Media representations of cultural diversity in Korea
Media representations of cultural diversity in Korea
Introduction
With rapidly developing new communication tools, such as the high speed of the internet, multiple global cable channels and various social media, human beings have recently been facing dynamic cultural exchanges. Korea, once known for being a very homogenous country, is no exception to this global trend. Today the number of immigrants for labour, marriage, or study coming to Korea has rapidly increased, and the number of travellers also has been rising every year because of the popularity of Korean music and dramas (Kim, 201, p.562).
Thus, since the mid-2000s, in order to cope with the issues of multiculturalism and social harmony with foreign immigrants in Korea, many government-level projects such as the Foreign Trainee Program for Overseas Firms (FTPOF), the Foreign Industrial Trainee Program (FITP) and the Employment Permit System (EPS), have been practiced in various specific ways such as multicultural education at school, government support programs for migrant workers, and international marriages between Korean nationals and foreigners and the assimilation of these families into Korean culture and society (Kong, Yoon & Yu, 2010, p.270-271). In particularly, the Korean mass media has carried out a key role in relation to this issue (Ahn, 2012, p.98). Several TV programs from public broadcasters and cable television have been aired to present the multicultural nature of Korean society, such as 'We are Korean', 'Global home stay, Go home' (MBC), 'Nice to meet you' (SBS) 'Multicultural human Documentary, Family'(EBS), ‘Swap Asia’, ‘Hand in Hand’, ‘All together’, ‘Traveller’s Korean’, ‘Super Kids’ (ArirangTV) and recently ‘Island Village Teachers’ (TVN). These programs have been trying to represent various social classes and social issues such as human rights, cultural adaptation or conflict, the problem of racism, discrimination, and inequality. In this case, can we trust and accept media representations of different cultures and other races, or is there any gap between the message from the media and the real world?
According to Hall (1997), the meaning cannot be fixed until it has been represented, especially through the visual media. He also emphasises that making meaning is a process of interpreting what is represented, and the media produce social interpretations of meaning within culture. Numerous studies about media effects, as well as Hall's statement, prove that the media are influential tools for the transformation of society or individuals and for modifying attitudes, beliefs, ways of thinking, actions or living styles of people (Chye, 2007, p.12).
In this respect, this article examines the media representation of multiculturalism and the relationship between the mass media and culture in the Korea context. Also, two television programs are analysed as to how the media describes different ethnic groups of people and what sort of representative messages provide meaning to Korean audiences.
The mass media and culture in the Korean context
According to Dodd (1998, p.237), the role of the mass media, especially that associated with cultural aspects, is complex throughout the various parts of society, from association with national development, to each individual. ongoing research provides information about the relationship between the mass media and culture; when the culture change, the media also has to change to match cultural developments directly and it plays a powerful role. In other words, the media occupies a central part of public and private life, and plays the role of reinforcing the national culture and providing influential resources and frameworks for everyday life in the process of social inclusion and engagement across different cultures (Ang, Hawkins & Dabboussy, 2008, p.2-3).
Many far-reaching international studies of intercultural or cross-cultural communication have been proceeding for decades, while public interest about multiculturalism and cultural exchange in Korea has been growing since the late 1990s. Even though the Korean media industries have rapidly developed with remarkable economic growth for 4-5 decades, it has mainly remained to focus on establishing Korean national cultural identity, in opposition to the influence of foreign cultures, because of its historical situation.
During 5,000 years of Korean history, in spite of numerous wars and invasions, including Japanese colonialism (1910-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953). Koreans have strongly maintained their political independence and cultural and ethnic identity. Even though Korea was divided into two, North and South Korea, Korean people have a strong national consciousness, known as “Danil Minjok” (Homogenous Nation). After the Korean War in 1953, the rapid processes of industrialization and modernisation have accelerated an influx of Western culture based on capitalism and commercialism; Commercialism, materialism, violence and sensuality are largely synonymous for Koreans in relation to Korean traditional culture, which is based on Confucianism (Yim, 2002, p.39). As a result, the Korean government prohibited the full open-door cultural policy to minimize the negative impacts until the late 1990s. Even though Japan is the nearest neighbouring country, its culture and related media subjects were banned as imports in Korea by 1999 (Yim, 2002, p.42). on the contrary, the Korean government and media industries continuously pushed forward to find ways to establish cultural identity and to develop media content based on Confucianism, which emphasizes harmonious human relationships, a family-oriented culture, morality, and loyalty, and so forth. During that time, the sense of genetic and cultural homogeneity supported by the media gave great national pride and ethnic self-esteem to Koreans, and it led to the rise of a powerful nationalism “Danil Minjok” (One Korean nation) (Park & Lee Watson, 2011, p.4). In other words, foreign culture or other races were high alerts that all Koreans must look out for and be wary of.
At the turn of the millennium, Korean society took a fresh turn on ethnic homogeneous culture and its media policy had to modify itself for the advent of a multicultural society, due to two main factors; increasing foreign migrations through labour and marriage, and the spread of the Korean wave (Korean popular culture) throughout the world.
Due to the beginning of the trend towards globalisation in Korea, the number of foreign workers and marriages with migrants has increased in Korea since the 1990s. In 2005, 5,180,000 people out of the nation's total 48 million were immigrants (Kim, 2010, p.562). According to Statistics Korea (cited in Kim, 2010, p.562), the sex ratio of the migrants, with the number of males and females immigrating to Korea since 1995 increasing respectively by 44.3% and 150.5%, has revealed the reason for the immigration patterns. Generally that of males is related to labour, whereas females came for international marriages. With the sharp increase in international marriage, Korean society is rapidly moving towards becoming a multicultural society, and it is a significant factor to consider cultural diversity in Korea. Thus, ‘multicultural-based terms such as multicultural society, multicultural family and multicultural education’ have become signals for social concern (Ahn, 2012, p.97). Therefore, today, Koreans realise that it is an anachronism to stick to cultural homogeneity in modern society.
Moreover, alongside Korea is new national image as an IT powerhouse - it is one of the most wired countries in the world- the Korean Wave has become a recent cultural phenomenon throughout China, Japan, other Southeast Asian countries, and even culturally remote continents such as the Middle East, South and North America and Europe (Kim & Ryoo, 2007, p.120,123). Since the late 1990s, the Korean Wave has started with TV dramas in China and Japan, and it has been expanded to Korean pop music (K-pop), movies, tourism, fashion, cuisine and Korean language (Jang&Paik, 2012, p.198). The international phenomena of Korean culture has provided remarkable reactions and impacts throughout the world, and Korean people have to consider the abrupt switch from a solid homogeneous culture to a multicultural society. Therefore, Korean media industries have also paid close attention to the both powerful impacts of culture and its media products- that is, the Korean wave for external audiences and multicultural content for domestic audiences, including immigrants.
Analysis of two TV programs
In order to examine multiculturalism in the Korean mass media, in this section, two kinds of TV programs, which were aired on public broadcaster KBS (Korea Broadcasting System), are analysed; one is ‘Love in Asia’ and the other is ‘Global talk show, Talk with Beauty’.
1) KBS ‘Love in Asia’ (2005 – current)
‘Love in Asia’ is a reality program with a talk-show format. The program is designed to depict the ordinary lives of married immigrants and interracial families as normal Korean family life, and to raise awareness of the multicultural family as ‘our neighbours as Korean’. It also reflects and helps understanding both the similar and different aspects of each culture, between husbands and wives or guests and the audiences.
Each episode consists of three parts; the first part introduces the main guest and her or his spouse, and then unfolds their daily family lives which always relates to the true meaning of family or harmony with neighbours based on Confucianism. The second part is an interview between TV show hosts and the main guest, her or his family members in the studio with another panel who are almost all female ‘marriage immigrants’. In the interview, guests share their experience from different cultural backgrounds, a process of cultural adjustment or a relationship with a Korean family. The last of the programs shows that the main guest visits her or his home country and meets family, and in this part, her or his Korean family; thus, audiences may experience of the bride or groom’s different values, habits, life style and cultural milieu directly or indirectly.
The theme of every episode is the ‘fateful love’ story beyond national boondies, familial love and strong relationships between family members and neighbours. Almost all guests are female - foreign wives have migrated to Korea for marriage with Korean men; they come mostly from China, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia, other Southeast Asian countries, and even the region of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (cited in Kim, 2010, p.563).
<Love in Asia>
2) KBS2 ‘Global talk show, Talk with Beauty’ (2006-2010)
What foreigners think about Korean people, culture and daily life or how they feel about their experience of Korean culture was obviously enough to catch Korean’s interest and attention, when this program ‘Global talk show, Talk with Beauty’ was aired in 2006. The talk show featured a panel of foreign females who were almost all university students and professional workers residing in Seoul.
There were two main characters, Beauty and Talk in the program. ‘Beauty’ consisted of sixteen young beautiful women who came from U.S.A, U.K, Canada, France, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, Indonesia, Kenya, Argentina, Paraguay and so on. These panels talked without reserve about their experiences about a routine and repetitive Korean culture such as normal Korean’s behaviour at school or work, food, TV programs and media, dating, job, gender issues, marriage, leisure actives, etiquette, transportation, social media issues and so forth. The subject of each episode was actually a common daily issue, but the program revealed the difference between the viewpoints of the two parties, Korean and foreigners. From the perspective of these panels, Korean culture could be the subject of exotic and interesting culture or culture shock and criticism. For Korean audiences, this program played the window to experience diverse cultures from a variety of experiences of them.
<Global talk show, Talk with Beauty>
Characteristics of multiculturalism in the Korean media
The main characters in 'Love in Asia' and 'Talk with Beauty' are mainly female with various nationalities and different cultures. All of them have a common point, which is to adapt to Korean society as foreigners. It can be said that two TV programs may reflect multiculturalism in Korea, which consists of many different ethnicities for a variety of reasons. Even though both TV programs have intentions to raise awareness about the issues of diverse cultures and cultural issues to Koreans, the content of these two programs and the cast disclose how Korean media represents multiculturalism and foreign cultures and depends on double standards.
- Discriminatory viewpoints and standards
First, the cast members of the two programs have different reasons for residing in Korea, and their nationalities show different aspects of Korean media about foreign culture. In other words, in the ‘Love in Asia’ case, most female guests came from developing countries in Asia for international marriage. When they first came to Korea, many of them did not speak Korean fluently, also they did not have enough knowledge of Korean culture. Therefore, for them, Korean culture is always the crucial subject of adaptation ‘without question or criticism to live harmoniously’ with her new family members and neighbours in a new social environment. Either intended or not intended, ‘Love in Asia’ may reflect strong traditional Korean culture such as family-oriented tendencies and the patriarchal order, without sufficient understanding of the other’s culture, and married immigrants may tend to be ‘passive objects’.
In contrast, the panel members of ‘Talk with Beauty’ were mostly single females, who came from developed countries for study or professional work, so their Korean fluency was usually sufficient to communicate with Koreans. The contents of each episode depicted Korean culture as the target of surprise and criticism with both positive and negative comments drawn from different cultural viewpoint. They talked about all kinds of topics which are common in Korean daily life, not only family issues between different cultures.
In this respect, the Korean media may have exposed discriminatory views and standards depending on ethnic background such as Western culture in developed nations or developing countries’ culture in Southern Asia. Also, two programs promoted stereotypes and unequal attitudes linked to the country of origin; Southern Asian females were possibly portrayed as powerless and dependent foreign brides needing the support and sympathy inside of a family home, while Western people in ‘Talk with Beauty’ were represented as professional and equal to others to in terms of communication and cooperation.
- Emphases of classification between ‘We’ and ‘the Other’
Another factor to consider here is that the Korean media may emphasise differences between ‘our’ culture or people and ‘others’. Korean society is identified as a strong collectivistic community, so it is a fundamental factor to belong to an ‘in-group’, especially with family and relatives (Song & Meek, 1998, p.3). Also, where people belong to a family or a specific group in Korean culture, it means an acceptance of following a hierarchical relationship as well as responsibility for the harmony of the family and group. In the strong group-oriented perception, complete cultural assimilation, which is stressed by the Korean show ‘Love in Asia’, is the logical step to maintain harmonious society.
In the case of ‘Talk with Beauty’, foreign females do not hesitate to talk about their culture shock within Korean society, but their speaking often is limited to confirm the gaps between the viewpoints of the Korean culture and ‘others’. This is because the program is usually based on insincere discussions and the desire to promote better communication for better understanding of the cultural others but the cause is really curiosity or entertainment. Therefore, it just largely highlights the differences between cultures.
The role of the mass media for building a culturally effective society in Korea
Gerber (cited in Murray, 2008, p.8) employs cultivation theory to explain media influence on cultural representation. When the audience is consistently exposed to messages about different cultures and this information comes from the visual media, such as television, it can create impact on ‘the real world perceptions of what the viewer believes about their social reality’. Mostly the audiences consider theses media messages as the truth. Thus when considering the current situation of media representation about diverse culture in Korea, Korean mass media has to be conscious of its responsibility to provide an accurate and clear understanding of the multiculturalism.
Even though many TV shows and documentaries introduce diverse cultures and different ethnic groups in Korea, most of the media portray Korea’s multiculturalism in accordance with the process of cultural assimilation or negative stereotypes unfortunately, as like as in ‘Love in Asia’ and ’Talk with Beauty’. They may be afraid of loss of traditional value systems, beliefs, and cultural identity passed down for many generations due to the influx of foreign immigrants and their cultures. For Koreans who are still embedded in racial homogeneity for long time, it may be a natural process to protect Korean culture against foreign domination. Nonetheless, the use of mass media for cultural assimilation could build a mode of ‘domestic cultural imperialism which is as bad as foreign’ cultural imperialism (Absysinghe, 2007, p.18).
Gudykunst and Kim (2003, p.392) present principles for community building with strangers; ‘openness’ and ‘dialogues’. They state openness is one of the fundamental factors in developing community with others, and it has an important function when people who have a different point of view during the conversation (dialogues). This openness and dialogue could be applied to the role of the Korean media for building a culturally effective society.
As mentioned before, due to the Korean Wave, the various aspects of Korean culture have already spread throughout the whole world. It is obvious that the success of the Korean Wave could be a vast opportunity and position for facilitating dialogue with other cultures which have been attracted to the Korean culture. Without mature cultural exchange between the two, the one-sided Korean Wave cannot guarantee success any more in the multicultural global society. Therefore, it is now the turn of the Korean media to play well-balanced roles for preserving own cultural identity and building cultural diversity including three components; motivation which relates to desires to communicate, knowledge for awareness and understanding, and skills which are abilities for communication ‘with others appropriately and effectively’ (Gudykunst & Kim, 2003, p.275).
Conclusion
According to the World Values Survey in 2005 (cited in Kong, Yoon & Yu, 2010, p.268), Koreans have a more open manner towards a culturally diverse community than other countries such as Japan and Taiwan. However, it also reveals that there are Koreans’ fewer acceptances of people ‘who are not ethnically Korean as citizens’. This result of the survey tells us that Korean society has still focused on cultural assimilation perspective and does not yet possess open attitudes for cultural diversity and pluralism.
Traditionally, Koreans believe that harmonious relations with others are an essential element for societal stability, and uniqueness and differences are parts of nature, so they need to be balanced for the common good (Song & Meek, 1998, p.4). The Korean media has played the role of accomplishing a harmonious society within Korean culture until now. Today, Korean mass media are standing at the crossroads to communicate with other race and different cultures for establishing harmonious society through openness and dialogue in global cultural contexts.
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