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Tue, September 26, 2023 | 18:40
Reporter's Notebook
Culture can't explain it all
문화가 모든 것을 설명할 수 없다
Posted : 2014-04-23 17:29
Updated : 2014-04-24 22:40
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CNN, Time react typically to Sewol tragedy

By Kim Young-jin

Last Friday, two days after the Sewol sank, a CNN reporter made an on-air remark that felt all too familiar. "What (Korean) culture prizes in its children, its students, is obedience," she said. "So when they were told to stay put by an adult, of course they would stay put."


"This is certainly heartbreaking for (the parents)," she commented, "because these are the very parents who have instilled that sense of obedience in listening to their elders."

TIME magazine pointed to the country's "strict discipline" as perhaps making the children "more likely to follow the crew's order."

Intended or not, the implication was hard to swallow: these young people were programmed to obey their elders at all costs, even if they knew better, and their behavior elevated the death toll.

Major tragedies involving Korea are almost always followed by stories that question the role of Korean culture, which stresses deference to elders and authority figures, in what transpired.

The use of culture as a blanket explanation can be problematic for multiple reasons.

Most importantly, it can downplay the significance of more immediate factors at a time when details are still emerging.

According to crew accounts, the Sewol jolted and began to list at 8:48 a.m. Seven minutes later, it sent a distress call to dispatchers, saying it was steeply tilting and that movement was impossible.

While every moment may seem like an eternity in a crisis, seven minutes is a short window for teenagers facing the threat of powerful, cold waters to decide to buck the orders of someone who is supposed to know better about what to do in an emergency.

Restricted movement also offers a physical explanation to why people may not have been able to escape — information that has nothing to do with culture.

Other situational factors include where those who escaped were positioned at the time of the incident. According to the government, many of those trapped were on the third and fourth floors, while many who escaped were on the fifth.

It also risks portraying the students as having behaved in a homogenous way. As stories emerge of teachers and crewmembers who gave their lives to help others, it's reasonable to think that some students may have acted bravely and independently. And the cultural approach, some say, may unduly impose differences between East and West.

"Emergency situations such as the recent tragedy are by their nature ambiguous, and people naturally look for leaders in these situations for direction and guidance," said Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, a social-personality psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Leaders are supposed to know what to do, and there is the assumption that what they tell you to do is for a reason (sometimes with tragic consequences). It's a very strong tendency that may overshadow cultural differences."

The proclivity to the cultural angle may reflect the nature of media in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. With outlets covering events around the clock — in the case of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight for several weeks — the likelihood of relying on well-trodden tropes increases.

Gil Asakawa, a journalist and blogger about Asian-American culture, said in theory it's appropriate for western media to probe cultural differences in reporting stories.

But he added, "The danger is that reporters will focus on it as an oddity, or something exotic, instead of educating their audiences about the differences in cultural values between Asia and the West."

In the coming weeks and months, culture needs to be addressed. The country's maritime culture must be scrutinized.

The same goes for the culture at Chonghaejin Marine, the operator of the ferry, in which an inexperienced third officer, not the captain, was in command when the accident occurred.

Let's not forget the culture among government officials and agencies, whose response was discombobulated when it needed to be seamless.

And yes, the incident provides Koreans an opportunity to reflect on national culture as well, one which has driven the success of the small country to unimagined places but where safety measures are lacking.

International coverage is but a tiny corner of the sprawling tragedy that has unfolded over the last week. Still, one hopes such reportage will be more careful when applying culture to explain rapidly-unfolding events.


문화가 모든 것을 설명할 수 없다

_획일적인 시각으로 세월호 참사를 보도한 CNN과 Time지



세월호가 가라앉은지 2일이 지난 지난 금요일 한 CNN 기자가 생방송에서 '(한국) 문화에서 아이들, 학생에게 기대하는 것은 복종이다'라고 말했다. '그래서 그 아이들이 어른들이 대기하라고 말했을때 그들은 그 자리에 있었을 수 밖에 없다,' 고 덧붙였다.

그녀는 이어 '이것은 (부모님들에게) 비극이다' 라고  말하면서 '왜냐하면 어른들의 말을 들으라는 일종의 복종 의식을 심어 넣은 것은 바로 그 부모들이기 때문이다,' 라고 덧붙였다.

타임지는 한국의 '엄격한 규율, 훈련'이 아이들이 '선장의 명령에' 따르도록 했을 수 있다고 지적했다.

이 매체들이 의도했든 안 했든 간에 '이 어린 사람들이 더 (수칙 등에 대해) 잘 알았더라도 어떻게든 나이든 사람을 따르도록 프로그램 되었고, 그게 사망자 수를 증가하게 하는 행동으로 이어졌다'는 말은 이해하기 힘들다.

한국에서 일어났던 큰 참사들에 대한 이야기들은 대체로 한국 문화에 대한 의문으로 귀결된다. 어떤 일이 있었더라도 나이든 사람, 혹은 권력자들에 대한 존중을 강조하는 식이다.

전반적인 것을 설명하기 위해 문화라는 프레임을 사용하는 것은 이하 여러 가지 이유로 문제가 될만한다.


첫째로, 여러가지 자세한 정황이 나오는 상황에서 지금 중요하게 다뤄져야할 요소들을 경시할 수 있다.

세월호 선원들의 증언에 따르면 세월호는 8시 48분 경부터 기울어지기 시작했다. 약 7분 후, “아 저기 해경에 연락해주십시오. 본선 위험합니다. 지금 배 넘어갑니다'라고 제주 VTS에 조난 신고를 보냈다.

혼돈 속에 있는 매 순간이 영원과 같았을 것이지만, 강력하고도 차가운 바닷물의 공포를 느끼던 학생들에게 7분은 응급상황에 대해 더 잘 알고 있을 사람의 명령을 거역하기에는 짧은 시간이었을 것이다.



움직임이 제한된 점도 사람들이 탈출할 수 없었던 물리적 이유를 설명해준다. 이 정보는 문화와 상관이 없다.

사람들이 사건이 발생했을 때 있었던 장소도 다른 상황적 요인일 수 있다. 정부의 발표에 따르면, 5층에 있던 사람들은 많이 탈출 했음에도 3층과 4층에 있던 많은 사람들은 배 안에 갇혔다.

위의 보도들은 학생들이 동일하게 행동했다고 묘사하는 위험 수도 두었다. 선생님과 선원들이 다른 사람의 생명을 위해 자신의 생명을 바쳤다고 기술하고 있으나, 학생들도 용감하고 독립적인 행동을 했을 수 있다고 여기는 것이 이성적이다.

“최근에 발생한 것 같은 응급 상황의 경우 원래가 막연하고, 이런 상황에서는 사람들이 방향과 지도를 설정하기 위해 자연스럽게 리더를 찾게 마련이다,” 라고 버클리 대학교의 사회 인격 심리학자 로돌포 멘도자 덴튼은 말했다.

“리더들은 무엇을 해야 할 지 알아야 하는 사람들이자 그들이 말하는 것에 대해서는 이유가 있다는 추측을 할 수 있다. (물론 비극적 결말을 불러오기도 한다.) 이는 문화적 차이를 덮을 정도로 강한 경향이다,” 라고 말했다.

문화적 프레임을 씌우는 관례는 24시간 돌아가는 뉴스 시스템의 본성을 반영하고 있을지 모른다. 예를 들어 몇 주 전 말레이시아 항공기가 사라진 사건 같은 경우, 밤낮으로 사건들을 다루는 매체로서는 익숙한 언어적 비유에 기댈 가능성이 늘어난다.



아시아-미국 문화에 대해 다루는 언론가이자 블로거인 길 아사카와는 서양 언론들이 이야기를 보도할 때 문화적 차이를 검토하는 것이 이론적으로는 적절하다고 말했다.

하지만 그는 “기자들이 아시아와 서양 사이의 문화적 가치가 다르다는 것에 대해 사람들에게 알리는 것이 아니라, 특이하거나 이국적인 무언가에 집중할 것이기 때문에 위험하다”고 덧붙였다.


앞으로는 문화가 언급될 필요가 있다. 한국 바다 위의 문화는 면밀히 검토 되어야 한다.

사고가 일어났을 때 선장이 아닌 제 3등 항해사가 지위를 했던 청해진 해운의 문화 역시 조사를 받아야 한다.

흠잡을 데 없이 완벽했어야 했지만 혼란스러웠던 반응을 보이고 만 정부 관료와 기관들의 문화도 잊지 말자.



사건은 물론 한국인들에게 한국의 문화를 거울에 비추어 볼 기회를 제공하기도 했다. 이 나라는 상상할 수 없을 만큼 성공했지만 안전 수칙은 결여되어 있었다.

국제 뉴스는 지난주부터 이어지고 있는 참사에 비해 적은 지면을 차지한다. 그렇기 때문에라도 아직 진행중인 사건에 대해서 문화라는 틀을 적용해서 보도할 때는 더욱 신중해야 할 것이다.







Emailyjk@ktimes.co.kr Article ListMore articles by this reporter
 
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