“[North Korea] has changed a lot. The level of consciousness has increased, about everything from what we eat to what we think….Media from outside is definitely causing things to change.”
-26-year-old female from Pyongyang who left North Korea in January 2010, quoted in “A Quiet Opening”
InterMedia has released “A quiet opening: North Koreans in a changing media environment”, a groundbreaking report which shows that North Koreans can access far more news and information from abroad than commonly assumed, posing a challenge to the state’s control over what its citizens see, hear, know – and believe.
View the Webcast Video from the Quite Opening Launch on AudienceScapes
While there is no indication that new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to loosen official state control of media and information, the reach of unsanctioned foreign content is expanding nonetheless and providing alternatives to domestic propaganda messages.
The report is based on research among refugees, travelers and d
efectors who recently left North Korea, providing a rare glimpse on their lives when they were in their home country. Below is a quote in the report from one North Korean:
“I think now, almost all citizens listen to or watch [foreign media]. You can tell when you talk to them…they will use [South] Korean words. In North Korea there is no such phrase as ‘no doubt.’ When they use a word like that, you think, ‘that person watches [foreign media] too.‘”
– 45-year-old female from Hamkyongnamdo who left North Korea in May 2010