My previous post discussed the methodology of my auto ethnographic study and the topic of North Korea.

Growing up and during my late teens I watched lots of documentaries on YouTube and streaming websites such as Netflix and I was always drawn to the experiences of others in another country or situation I haven’t seen myself in. This led me into the realm of Asian culture and as my interested heightened I eventually found myself searching for documentaries on North Korea although my experience never went further than this.

As mentioned in my last post my personal opinion was heavily influenced by what I had seen in the media and often the documentaries would challenge this. I was almost confused about the country and the circumstances that have arisen with the US and military action. In my last post I talked about the new articles that I had seen online and how they all involved someone negative or were North Korea going ‘against’ the US and western societies. This made me feel slightly disheartened as I had watched how cut off the people who lived in north Korea were from the rest of the world and how we or western media grouped the country into one with negative impressions when i the north Korean government, western media and governments that depict and influence the public perception with little regard for the individuals living in such extreme poverty and harsh circumstances.

Drawing from Ellis et al (2011) “When researchers do ethnography, they study a culture’s relational practices, common values and beliefs, and shared experiences for the purpose of helping insiders (cultural members) and outsiders (cultural strangers) better understand the culture (MASO, 2001)”

I believe that the public have a shared experience when reading and views news pieces about North Korea. The news stories talked about in my last post are almost meant to scare the public.

“North Koreas new warheads could penetrate missile shield, japan says”.

“North Korea’s Kim Jong-un oversaw test of ‘super large multiple rocket launcher”

“North Korea Launches 2 Missiles, it’s 7th weapons test in a month”

In my personal experience I think that there is a lot more to learn from North Korea and its negative public perceptions. I as a viewer have been influenced by each news story listened to or read and each documentary watched, this indirectly and directly alters my perceptions on the country and the people.

References

Nytimes.com. (2019). North Korea. [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/north-korea [Accessed 1 Sep. 2019].

the Guardian. (2019). North Korea | World news | The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/north-korea [Accessed 1 Sep. 2019]

Ellis, C., Adams, T.E., and Bochner, A.P. (2011) ‘Autoethnography: An Overview‘, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12:1. Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095