Friday, May 09, 2008

CNN special on DPRK this weekend

Just saw a preview this morning of a CNN special on North Korea that’ll be broadcast this weekend. Be sure to check it out or at least set your DVR’s for it.
The following is from the CNN website:

“In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. CNN's Christiane Amanpour gives a rare glimpse of the secret society in the "Notes from Korea" airing Saturday and Sunday, 8 and 11 p.m. ET.”

Story

Christiane Amanpour was granted rare access by the North Korean government to cover the historic performance of the NY Philharmonic in Pyongyang. I found the primer on the website very interesting, and I’m definitely compelled to watch the show. Even on the plane ride to Pyongyang, passengers are given a small dose of the North Korean ideology

“We are informed over the speaker about our glass of water, ‘This drink is associated with the kind heart of the Great Leader Kim Jong Il.’”

Hmmm…sounds refreshing.

Amanpour’s first interactions with North Koreans immediately brought up our discussions on nationalism. From their view, the US is the source of all North Korean problems. This led me to think of Prof Larsen’s concept of Constructed, State-led nationalism. Essentially, the North Korean regime has been spreading this image of the US in order to draw nationalistic sentiments.

I do wonder how Amanpour will address the effects of the NYP’s performance. I remember from class that we agreed that it would have little effect, and I’m inclined to think that we were right.

At any rate, I’m sure it’ll be an informative show.

3 comments:

Justin-B형 said...

I think it was on before...ill watch it and see

Joo-Eun Kim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joo-Eun Kim said...

The show was interesting to watch but it was not perticularly insightful or new. The presenter Christiane Amanpour clearly did not know much about the country I think. In fact I do not think most viewers knew about North Korea either. She did a good job of promoting many of the old sterotypes of North Korea. It also seemed like she went a long way to demonstrate North Korea is not much of a threat to us or the United States.