5 ms·

A Distant Reading of the Korean Central News Agency’s Headlines

46 points by benbreen 10y ago

graeme 10y ago
I remember finding KCNA back in high school. Indeed very dull headlines. "NK Ambassador to obscure country presented with flowers" sort of thing. Had wondered what happened to it. An interesting tidbit from this article is that it's now inaccessible outside Japan. I was able to confirm access by using a VPN. Here's the URL: http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
- eternalban 10y ago
  https://kcnawatch.co/newstream/269703/minju-joson-points-out-root-cause-of-escalated-tension-in-northeast-asia/ https://kcnawatch.co/newstream/269703/minju-joson-points-out... Why is the regional situation in Northeast Asia being steadily aggravated? The reason is the scramble for hegemony among powers. Antagonism between China and the U.S. is the main reason of the aggravated regional tension. Doesn't sound like fluff to me. Just a different point of view. Also very interesting how it puts US and China on the same footing [as] hegemonic powers.
  - resfirestar 10y ago
    They often republish North Korean analysis of an issue from a newspaper, but you have to wade through tens of "Kim Jong Un does thing", "Congratulations [sent to|received from] president of obscure nation", and "Someone celebrating the life of [Kim Jong Il|Kim Il Sung] headlines to find it. Many of the more substantive pieces are at http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_01_02&iMenuID=3 http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_01_02&i.... But websites like NK News exist for those interested in the region, pulling in information from these unreliable sites, independent sources inside NK, and western media.
- pp19dd 10y ago
  As far as news agencies go, it never really reached any significant audience: http://pp19dd.com/2013/11/north-korean-central-news-agency-kcna-server-logs-were-protected-by-client-side-javascript/ http://pp19dd.com/2013/11/north-korean-central-news-agency-k... I corresponded with the KCNA watch guy after my release, and he said it explained a few things. Namely, why they were able to pick off all his bots watching the site and block them. As in, his bot traffic was far higher than organic traffic and it stood way out.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
eternalban 10y ago
https://kcnawatch.co/ https://kcnawatch.co/
mdturnerphys 10y ago
Glad to see that @DPRK_News [0] got a mention. See [1] for more context. [0] https://twitter.com/DPRK_News https://twitter.com/DPRK_News [1] https://www.popehat.com/2014/12/20/the-curious-case-of-the-t-v-attorney-and-twitter/ https://www.popehat.com/2014/12/20/the-curious-case-of-the-t...
rdtsc 10y ago
> The entire Chongryon-hosted enterprise thus seems almost completely devoid of informational and propaganda value today, if it ever had any; it is a classic example of “propaganda without readers.” [...] we can try to make sense of KCNA stories [...] simply as the nearly automatic manifestation of the North Korean state’s own commitments to itself North Korean propaganda is so obvious and so stupid by our standards that it seems ridiculous anyone would listen to it, like the article points. But there is something there for us to learn as well about our propaganda. which is less obvious. By now I think nobody can pretend that mass media is unbiased. I think before elections, for some channels one could squint and give them a benefit of the doubt at least. The media served as this persuasion machine for many years (unlike the North Korean site mentioned here). It was never unbiased, but we one could almost pretend it was. However then something interesting happened when the curtain was lifted too much. It simply became too obvious and impossible to ignore. They went and started unilaterally backing only one candidate in the elections, hired operatives from their party, anchors donated large sums of money to that candidate, passed debate notes back and forth, etc. As a result even traditional large media empires found themselves regarded pretty much as the North Korean propaganda by the majority of the population. You'd think they realize and stop. But they didn't and I claim they won't. That is what is fascinating, they keep marching on further and further. In a sense just like this site, the people writing there keep pumping those headlines even though the world is laughing at them. You'd think for example Chris Cuomo from CNN would sort of have this apology and say the whole "documents are illegal for you to read, but is different for the media, come to use for interpretation" was a dumb thing to say and how it made the whole channel look silly and so on. But he didn't and never will. And it makes more sense in the light of this article, this kind of propaganda is largely literature aimed not at persuasion but at reassurance of those who already believe and mostly also as literature and signaling among the media creators themselves. What the outside world thinks, doesn't matter anymore.
- resfirestar 10y ago
  You're missing a big difference between biased news and authoritarian propaganda: independence from the government itself. This has all sorts of consequences, but one is the type of stories that can appear. North Korea's news is an extreme example of being laser-focused on inane activities of the leader and routine diplomacy, to the complete exclusion of anything about the daily life of civilians. Many people trust the political reporting on broadcast news about as much as they trust KCNA's take on US politics, but non-Alex Jones fans don't think they're covering it up when bad things happen, or that they pull punches on generally apolitical incidents of public or corporate malfeasance. Look at the headlines this week: lots of stuff about the Oroville Dam. In North Korea, public infrastructure issues like that would be completely blacked out to avoid embarrassing the government. My impression of the Chinese press is that it would be reported without criticizing officials for ignoring the dam's weaknesses. Even if people continue retreating into Facebook's bubbles for political news, non-political reporting by western mass media will continue to be widely read and trusted, while the purely political mission of authoritarian state media dooms it to the inanity of KCNA.
kalleboo 10y ago
With the uninteresting content and the site being blocked outside of Japan, I wonder if the point of the site is just to serve the North Korean loyalist schools in Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongryon#Korean_schools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongryon#Korean_schools
rdlecler1 10y ago
It could be maintained to send Korean spies encrypted messages.

46 points by benbreen 10y ago

I remember finding KCNA back in high school. Indeed very dull headlines. "NK Ambassador to obscure country presented with flowers" sort of thing. Had wondered what happened to it. An interesting tidbit from this article is that it's now inaccessible outside Japan. I was able to confirm access by using a VPN. Here's the URL: http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

eternalban 10y ago
https://kcnawatch.co/newstream/269703/minju-joson-points-out-root-cause-of-escalated-tension-in-northeast-asia/ https://kcnawatch.co/newstream/269703/minju-joson-points-out... Why is the regional situation in Northeast Asia being steadily aggravated? The reason is the scramble for hegemony among powers. Antagonism between China and the U.S. is the main reason of the aggravated regional tension. Doesn't sound like fluff to me. Just a different point of view. Also very interesting how it puts US and China on the same footing [as] hegemonic powers.
- resfirestar 10y ago
  They often republish North Korean analysis of an issue from a newspaper, but you have to wade through tens of "Kim Jong Un does thing", "Congratulations [sent to|received from] president of obscure nation", and "Someone celebrating the life of [Kim Jong Il|Kim Il Sung] headlines to find it. Many of the more substantive pieces are at http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_01_02&iMenuID=3 http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_01_02&i.... But websites like NK News exist for those interested in the region, pulling in information from these unreliable sites, independent sources inside NK, and western media.
pp19dd 10y ago
As far as news agencies go, it never really reached any significant audience: http://pp19dd.com/2013/11/north-korean-central-news-agency-kcna-server-logs-were-protected-by-client-side-javascript/ http://pp19dd.com/2013/11/north-korean-central-news-agency-k... I corresponded with the KCNA watch guy after my release, and he said it explained a few things. Namely, why they were able to pick off all his bots watching the site and block them. As in, his bot traffic was far higher than organic traffic and it stood way out.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

eternalban 10y ago

https://kcnawatch.co/ https://kcnawatch.co/

mdturnerphys 10y ago

Glad to see that @DPRK_News [0] got a mention. See [1] for more context. [0] https://twitter.com/DPRK_News https://twitter.com/DPRK_News [1] https://www.popehat.com/2014/12/20/the-curious-case-of-the-t-v-attorney-and-twitter/ https://www.popehat.com/2014/12/20/the-curious-case-of-the-t...

rdtsc 10y ago

> The entire Chongryon-hosted enterprise thus seems almost completely devoid of informational and propaganda value today, if it ever had any; it is a classic example of “propaganda without readers.” [...] we can try to make sense of KCNA stories [...] simply as the nearly automatic manifestation of the North Korean state’s own commitments to itself North Korean propaganda is so obvious and so stupid by our standards that it seems ridiculous anyone would listen to it, like the article points. But there is something there for us to learn as well about our propaganda. which is less obvious. By now I think nobody can pretend that mass media is unbiased. I think before elections, for some channels one could squint and give them a benefit of the doubt at least. The media served as this persuasion machine for many years (unlike the North Korean site mentioned here). It was never unbiased, but we one could almost pretend it was. However then something interesting happened when the curtain was lifted too much. It simply became too obvious and impossible to ignore. They went and started unilaterally backing only one candidate in the elections, hired operatives from their party, anchors donated large sums of money to that candidate, passed debate notes back and forth, etc. As a result even traditional large media empires found themselves regarded pretty much as the North Korean propaganda by the majority of the population. You'd think they realize and stop. But they didn't and I claim they won't. That is what is fascinating, they keep marching on further and further. In a sense just like this site, the people writing there keep pumping those headlines even though the world is laughing at them. You'd think for example Chris Cuomo from CNN would sort of have this apology and say the whole "documents are illegal for you to read, but is different for the media, come to use for interpretation" was a dumb thing to say and how it made the whole channel look silly and so on. But he didn't and never will. And it makes more sense in the light of this article, this kind of propaganda is largely literature aimed not at persuasion but at reassurance of those who already believe and mostly also as literature and signaling among the media creators themselves. What the outside world thinks, doesn't matter anymore.

resfirestar 10y ago
You're missing a big difference between biased news and authoritarian propaganda: independence from the government itself. This has all sorts of consequences, but one is the type of stories that can appear. North Korea's news is an extreme example of being laser-focused on inane activities of the leader and routine diplomacy, to the complete exclusion of anything about the daily life of civilians. Many people trust the political reporting on broadcast news about as much as they trust KCNA's take on US politics, but non-Alex Jones fans don't think they're covering it up when bad things happen, or that they pull punches on generally apolitical incidents of public or corporate malfeasance. Look at the headlines this week: lots of stuff about the Oroville Dam. In North Korea, public infrastructure issues like that would be completely blacked out to avoid embarrassing the government. My impression of the Chinese press is that it would be reported without criticizing officials for ignoring the dam's weaknesses. Even if people continue retreating into Facebook's bubbles for political news, non-political reporting by western mass media will continue to be widely read and trusted, while the purely political mission of authoritarian state media dooms it to the inanity of KCNA.

kalleboo 10y ago

With the uninteresting content and the site being blocked outside of Japan, I wonder if the point of the site is just to serve the North Korean loyalist schools in Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongryon#Korean_schools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongryon#Korean_schools

rdlecler1 10y ago

It could be maintained to send Korean spies encrypted messages.