“Heading Line News?”

“The secretary office of the National Assembly has disclosed that it will reorganize the seating system of the National Assembly to move to the opposite side in order to force the low-quality congressmen to face the opposite side and feel nausea.”

“It is a short letter from the political world. Yoo In-tae, the former chief of presidential aides, Nam Kyung-pil, the GNP congressman, and Yoo Si-min, the Open Uri Party congressman, are all of short stature. Short stature means that they are short. This is not a joke…”

Those are the parts of the “Heading line news,” which satirized the “Headline news” of the broadcasting companies. “Heading line news” is one of the popular sections of the satirical internet site, Media Mob (www.mediamob.co.kr), together with another of its famous satirical internet magazine, “Le Zirashi.” As the rumors that this site is “so funny” have circulated among the internet users, the news could grasp one of the sections of KBS2 “Live! Current Issue Tonight,” which is on the air everyday at 12:10 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, in about a month from its first release on the internet site on February 28. From April 6, the frequency of its appearances on the program has expanded from once to four times a week.

“Heading line news” pretends to be a government-administered news program in order to make a perfect parody. As most of the producers have come from the satirical internet news site, “Ddanji Ilbo,” the tone of argument in the “Heading…” is similar to the “Ddangji Ilbo.” It seems that a satirical news program is treated as one of the news programs in mainstream society.

“Heading line news” is very similar to the MBC’s “News Desk” and KBS’s “News 9.” A female announcer formally makes progress with the news articles and connects with the reporters frequently. A mosaic-censored person interviews with a reporter to reveal a secret. As a matter of fact, all of these pretences are disguised by the employers of the Media Mob.

“Heading line news” has reported a survey conducted with the fake surveyor, “Korea Syrup,” as to the major social issues. When the morning-type people have attracted the people’s attention, the survey shows that “Most of the companies prefer to employ the people who can suck up to the seniors.”

The project report, “Camera’s business trip,” is a good item that reveals the intention of producing “Heading line news.”

“There is a report that many underground factions are asserting the revival of the communism, which intimidates democracy in Korea. I will meet the witness.” (Reporter)

“Ouch… The government has uniformed all adults and children… It is no better than that of the communist country.” (Witness)

However, the “reality” indicted by the program is that whether the size of person is big or small, his or her portion is equal in the society. “Uniformed recognition to a person, which ignores one’s ability, has been prevalent in the society,” finished off the reporter.

The reason that “Heading line news” attracts people’s attention among many other satirical programs is that “Underground” news has been adopted by the official government-administered broadcasting company.

Though the viewers show positive reactions to this program, some people criticized, “Current events discussion program on the government-administered television channel should not be transformed into a comedy program.”

“Easy conveyance of the messages in a satirical form, which also doesn’t let slip the point of issue, has been harmonized with the senses of the young viewers,” remarked Producer Kim-hyun, who is in charge of this program.

“The reasons for the formal television channels having adopted these satirical programs are that these satires can take the burden of assuming risks of expressing something,” assessed Kim Dong-sik, a cultural critic.

As for the indication that the underground satirists have surrendered to the television companies, he added, “There is no boundary between the formal and informal to the internet users. Diverse ways of distributing information is just a simple destiny of the cultural contents in the digital era.”

Jin-Yeong Lee ecolee@donga.com