Minerva: The Clash Between Korea's Online and Offline Cultures

Choe, Sang Hun had a very thoughtful column the other day in the New York Times.  It dealt with the case of Minerva, the online alias used by Park Dae-sung who attracted a cult-like following over a period of several months last year with his postings about the economy on one of Korea's popular web portals.  Minerva quickly became famous based on predictions like the fall of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the Korean won.  When Mr. Park was arrested last January, it turned out that he was 31 and jobless, had attended a two-year college and had never even invested in the stock market.  One of his crimes, according to prosecutors, was to state that the Korean government had barred banks and major companies from buying American dollars in a desperate attempt to check the fall of the won.

As Choe, Sang Hun correctly notes, the case of Minerva highlights the contrast between Korea's offline Confucian culture in which seniority and heirarchy rule, and the anonymity of cyberspace which allows people to flout decorum.  Indeed, some officials see the internet as a hotbed of anti-government activity and slander.  Many who participated in the anti-beef import protests in the summer of 2008 which paralyzed the Lee Myung Bak government, were responding to online rumors rather than real events.

On April 20 Park was acquitted by the courts, but the manner in which he has been vilified helps to show the depth of the gulf between South Korea's offline and online cultures.  According to the column, In some of his 280 postings, Mr. Park lied about his age and background (once indicating he had worked on Wall Street), helping to create the myth about him. He apologized for using obscenities against President Lee, but he argued that the liberties he took in constructing his online identity were “part of the emerging Internet culture and should not be judged by offline norms.”"

The case of Minerva helps to illuminate the political and cultural stresses and strains that accompany rapid changes in a nation's media environment and its transition to an information society.  This column is one starting point for understanding some of these changes.

BBC Report: Chinese Melamine Scandal Widens

The BBC reports today that the "melamine scandal" has widened. As an American who has lived and worked in South Korea for the past twelve years, I feel obligated to comment on this. Why? Of course, it is because of the "Mad Cow Disease Scandal" that gripped South Korea for two months or more, bringing nightly candlelight vigils and almost paralyzing government.  Anyone reading the mainstream press or postings on Korean internet portals would conclude that "Mad Cow Disease" posed an imminent threat to Korean public health.  That widespread belief is what brought forth weeks of candlelight vigils. Although the health threat posed to Korea by the melamine scandal is far larger than that of the "Mad Cow Disease" scandal, there have as yet been no candlelight vigils or demonstrations about melamine.
Read the BBC report and think about this issue for a moment.  The BBC reported that, according to the state media in China, the toxic chemical melamine is probably being routinely added to Chinese animal feed. The "Mad Cow Disease" candlelight vigils here in Korea were spurred by inaccurate reporting and rumors. The "Melamine scandal" on the other hand, is based on facts. This raises the question of whether the Korean public really cares about health standards.  If so, there should be nationwide candlelight vigils!