This "man vs. robot" challenge has been broadcast and covered on all of the news stations here, given air time similar to the Olympic Games with commentators and recaps of pivotal moves.
So far AlphaGo has won the first two games, its capabilities impressing experts of the game as well as those in technology. This event is spreading awareness about artificial intelligence - an advancement that is moving along quicker than a lot of us realized, and it's definitely worth looking up to learn more about if you haven't already.
I checked American media sites to see if they were covering the event, but all I saw were presidential candidates and a story about a woman who accidentally killed a swan in order to get a cool selfie picture.
That got me thinking about the differences between media here versus back home. So I turned on my television and decided to create a sampler of South Korean media. This is just grazing the surface, but it is kind of an overview of what you would encounter if you turned on the television here. We receive only those channels that are provided free through a cable port in our living room, so just basic broadcast television.
The news is incredibly saturated with the Go tournament this week, but another topic that makes regular appearances is North Korea.
Anyone would want to keep updated on a volatile and dangerous neighbor. Especially lately with its missile tests and so forth, the news here often reports about North Korea, many times including snippets of that country's state-run news reports and bulletins.
An important part of the weather forecast is the microdust forecast. This time it warned about light yellow microdust. Behind the lady you can see a shot of the city, veiled in dust.
When I first heard about this phenomenon, I thought it was a bit overplayed. It just seemed like the morning was foggy, or it was a cloudy day. Although it seems benign, I've learned that the lazy haze is trouble.
Korean sources define microdust as tiny dust particles from China that travel on the wind across the Yellow Sea to the Korean peninsula. The dust can be light grey or yellow - sometimes the result of industrial pollution, other times it's super fine sand from deserts in northern China and Mongolia.
Whichever color it happens to be, it is not healthy for anyone to be breathing in. On days when the microdust forecast is bad, they advise children and elderly folks to remain indoors, and anyone who goes outside should wear a mask that covers the nose and mouth. It can be rather bad here some days, but it's an even bigger problem in China, recently causing schools and businesses to close for multiple days.
I mentioned before that since most apartments don't have central air systems, ventilation can be a problem. We bought a small air filter, but it's not cut out to handle our whole apartment. Microdust manifests itself in our home as tiny grey particles, although now that spring is coming, I hear that they might become yellow. When I sweep the floors, it reminds me of what happens if you are at the beach and have sand on your bare feet when you walk back inside. I end up sweeping up a substantial pile of tiny grey specks that seem to sparkle. When I try to gather them up and dump them in the trash, about half of them just disperse into the air and disappear.
As I sat on our couch taking way too many pictures of our TV, I noticed a common style among the weather girls - feminine cutesy. Do you see the similarity?
Besides the news, there are other informative channels, including one dedicated to studying. Anytime I flip past it, there is a teacher standing in front of a chalkboard, tutoring about all sorts of subjects like math, grammar and science.
There are also many programs dedicated specifically to learning English, for both children and adults. As an American and English speaker living here, it is a little intimidating to learn how much pressure is put on many Koreans today to learn English. It is daunting because I grew up, like many Americans, never feeling any pressure to learn a second language. Yet here, most students dedicate lots of time in and out of school to learning foreign languages (especially English); and there are countless resources like these television programs to help. I guess it kind of makes me feel like a slacker.
There are also several home shopping channels. It seems odd at first that these come as standard free channels. But if you consider that most people here live in big cities where delivery service is quite normal, it makes more sense. The traditional family is a prevalent idea here too, so there must be a large audience of housewives and mothers.
When I think of prime time television back home, it's all about crime mysteries with some dramas and sitcoms sprinkled in too. Here the two big genres for evening broadcasts seem to be dramas and variety shows. Korean dramas are famous throughout Asia, and there are all sorts from modern day romances to old-timey Joseon era scandals like the show below.
Variety shows have a set cast, usually of comedians and celebrities like singers, actors and athletes. They basically just get paid to have fun, and the programs are heavily edited to add humor and suspense. Sometimes it's field day games (like catching a ball in a cup strapped to your head) or large scale capture the flag. Food is often involved too.
Some channels play American programs, two in particular. Old CSI reruns and WWF pro wrestling. Interesting choices, huh?
The highest channel, 99, flashes between a few security cameras fixed on the four playgrounds shared by our community of apartment buildings. The quality isn't great, but I guess this could come in handy. It was a little creepy when we first noticed, for our old apartment did not have such a channel.
Another neat thing about network television here is that usually there are not commercial during shows. Between each show there is one long break with anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes of ads.
Well, that's a peek at our television. Thanks for channel surfing with me.
I find this to be extremely interesting and could be somewhat of a statement of national priorities for both countries. Unfortunately, I think it bodes better for Korea than the US... also, some of us (worried family, friends and siblings) have been following the actions of your little dictator to the north with worry and apprehension... :-(
ReplyDeleteI was thinking something similar. But maybe I focused too much on what I've noticed is different. There are lots of familiar things too - like celebrity news and gossip, singing shows. :D
Delete