive countries about blogs, with 38% trusting them compared to the 10-country average of 25%. " The full poll results can be downloaded in PDF format from the BBC and they contain some interesting glimpses of the new communication environment emerging in South Korea. Seventy-one percent of South Koreans think that government interferes too much with the media, a percentage exceeded only in Nigeria (where 74% hold that view). Seventeen percent of South Koreans named blogs as their most important news source, compared with only 3 percent in the other nine countries surveyed.

"Haechi" as New Symbol of Seoul?

It is not only the city of Seoul, but South Korea and the Korean peninsula more generally that has an "image problem." I will address this problem in much more detail through posts on this blog, but wanted to share with you the latest effort to address the image problem. In today's Korea times, an article reported that "As corporate identify (CI) is used to upgrade corporate image, the city wants the new symbol to become the city's new icon and contribute to boosting the capital's international image. The Mayor of Seoul is quoted as saying that "Despite the scale and reputation of Seoul, we don't have any representative symbol. We've selected Haechi as the symbol and we hope it will promote the city internationally.'' The Mayor wants Haechi to become like the Big Apple of New York, Merloin in Singarpore and Buddy Bear of Berlin. The city made the selection after six months of preparation, including various surveys and public hearings. Most respondents picked Gyeongbok Palace as a representative icon of the city but the city chose the palace's guardian Haechi for its practical variations along with its historical characteristics." I commend the Mayor and the City of Seoul for recognizing the problem. However, is this how Seoul wants to be represented in the media around the world, let alone cyberspace?

Six Degrees of Separation: Politics in the Information Age

The current political phenomenon in Korea, involves a mediated frenzy that is being whipped up with the aid of new information an communication technologies, notably the internet and mobile phones. This suggests to me that South Korea, which has internet and mobile communication infrastructures unequalled in the world, also has certain cultural characteristics that accentuate the political impact of these communication technologies.

One of the interesting findings from research on human communication networks is the so-called "six degrees of separation." It refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth. This idea has its origins in the 1960s experiments of American psychologist Stanley Milgram. The concept has since accumulated an impressive amount of empirical evidence or "proof." One of the more interesting studies "proving" the concept was published in June of 2007, based on data from everyone in the world who used the MSN "instant messaging" service. In a research paper from June 2007, titled "Worldwide Buzz: Planetary-Scale Views on an Instant-Messaging Network (PDF)," Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research and Jure Leskovec of Carnegie Mellon University analyzed 30 billion conversations among 240 million people using Microsoft Instant Messenger in June 2006. It turned out that the average path length, or degree of separation, among the anonymized users probed was 6.6.

The relevance of this to the current political upheaval in South Korea? Politics here are based on interpersonal communication networks. Family, hometown, school and regional associations are of paramount importance in Korea. Modern communication networks such as the internet and mobile phones amplify the speed and scope of interpersonal communication in part because of "six degrees of separation." This phenomenon has also been dubbed "smart mobs." Middle and high school students use mobile-phone-based instant messaging and internet bulletin boards to share ideas about importation of American beef, and to organize candlelight protests that draw tens of thousands in Seoul and other large Korean cities. Korea's homogeneous culture and the importance of networking with friends and associates seems to be creating a strong new political dynamic in the information age. With only six degrees of separation, information spreads more rapidly through the new digital networks, creating candlelight vigils in which sixty percent or more of the participants were reportedly middle and high school students.

More on Politics: Crackdown on Madcow Rumors Online

According to an article in today's Joongang Ilbo, prosecutors are beginning a crackdown on madcow rumors online. "Five prosecutors will begin investigating those who create and spread posts, cartoons or video clips containing false facts about mad cow disease and U.S. beef, the prosecutors’ office said. It said the current onslaught against the resumption of U.S. beef imports is more malicious than just Internet posts of critical opinions. They said it is developing into organized attacks on government agencies’ official Web sites." The article further notes that "Scary tales about mad cow disease are sweeping popular Web sites in Korea. Some of the posts claim mad cow disease can spread through soil, air or food and that some countries are set to categorize Korea as a country at risk of mad cow disease and to ban Koreans from entering those nations."

Information Age Politics--Mad Cow Disease and Anti-Americanism

What do the following have in common?

• A poll shows that 34 percent of first-year South Korean army cadets called the United States the main enemy of South Korea. While the majority ― or 34 percent ― picked the U.S., 33 percent said they regarded North Korea as the main enemy. Korea Times
• An in-house poll for the governing party in early May found that President Lee's rating has slipped to less than 30 percent, down 10 percentage points from last week. "Beef Deal Pulls Down Lee's Ratings," Korea Times.
• Education authorities yesterday instructed heads of schools nationwide to take steps to stop groundless rumors over the imports. This came in the wake of candlelight vigils in which an estimated 60 percent of the participants were middle-and high-school students.
• Reportedly 660,000 people have signed a petition on the web to impeach President Lee Myung Bak.
• Korean-American organizations in New York, Washington and Los Angeles held press conferences this week in an effort to calm the mad cow scare in Korea.
• All sorts of rumors regarding mad cow disease are spreading by mobile phone text messaging and via the internet.

All of the above are manifestations of South Korean politics in the information age. The significance of the current political developments has less to do with the Korean government's decision to resume importing American beef, per se, than with other larger concerns and President Lee's recent visit to the U.S. Over and above the symbolism of candlelight vigils, there is a decidedly anti-American message to the current student protests, as one can easily see from visiting http://www.michincow.net/ a website put up to help mobilize the protests.

China's Choice

Two days ago the English edition of the Joongang Ilbo, one of Korea's major daily newspapers, published my op-ed piece entitled "China's Choice." It addresses the dilemma faced by the government in Beijing as the Summer Olympics approach. Namely, efforts to suppress the free flow of news and information about Tibet and the 1989 uprising in Tienanmen Square will also undermine China's efforts to project a positive image to the world through the 2008 Olympics. In the Spring of 1987 the South Korean government faced a similar dilemma before the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It chose a path of political liberalization that also energized the nation's economy. Today there are media reports that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has warned China against any attempt to restrict internet access by the international media during the 2008 Olympics. Indeed, if China attempts to carry its "Great Firewall of China" policy into the Olympics it will strike at the heart of the modern Olympic Games, which are essentially a global television and media celebration of sport. More importantly, efforts to control or channel modern networked media will inevitably stifle China's ambitious economic goals. The government in Beijing is indeed, caught on the horns of a dilemma.