Fake but looks real

South Korea will elect a new president on May 9, and 'fake news' has become a huge problem. Fabian Kretschmer reports from Seoul. A short online video has likely affected the final result of South Korea's current presidential election: the shaky film shows Ban Ki-moon visiting the grave of his ancestors. In Confucian South Korea, this is an important symbolic gesture – especially considering the fact that the parting UN secretary general was thought to be the only hope for the country's conservative camp, and in January was being touted as South Korea's next president. At that point, Ban was far ahead in opinion polls.

But in the video, he was seen breaking a very serious taboo: during the grave ritual he drank a glass of rice wine intended for his ancestors. Tens of thousands of internet users were appalled. The general consensus of the outcry: the career politician from New York had lost touch with his South Korean roots and was hence unacceptable as a political candidate.

Manipulated video

What most users did not know, however, was that the video was intentionally manipulated. Just days after the story exploded, Ban Ki-moon announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy. "My genuine patriotism and passion were damaged by rumors and fake news," said the 72-year-old at the press conference announcing his withdrawal.

Fake news is a relatively new term that has, nevertheless, caused a great deal of commotion in politics around the globe. High-tech South Korea is especially susceptible to the spread of digital falsehoods. It is one of the most comprehensively digitalized places on earth, and it has faster internet and more smart phones than almost any other country in the world.

The debate over fake news has become extremely heated in the wake of impeachment proceedings against former President Park Geun-hye, and in the run up to the hastily called new elections scheduled for May 9. Traditional media outlets have been quick to use drastic metaphors to describe this social problem. The left-leaning newspaper "Hankyoreh" recently wrote: "The creation and dissemination of fake news is little different from the use of lies in the Nazi propaganda that cast the German people into the horrors of war. A democracy cannot be maintained if the state allows Goebbels-like lies to be freely distributed."

Lack of trust in the media

But the problem with fake news is that it has flourished in the vacuum that South Korea's traditional media outlets themselves created. For years, those outlets have been accused of spreading lies. Journalists on both sides of the political divide are often insulted as "Giraegi," a combination of the words Gi-ja (journalist) and Se-rae-gi (garbage).

The drastic accusation is based upon the morally questionable standards maintained by the South Korean press. For instance, those who read the business sections of South Korean newspapers are exposed to countless instances of paid – but not declared – surreptitious advertising from Samsung and the like. Despite coming from dubious sources, political rumors are often peddled if they serve the ideological agenda of the newspaper that prints them. And the truthfulness of most articles on North Korea might be best determined with a coin toss.

According to a recent poll by the US market research company "Edelman," only 42 percent of South Korean internet users trust traditional media outlets such as newspapers, radio, and television. Five years ago that number was still at 58 percent. Since last summer, the deep ideological divide that has fractured South Korea has become more public than ever. While the Attorney General's office was investigating then President Park Geun-hye's role in a corruption scandal, supporters and opponents alike demonstrated each week in Seoul's city center. Both groups attacked journalists. And both sides leveled the same accusation: reporters were intentionally manipulating the facts.

Conspiracy theories via chat app

South Korea's older generation, most of whom were faithful to President Park out of a sense of patriotic loyalty, completely turned their backs on traditional media outlets. Instead, tens of thousands of them joined chat groups at the Korean news service "Kakao Talk," and began busily sending one another news stories from dubious internet sites.

** related this, We made art class curriculum.

“환상 속에 그대가 있다“

- 현실, 비현실 (탐험, 탐구)

1. 2002년에 무슨 일이 있었는지 아니?
(현실 속, 몰랐던 이야기)

1. 현실 속에 우리가 몰랐던 과거 이야기가 예술로 우리에게 다가왔던 예를 찾기

2. 모둠별로 과거의 시기를 정하고, 시기에 대한 자료를 탐색하기

3. 이야기를 정하여 예술로 풀어낼 기획서 만들기

2. 무슨 일인지 보여줘

1. 지난 시간의 기획서를 토대로 모둠별로 예술적으로 표현하기

2. 연대기로 이루어진 작품 감상하기

3. 연대기 작업할 대상을 정하고, 인터뷰 지침 알아보기

3. 이런 게 예술 작품이 될 수 있을까?

1. 아카이브 작업들을 살펴보고, 아카이브 개념 알아보기

2. ‘레디메이드’ 이해하기, 물건이 작품이 될 수 있음을 이야기 나누기

3. 가져온 인터뷰 내용으로 작업 기획서 만들기

4. 작품이야. 전시하자

1. 전시의 종류와 방법을 알아보고 직접 작업한 작품들을 전시하기

2. 전시 감상의 에티켓에 대해 알아보고 모둠별 감상하기

3. 토론시간: “예술은 어디에 존재하는가?”

5. 115층 현대차빌딩 공사 중 ‘미라’ 발견

1. 픽션(현실이 아닌 것을 현실처럼 보이게 하는)을 만드는 예술작업 소개

2. 모둠 별로 ‘현실이 아니지만 현실처럼 보이는’스토리 짜기

3. 스토리를 시각적으로 표현할 기획서 만들기

6. 내가 만들어낸 현실

1. 앞 차시의 기획을 토대로 하여, 시각적으로 표현하는 입체 혹은 평면작업을 모둠별로 진행하기

7. 현실 펼치기

1. 4차시에 아쉬웠던 점들을 보완하여 작업한 작품들을 전시하기

2. 전시감상

3. 8차시의 토론주제 미리 던져주기.

8.진짜 같은 거짓

거짓 같은 진짜

1. 거짓 같은 진짜이야기로서의 예술과 허구(fiction), 진짜 같은 거짓으로서의 음모설, 가짜뉴스 이야기.

2. 수업에서 제시된 예술, 학생전시작품들을 통해 배우거나 느낀 것에 대한 조별 정리글쓰기

3. 가짜 정보들의 위험성과 좋은 정보를 찾는 법에 대해 토론하기(미디어 리터러시)

-김수현,이수정,장엄지