15 ms·

A rare look into North Korea's famed Propaganda School

135 points by davidchua 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
espeed 16y ago
Be careful not to assume from this video that propaganda primarily only happens in far-off dictatorships like North Korea. Propaganda is more useful in a democratic society because as Chomsky says, "If you don't behave in a dictatorship, they'll just bludgeon you over the head." To control the population in democratic societies, governments and lobbyists use propaganda to control the masses through an "artificially created public sentiment" (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D8143FE633A25755C0A9609C946296D6CF http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D8143FE...). Modern propaganda originated during World War I under Woodrow Wilson. Americans were isolationists and didn't want any part of the war; however, the US government wanted to enter the war so it created the Creel Commission (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Information) to influence public opinion towards entering the war. The Creel Commission was so effective that it was able to turn Americans from isolationists into German-hating warmongers in only 6 months. The Creel Commission operated for 2 years, and it is where the modern PR industry emerged from. But this was almost 100 years ago, and the government, lobbyists, and PR agencies have been perfecting it ever since. We are the propaganda experts, not North Korea. A few weeks ago, I formed an open-source project called "The Propaganda Project" (http://www.propagandaproject.org/ http://www.propagandaproject.org/) to build a Web service that will enable people to identify and catalog instances of propaganda techniques (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques) used in mass media to effectively pull back the curtain so that it loses its persuasive effect. For example, let's take the three 60-minute cable news programs competing at 5 PM -- Glenn Beck (Fox News), Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (CNN), and Hardball with Chris Matthews Hardball (MSNBC). The Web service will make it easy for people to identify and catalog instances of propaganda techniques used during each episode. Someone might see and tag in online video that Glenn Beck used a "glittering generality" at 1 min and 12 seconds into the show and an "appeal to fear" at 1 min 33 seconds. Someone else might see that Chris Matthews used a "red herring" at 1 min 20 seconds and Wolf Blitzer used a "quote out of context" at 1 min 40 seconds. My premise is that there is a finite number of shows and an abundance of politically-passionate people that love pointing out the other-side's propaganda. Over the course of an hour-long program, people might be able to identify 30 or more instances of propaganda techniques used in each program. If the service becomes popular, and people use it to check to see if their favorite shows are using propaganda or if the other-side is, the networks won't want to be known as the networks with the most propagandist shows so they will force the shows' producers to reduce the ratio of propaganda per episode. This is a brand new project that's just getting off the ground so please give me your feedback, and let me know if you want to help.
- berntb 16y ago
  There obviously are an incredible number of lobbyists and interest groups that try to influence political opinion -- in all countries. It is obviously big business. Also, everyone tries to play this game, if they want to make a difference for what they want to achieve. But you read as something from a conspiracy theorist. If you e.g. analyze some random TV program about cooking, you can infer a multitude of hidden meanings just from the spices they use! I personally have more hope for insights from internal documents published on WikiLeaks, instead. But, well, good luck. The world needs competent alternative viewpoints.
  - espeed 16y ago
    MIT professor Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman (Wharton School) presented the "Propaganda Model" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model) in their 1988 book, "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Poli...). In their research they describe the dynamics between the government, corporations, and the media. As they show, it's not so much a conspiracy, but instead it's part of the political economy.
    - berntb 16y ago
      My point was rather that analyzing articles looking for conspiracies will find them everywhere. And I acknowledged that the ideas of lobbying/influencing is universal. (Chomsky is an activist/idealist. You should apply salt to him, too...)
      - espeed 16y ago
        I am not suggesting that we analyze articles looking for conspiracies. I am suggesting that we look for well-defined techniques, the mechanisms used, regardless of the messages' meanings.
        16y ago
Entlin 16y ago
24 million people, all brainwashed. There will be a long time before this country sees a popular uprising like Tunisia and Egypt have.
- daliusd 16y ago
  I'm pretty sure they are not brainwashed that much. There are people who are like those young actors. But that engineer (father of actress) understands situation better: there is reason why he does not want his daughter to be actress. Actually looks at reaction of parents when actress told the story how she became actress. They are trying to hide their eyes like they could betray them. This video alone is enough to understand what price she might pay sometime.
  - stcredzero 16y ago
    Such attitudes may predate the communists. Even in my mother's generation, entertainers carried a stigma with them. Much like in ancient times in the West, entertainers of many kinds were considered the lowest of the low. My mother was born to parents who were living in what is now North Korea. My grandfather was a doctor and a successful entrepreneur. Needless to say, the communists didn't have a very sunny view of him, and the family had to be quickly moved south. Both my mother and my father had some inclinations towards the performing arts and were actively discouraged from this. In the case of females, yes, a fear of "dishonor" was involved. Since many men of power in the North Korean regime are effectively above the law, such fear is perhaps not unwarranted. (Is it really much different than our society?)
  - davidchua 16y ago
    I thought this video was excellent because of just that. The subjects' reactions and the little nuances tell so much. I find it fascinating that the NKorean censors gave so much freedom to the film crew and the students, to showcase their life. For example, I thought it was really cute to see the male and female protaganist quite close to one another. Could they be dating? Or is it all just acting? The varied emotions seen in this documentary is a refreshing break from all the straight-face, cautious, camera-shy interviewees from the other films by foreign crews in NKorea.
kulpreet 16y ago
Why are all these North Korea articles/videos always so interesting to us? Every time one of them is posted I find myself glued to the computer screen and then looking up more information on Wikipedia for hours. I must have seen like 10 documentaries on it by now, but it's interesting every time.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- IsaacL 16y ago
  It's one of the few closed societies left on Earth. I think it's natural to be fascinated knowing that there's a country of millions of people, but it's almost impossible to know anything more. I find it fascinating wondering what everyday life must be like for people in the regime. North Korea has engineering schools and computing systems - so, they must have hackers. I wonder which programming language best embodies the Juche spirit? Do they use standard software engineering techniques or is this considered Western capitalist propaganda?
  - va_coder 16y ago
    >>I wonder which programming language best embodies the Juche spirit? COBOL
    - kabdib 16y ago
      JCL It is, after all, Job Control Language.
zephjc 16y ago
It's almost funny, I guess in a sad way, to watch this and realize that every person you see in the film is planted (including those in the backgrounds), the young actors carefully picked, every shot is framed to make NK not seem like the giant hole it actually is. It's no more real than a hollywood production.
lallysingh 16y ago
On a fairly unrelated note, I really wish Al Jazeera was watchable in the states as a proper news channel. I'd prefer to watch it than streaming web video -- I might actually watch TV news again! But I think it'd bring some well-needed balance to what else we see on the news (even including BBC).
- hnu 16y ago
  I've read every comment just to find somebody who mentions this. I'm not in the US (Actually in north Africa), so I watch Aljazeera whenever I want. Why the Americans are not trying to address the question of why they're missing out on such delicious journalism is a fact that I cannot fathom.
johnl87 16y ago
This video kind of makes you wonder if people are really saying these things cause they mean it or if they are just being watched and have to act a certain way to reap the benefits of being a firm party supporter. Benefits like living in Pyongyang and actually having food and shelter. I feel that it's probably the latter in like 99% of cases. My father in communist Poland wasn't able to do the research he wanted at his university at Poland cause he wasn't in the party. He cursed out his professor and called him a communist and got kicked out and had to transfer schools. Calling someone out as a communist was a slur against them because those reaping in party benefits were seen as betraying their own country. I feel like it's a similar case in NKorea. You have to act that way cause your neighbors will tell the authorities about any signs of disloyalty and the family will disappear (into a re-education camp.) I think that's why these people on the videos when they are interviewed really chose their words carefully and make anything they say an attempt to glorify the dear leader. Their eyes give them away though. I feel like everyone is aware of it -- the conditions in their country vs the west, but they live in fear of expressing their own opinions so they just shut up and go about their lives.
- chrischen 16y ago
  I did not see that in their eyes. These people are privileged, as the video said, so they're probably content with their status.
icegreentea 16y ago
The segment during the dance class was... weird. With the exception of the mention of the great leader, it's almost completely identical to something you'll see over here. Right down to "I need to go on a diet".
radicaldreamer 16y ago
This video's available in 720p on Al Jazeera's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmzPsJfkWjA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmzPsJfkWjA

135 points by davidchua 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

Be careful not to assume from this video that propaganda primarily only happens in far-off dictatorships like North Korea. Propaganda is more useful in a democratic society because as Chomsky says, "If you don't behave in a dictatorship, they'll just bludgeon you over the head." To control the population in democratic societies, governments and lobbyists use propaganda to control the masses through an "artificially created public sentiment" (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D8143FE633A25755C0A9609C946296D6CF http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E5D8143FE...). Modern propaganda originated during World War I under Woodrow Wilson. Americans were isolationists and didn't want any part of the war; however, the US government wanted to enter the war so it created the Creel Commission (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Information) to influence public opinion towards entering the war. The Creel Commission was so effective that it was able to turn Americans from isolationists into German-hating warmongers in only 6 months. The Creel Commission operated for 2 years, and it is where the modern PR industry emerged from. But this was almost 100 years ago, and the government, lobbyists, and PR agencies have been perfecting it ever since. We are the propaganda experts, not North Korea. A few weeks ago, I formed an open-source project called "The Propaganda Project" (http://www.propagandaproject.org/ http://www.propagandaproject.org/) to build a Web service that will enable people to identify and catalog instances of propaganda techniques (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques) used in mass media to effectively pull back the curtain so that it loses its persuasive effect. For example, let's take the three 60-minute cable news programs competing at 5 PM -- Glenn Beck (Fox News), Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (CNN), and Hardball with Chris Matthews Hardball (MSNBC). The Web service will make it easy for people to identify and catalog instances of propaganda techniques used during each episode. Someone might see and tag in online video that Glenn Beck used a "glittering generality" at 1 min and 12 seconds into the show and an "appeal to fear" at 1 min 33 seconds. Someone else might see that Chris Matthews used a "red herring" at 1 min 20 seconds and Wolf Blitzer used a "quote out of context" at 1 min 40 seconds. My premise is that there is a finite number of shows and an abundance of politically-passionate people that love pointing out the other-side's propaganda. Over the course of an hour-long program, people might be able to identify 30 or more instances of propaganda techniques used in each program. If the service becomes popular, and people use it to check to see if their favorite shows are using propaganda or if the other-side is, the networks won't want to be known as the networks with the most propagandist shows so they will force the shows' producers to reduce the ratio of propaganda per episode. This is a brand new project that's just getting off the ground so please give me your feedback, and let me know if you want to help.

berntb 16y ago
There obviously are an incredible number of lobbyists and interest groups that try to influence political opinion -- in all countries. It is obviously big business. Also, everyone tries to play this game, if they want to make a difference for what they want to achieve. But you read as something from a conspiracy theorist. If you e.g. analyze some random TV program about cooking, you can infer a multitude of hidden meanings just from the spices they use! I personally have more hope for insights from internal documents published on WikiLeaks, instead. But, well, good luck. The world needs competent alternative viewpoints.
- espeed 16y ago
  MIT professor Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman (Wharton School) presented the "Propaganda Model" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model) in their 1988 book, "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Poli...). In their research they describe the dynamics between the government, corporations, and the media. As they show, it's not so much a conspiracy, but instead it's part of the political economy.
  - berntb 16y ago
    My point was rather that analyzing articles looking for conspiracies will find them everywhere. And I acknowledged that the ideas of lobbying/influencing is universal. (Chomsky is an activist/idealist. You should apply salt to him, too...)
    - espeed 16y ago
      I am not suggesting that we analyze articles looking for conspiracies. I am suggesting that we look for well-defined techniques, the mechanisms used, regardless of the messages' meanings.
      - 16y ago

Entlin 16y ago

24 million people, all brainwashed. There will be a long time before this country sees a popular uprising like Tunisia and Egypt have.

daliusd 16y ago
I'm pretty sure they are not brainwashed that much. There are people who are like those young actors. But that engineer (father of actress) understands situation better: there is reason why he does not want his daughter to be actress. Actually looks at reaction of parents when actress told the story how she became actress. They are trying to hide their eyes like they could betray them. This video alone is enough to understand what price she might pay sometime.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  Such attitudes may predate the communists. Even in my mother's generation, entertainers carried a stigma with them. Much like in ancient times in the West, entertainers of many kinds were considered the lowest of the low. My mother was born to parents who were living in what is now North Korea. My grandfather was a doctor and a successful entrepreneur. Needless to say, the communists didn't have a very sunny view of him, and the family had to be quickly moved south. Both my mother and my father had some inclinations towards the performing arts and were actively discouraged from this. In the case of females, yes, a fear of "dishonor" was involved. Since many men of power in the North Korean regime are effectively above the law, such fear is perhaps not unwarranted. (Is it really much different than our society?)
- davidchua 16y ago
  I thought this video was excellent because of just that. The subjects' reactions and the little nuances tell so much. I find it fascinating that the NKorean censors gave so much freedom to the film crew and the students, to showcase their life. For example, I thought it was really cute to see the male and female protaganist quite close to one another. Could they be dating? Or is it all just acting? The varied emotions seen in this documentary is a refreshing break from all the straight-face, cautious, camera-shy interviewees from the other films by foreign crews in NKorea.

kulpreet 16y ago

Why are all these North Korea articles/videos always so interesting to us? Every time one of them is posted I find myself glued to the computer screen and then looking up more information on Wikipedia for hours. I must have seen like 10 documentaries on it by now, but it's interesting every time.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
IsaacL 16y ago
It's one of the few closed societies left on Earth. I think it's natural to be fascinated knowing that there's a country of millions of people, but it's almost impossible to know anything more. I find it fascinating wondering what everyday life must be like for people in the regime. North Korea has engineering schools and computing systems - so, they must have hackers. I wonder which programming language best embodies the Juche spirit? Do they use standard software engineering techniques or is this considered Western capitalist propaganda?
- va_coder 16y ago
  >>I wonder which programming language best embodies the Juche spirit? COBOL
  - kabdib 16y ago
    JCL It is, after all, Job Control Language.

zephjc 16y ago

It's almost funny, I guess in a sad way, to watch this and realize that every person you see in the film is planted (including those in the backgrounds), the young actors carefully picked, every shot is framed to make NK not seem like the giant hole it actually is. It's no more real than a hollywood production.

lallysingh 16y ago

On a fairly unrelated note, I really wish Al Jazeera was watchable in the states as a proper news channel. I'd prefer to watch it than streaming web video -- I might actually watch TV news again! But I think it'd bring some well-needed balance to what else we see on the news (even including BBC).

hnu 16y ago
I've read every comment just to find somebody who mentions this. I'm not in the US (Actually in north Africa), so I watch Aljazeera whenever I want. Why the Americans are not trying to address the question of why they're missing out on such delicious journalism is a fact that I cannot fathom.

johnl87 16y ago

This video kind of makes you wonder if people are really saying these things cause they mean it or if they are just being watched and have to act a certain way to reap the benefits of being a firm party supporter. Benefits like living in Pyongyang and actually having food and shelter. I feel that it's probably the latter in like 99% of cases. My father in communist Poland wasn't able to do the research he wanted at his university at Poland cause he wasn't in the party. He cursed out his professor and called him a communist and got kicked out and had to transfer schools. Calling someone out as a communist was a slur against them because those reaping in party benefits were seen as betraying their own country. I feel like it's a similar case in NKorea. You have to act that way cause your neighbors will tell the authorities about any signs of disloyalty and the family will disappear (into a re-education camp.) I think that's why these people on the videos when they are interviewed really chose their words carefully and make anything they say an attempt to glorify the dear leader. Their eyes give them away though. I feel like everyone is aware of it -- the conditions in their country vs the west, but they live in fear of expressing their own opinions so they just shut up and go about their lives.

chrischen 16y ago
I did not see that in their eyes. These people are privileged, as the video said, so they're probably content with their status.

icegreentea 16y ago

The segment during the dance class was... weird. With the exception of the mention of the great leader, it's almost completely identical to something you'll see over here. Right down to "I need to go on a diet".

radicaldreamer 16y ago

This video's available in 720p on Al Jazeera's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmzPsJfkWjA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmzPsJfkWjA