Wonderful but Commodified

By Benson Kamary

Late last year, I presented a paper at a conference at Chongshin University, titled ``The Role of Mass Media in Shaping Contemporary Worldviews among Koreans."

And before you ask what the topic has to do with Kim Yu-na, I will be upfront and say that the lovely daughter of this land has been, unfortunately, pressured into the clogs of economic rationalism. I will explain, but first let me clarify that I admire Kim Yu-na.

She is a talented girl who has continually portrayed a spirit of sportsmanship ever since she ventured into figure skating. She is focused, diligent and has a warm smile that has attracted a big following from fans and supporters.

At the Chongshin conference, I argued that mass media is shaping the way Koreans see and live in the world today. I also argued that there is no neutrality in mass media and its contents and that the media process does not simply interact with the rest of society but has a major influence on how the rest of society understands and imagines itself.

In brief, the media not only informs, educates and entertains, it also forms. It forms our hearts, our minds and guides our responses to life experiences. And Korea being a highly media-saturated society where media production and consumption has been termed as plentiful, super-fast, colorful and innovative, the impact of media warrants a critical reflection and genuine engagement.

By observation, many Koreans see the world from an economic point of view powered by capitalistic materialism, which replaced Confucianism decades ago.

In the same forum, I used the example of Kim Yu-na and how the media and profit-motivated companies had clothed the girl with a super-teenager perception and the promise that she will keep skating on the stage of eternal success.

Like many Koreans, I wish that Kim Yu-na continues to excel in the sport. My apparent disagreement is in the way Yu-na has been ``commodified" ― equated to a marketing item. Even journalism and journalists have fallen victim to economic rationalism and have become agents of the commodification of personalities. Note how economic terminologies have increasingly been used in reference to Kim Yu-na in the recent past.

When she won the Trophee Eric Bompard Championship last year, local dailies reported that she had sparked a marketing craze: ``Figure skating sensation Kim Yu-na has been the biggest hit item in the local ad market, even raising concerns that excessive exposure in various campaigns could write off her value in the end," a local newspaper reported. Other headlines ran across newspaper pages: ``Kim Yu-na's marketing value sours; Kim Yu-na becomes golden queen; Golden girl Yu-na marketing in top spin" and many more. Perhaps it does not take an economic genius to tell that the wordings of these statements reflect a highly economic worldview perspective.

Some critics have indicated that a number of sportspersons abhor a certain degree of marketing craze and obsessive adoration. Last year Kim Yu-na was quoted as telling her fans to tone it down. ``… I was confused when I saw the way the audience reacted and the way they behaved. Just before I was about to jump, I could still hear them making noise. During the six-minute warm-up, I just wanted it to end, it was too much. So I thought about withdrawing."

In the same breath she added, ``I agree with weightlifter (Jang Mi-ran) who said, 'I hope Korea does not host the World Championships again.'" Kim Yu-na may be right. Spectators can be detracting, confusing, pressurizing and a nuisance.

As for the role of the media in shaping the worldview, one must understand that mass media is liturgical in nature and disseminates values that can form, manipulate and blur the way one lives. Media content must therefore be critiqued and its impact evaluated at all times.

By all means, media channels should report about Kim Yu-na's performance. However, they must also acknowledge that she is a mortal being with strengths and weaknesses as opposed to a market product whose value is determined by the market. Her below par performance at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin, Italy, perhaps sends an obvious lesson that we must reckon with. That Kim Yu-na, whether she wins or not, remains a wonderfully and beautifully made sportsperson who should be appreciated, encouraged and loved.

And of course companies should be productive and make their products known through advertising. Nevertheless, profit-making is not all there is to life. Kim Yu-na, regardless of her accolades, should be respected at all times because the personality of an athlete needs not be market valued. Human beings can never be price tagged ― not on an earthly scale!

The writer is a Kenyan graduate school student at Kosin University's Department of Christian Education. He is currently undertaking research on the transformative capacity of the educational function of mass media. He has lived in Korea for four years now and can be reached at bkamary@yahoo.com.