North Korean Media
North Korea is a country infamous for their social and political landscape. The country is a dictatorship run by Kim Jong Un. They do not have elections, instead it is an authoritarian state, meaning everything is run through the government. The economy of the country is no exception. The government monitors every form of business and the money that comes along with it because the country is not capitalist. This type of economy is called a centralized economy because all the assets that the people get from the one centralized place in the country, the government. Socially this country is in a bit of turmoil. Due to the political state of the country the people don’t get much say in what socially occurs in their country and there have been numerous cases of gross social infractions on the countries part. Overall the government does not allow too much freedom to their civilians in any facet of day to day life. This also extends to media as well.
Authoritarian theory is a theory of global media. It is the oldest known theory of mass communication. It occurs in authoritarian countries and is when a government exerts direct control onto that country’s media. This leads media companies to not be permitted to spread anything that the government does not approve of. This usually includes anything that undermines their authority or challenges anything they do. They can shut down any form of media before itv releases and post their own media onto these broadcasts. Not only does this theory of media not allow for a lot of important information to spread but also it allows the government to spread propaganda at their whim. There are many cons of this theory of media as it does not allow for differing perspectives to be spread through the country and instead it indoctrinates the people of whatever country adopts this form of media. Regardless of whether these media companies are considered private or public they still are controlled by the hand of the government and the government gets the final call on any editing or getting rid of any piece of media that may spread. North Korea is definitely a country that has adopted this theory of media and uses it to its fullest effect.
North Korea is notoriously known for having authoritarian media. They do not let any form of media that they do not want out releasing to the public. This is in strong contrast to the United states. The United States has a plethora of media released every day that spreads information that undermines the American government. There is also a lot of anti-American media that circulates through this country on a daily basis. On the other hand there is no media in North Korea that would challenge the government or undermine it in any manner. This is because the government would not allow these things to be released, while the United States does not interfere in most media and only steps in at certain times. Now one thing they have in common is that both do spread propaganda through their media. There are plenty of American films that are meant to glorify the United States military and government as a whole, the first one coming to mind is Top gun. This is our government stepping into try and produce content that indoctrinates people in their own right. This is something both North Korea and the United States both do, however where it differs is the opposing side. While the United States allows for movies that will disagree with our government or go after the American , such as the Avatar movies, North Korea would never be allowed to have such films exist. The radio stations are no different as well. While America will have both pro and anti stations the north Korean radios will only be that of support.
In conclusion both the United States and North Korea have extremely different media throughout their country with North Korea adopting an authoritarian theory and the United States having a more social responsibility theory. Both have the reasons why they would be adopted but I feel as if they benefit different sides of a society. The Social responsibility theory allows for free press with some restrictions put on it to protect people. This theory tends to benefit the civilians more than anything. The authoritarian theory on the other hand certainly tends to benefit the government more as it protects the government while controlling the populace. While social responsibility theory has its pros and cons I don’t really see any pros for authoritarian theory. It seems to only be cons as it makes propaganda extremely easy to spread while shutting down any sort of fightback by the people.