About Ideology

1. Definition

 -> In the dictionary, Ideology is a set of ideas that an economic or political system like Maxist. And It is a set of beliefs, especially one held by a particular group, that influences the way people behave. I think ideology is generally used for social integration, developing history, and making people invovle in politics .Many ideologies are in our life, and representive ideology is social democracy.



2. How does it affect media? &  3. Two examples

 ->  Actually, ideology affects media so much. Media can change the fact for its ideology and makes people think in the same way. For example, communism in North korea tells people that it is necessary and gap of poverty by democracy makes people into turmoil.  Well, if you were a North korean, you would just get biased news. Of course, you couldn't watch any other news of overseas countries. Every program shows how GREAT Kim jung il is and obey him is natural. So these things infuse communist ideas to people! They justify their fault like nuclear bomb or threatening the World, and said "everything happens for setting up paradise under Kim jung il. It was unescapable."

    This is a North korea news which indicates their stance about attack South korea ship, a.k.a "Yeonpyongdo attack". The news reader said "South Korea attacked our army first, So we just reacted. We are innocent." But actually, there's so many evidences of preemptive attack from N.Korea. But they never admit their fault and put the blame on S.Korea. So N.Koreans who watch this news, their dislikes for S.Korea is going to be gradually growing worse. The media hides the fact by using characteristic of communism, exclusive world.

  And they draw hostile poster toward America. Because they are communists and America is based on democracy. N.korea has extreme communism.


 

  Another example is Nazism. The book, <Ism ; philosophy and politics> by Min yong Park explains Nazism is a good example of how ideology affected media and made people stir up. After W.W. I, Germans suffered humiliations because they complete defeated. So Hitler with Nazis (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. In English: National Socialist German Workers' Party) used all kinds of media such as radio, poster, newspaper and so on.

  This is a Hitler's speech. Actually, many people who attended his speech or read a article about it were really impressed and wanted to join Nazi. So Nazi had many supporters and can got more bigger.

  And  Nazi made posters and article about fascism. Of course it affected many Germans so they participated W.W.2.  They insisted German is vastly superior, therefore no one won't against them (Ethnocentrism). Also they spreaded anti-Semitism (Antisemitismus). Because Nazism represents antidemocracy, illiberalism, anti-capitalist ideas. So these thing made people to admitted Jewish abuse. Eventually, these things brought about holocaust.

Mid-term project :)

3. Watch this short film (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR1W03wYQco ) How many narratives are presented within the film? How does the narrative about America undermine positive representations of globalization as a force for freedom and democracy?

   To be honest, I've never raised question about American imperialism. Why do I have to study English? Why dollars can be used in every country? Why the United States can intervene every goverment in the world? Those things have been tacitly admitted for a long time, and the U. S has taken the main role in the various aspects such as politics, economy, and culture as a global leader. In other words, They have a great influence with the world as a 21c empire.

   But this 8-minute video shows shocking truth about America, the land of freedom and opportunity. They don't act like righteous world police as I known. They fabricate the fact, force the press, and distort the history for their interest. To be honest, I didn't know the history about America at all. But 9 narratives of this clip provides an  information and makes me critical of the states. That is, Wounded Knee masacre, War with Mexico, Cuban Revolution, War in Iraq and Afganistan, The Philippines war, Dropping bomb on Japan, Vietnam war, Korean war and The world war. These historical events represent the truth of American imperialism. Also these books, <A Young People's History of the United States> and <Declarations of Independence> by Howard Zinn, <Dollar Crisis> by Richard Duncan were really helped to understand American history more. By the way, this video was based on the story of Howard Zinn(1922~2010) who worked for American society as a professor and activist after served in the army as a pilot during WWII.

   In <A Young People's History of the United States>, Howard said "The beginning of American imperialism is interference in the domestic affairs of another country by President Franklin D. Roosevelt since late 19th century." But I disagree with it. I think the beginning of American imperialism is deportation of American Indian. It had been started since the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, and it is the history of conquest and murder. The conquerors plundered the land, killed natives, hustled into barren land (trail of tears). The typical example is Wounded Knee massacre, a. k. a 'Ethnic cleansing'. But American history book is rationalizing this violent behaviour such as a superhero fantasies up to this day.

 

   American yelled "Go west!" to find more bigger land, finally they clashed with Mexico so they started the war to steal Mexican territory. They said, territorial expansion and developing national power is benefit for human, and that is america's destiny a. k. a "Manifest destiny". They insisted the States was chosen by God, so they justified expansionism of America and plunderage.

   

    Cuban Revolution is a good example to show American ambition. Cuba which was a colony of Spain tried to reform social problem. So many Cuban soldiers for national independence were up in arms against Spain. America was embarrassed because they invested a lot of money for Cuban agriculture, therefore they decided to fight with spain. But they needed a excuse to start a war. So the States excited public opinion about supporting the war by using the press.

     And this is the most famous article to lead the war. It is about body search between one American woman and Spanish crews. Actually, the crew made a search for secret document, but the U. S. exaggerated the fact like she went through a shameful incident. So it made people angry and agree with the war. Decisively, destruction of the Maine by Spain America finally dislodged them, and won the war. (The incident was revealed to have been American fabrication.) But cuba didn't have any right for surrender after the war, and they were going to be protectorate of America. How can we explain this situation instead of exhaustive plan of America? Ostensible reason is war for Cuba to protect them, but infact they participated the war because of their benefit.

    The philippines war, too. They made an agreement with Spain about management on The Philippines. America thought managing the Philippines is going to be a foothold to China. President McKinley alleged Filipino army launched a pre-emptive strike, so America-Philippines war was held. But actually it was quite the reverse. America attacked them first!  And This war was a dirty racism to conquer colored races, and it was pretty different from their slogan-globalization with every races-. And they described that making Filipino civilized and Christianized is the best way to protect their culture, but I couldn't help laughing when I read that part. What is the difference between making Filipino civilized in the early 20th Century and making Iraqi democratized now?

   Since the Iraq war, U. S army has tried to replace "Dangerous and Absurd" Islam to "Safe and Democratic" Christian. And they were represented themselves as a savor. but I think it is so strange. Is it really necessary to change their religion and culture because they think it's DANGEROUS? It has been developed more than 2000 years with its culture and there's no answer  "Right Religion and Right Culture." But the States makes answer and says "if you are diffent from us, it is dangerous and we gonna fight you to protect the world!"

    According to Prof. Ben's lecture, terrorist who has religeous teandancy in 1960s was zero, and in 1980s was only 2 of 64. But the United States Government and media describes Islam threatens America, and the World. They show horrible Muslim like suicide bomber, But, to me, U. S is much more scary. They pretend to "Excellent Empire" with democracy and freedom, but actually they fabricating facts if necessary and distort the history.

    They bombed Afghanistan and Iraq after 911 terror. But they pushed ahead and killed unarmed civilians, not military objectives. And the war left them with indelible scars. They killed over 1000 innocent people, but news NEVER show how they destroyed them. Just represent how scary muslim is so they can elicited public outrage.

   

   And they are afraid of another country which has same power. So many countries were used in Cold war. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was to threaten The Soviet Union. And In vietnam war, American ship was hit and sunk by themselves to stop the communism. And also, In 1950 Korean war, President Truman send U. S army without declaration.

   America insists war is instinct of human. But Howard Zinn from <Declarations of Independence> said " if they going to support their opinion, the war would have broken out always and not just a few nations, all of the world would have participated it. So it doesn't make any sense. " I 100% agree with his opinion. I think that words are just be used as a justification of war and they don't admit their fault behind the excuse "human instinct". Well, while solve this project, I searched a lot and read some books so I understood the history of America well. Also I saw some countries groaned in pain under the American Imperialism. To me, America was just "Advanced country" and "Top of the world". But now, I know the truth to how did they get the crown. So I'm going to be more critical when I watch the fact and I watched some clips about young soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq against U.S army. So I realized the fact that violence creates violence and I prayed for world peace.

4th assignment! :)

I read this article http://thegrandnarrative.com/2010/02/25/wondergirls-lolita-sexy/ and I 100% agree. As time goes by, more and more young girl groups are going to be used as a man's products. In the Korean music society,  one of the fastest growing concepts is LOLITA. Many young girls debut and they wear adult's dress so it arouses men sexual  desire. Actually, this concept has been found in Japanese idol easily for a long time. They sing a love song even if they don't know what love is, wear clothing that is too revealing. So earn money from men like their uncle. I think this is kind of sexual objectification.

The problem is, this phenomenon is happening in Korea NOW! This group is the youngest girl group in K-pop industry, called GP BASIC. The average age of these girls is 15, and wear short pants and over the knees length stocking. Also, girl next to this paragraph is just 11 years old. She is a rapper and she raps this lyrics. "everybody listen back up don't touch my toy (game over now) come on". How surprise it is!!!

This girl group is called T-ara, and they wear lingerie, net stockings even if most of members are teenagers. The song like "You make me excited, you make me blushed like first time." Of course, it is a double entendre and members sing a song really submissively. Also, they  look not only young, but hot in shape . So people who watch this stage, they usually feel little strange and eroticization, so they remember them easily, finally they going to  perchase their CDs, or DVDs. So Lolita movement is usually used to promote new singers.

And This clip is a music video of Girls Generation which is the most popular girl group in Korea. The title is "Genie". Well, this video was embroiled in controversy when it was released for many reasons. First, all girls in the music video wear hot pants with marine look and show off the beauty of leg lines. As shown by their group name "Girs Generation", they were just girls at that time. Above all, the lyrics in the song is stimulating. "Tell me your fantasy, I'll attend to your wishes. Tell me everything you want, I'll give it to you.". Well, on the surface it is just a girl's love song, but the clothes look too gay for them of their age and the atmosphere-boundary between girl and woman- make audience strange imagine.

This scene is a capture of another music video named "OH!" of same artist. As you see, they show their body. Do you think this is necessary to express their music? I don't think so.  It is quiet intentional . Cheerleading uniform, pony tail,  hugging rugby hat... These show that one innocent girl who loves rugby player with hot body, and make men excited. So they spend more and more money for young girls naturally.  That's what their entertainment want.