팟캐스트 나꼼수

 
Podcasts and Naneun Ggoamsuda
 
By Kuk Min-ho, Professor, Dept. of Sociology
 
Once a week four men sit around in a rented studio, laughing, blurting expletives, and even making fun of President Lee Myung-bak. Then they post a recording of their talk online. The organizers call their talk show Naneun Ggomsuda (I'm a petty-minded creep). What they are trying to do is to raise all kinds of allegations against President Lee by offering data to back them up. They think that President Lee and his conservative regime have intimidated people. They try to send a message to people not to be intimidated and to say whatever they want without worrying about going to jail.
A podcast as a form of mobile radio broadcasting became a big social issue following the success of the political satire Naneun Ggoamsuda. When Naneun Ggoamsuda released as a podcast for the first time on April 27th, 2011, most Korean people did not even know that it existed. Podcasts at that time were the fringe media that few people had ever heard of. But when Naneun Ggoamsuda became the most popular one with two million downloads, podcasts became one of the most popular media in Korea.
What is a podcast? A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of a series of files downloaded through web. Podcast is a neologism that comes from the words “iPod” and “broadcast”. They are often listened to on portable media players. Despite the etymology, the contents can be accessed using any computer that can play media files. Podcasting is a converged medium bringing together audio, the web and portable media player. No one owns the technology. It is free to listen to and create content, which departs from the traditional media and production tools. It is a horizontal media form where producers are consumers and consumers become producers and they engage in conversations with each other.
Why is it so popular? The fever of podcast in recent Korea came from the distrust against the existing mainstream media. The popularity of Naneun Ggoamsuda is due to their efforts to highlight the issues that the existing media cannot deal with or do not want to disclose. It awoke younger Koreans politically amid the rising cost of living, shrinking job prospects, and their distrust of President Lee and the conservative mainstream news media. As a political parody web, Naneun Ggoamsuda works as a channel to send a message expressing the anger of young Koreans to the government and the traditional media. On Oct. 26, the mayoral election in Seoul, Naneun Ggoamsuda showed the power of podcasts by influencing people in their 20s and 30s to vote for the independent opposition candidate against the government-backed candidate. But vulgar expressions and expletives are the limits of the podcast as an alternative media. Also we do not know if the podcast will retain its popularity after the regime changes.
저작권자 © Chonnam Tribune 무단전재 및 재배포 금지