Of the CNN News: “Beyond the DMZ: Tweeting from North Korea”
Tommy Zhu
In the CNN news “Beyond the DMZ: Tweeting from North Korea”, written by Brandon Griggs, the author illustrates a vivid overview of the current usage of internet and the two parallel digital worlds between foreigners and North Koreans in North Korea. By citing the speech and personal anecdote of an AP journalist Jean H. Lee who is the only US reporter granted regular access to the secretive nation, Brandon Griggs successfully and unbiasedly shows the oxymoron of “North Korean Social Media”.
On the first page of the report, the author presents a large North Korea government-published photograph and a series of story highlights, which effectively draw readers’ attention and interests by showing the features of North Korea. The narration begins with Jean H. Lee, who may have been the first person to tweet from North Korea, wrote, “Hello world from comms center in #Pyongyang” on her twitter. This example of twitter, which is related to the topic and draws people’s empathy of their daily life, effectively illustrates the impact of the gradually opened North Korean network.
Then, the author compares Lee’s personal anecdote and the new Koryolink 3G network to show that “North Korea is trying to catch up.” The tremendous difference between Lee’s experience in 2008 when North Korean security officers confiscated her iPhone at the airport, and the new North Korean 3G network and policy which allows foreigners to bring their cellphones to the country, shows the significant fact that there are now more openness in North Korea.
However, although the author presents enormous progress in North Korea’s way of being free and open, he doesn’t make his report biased, but instead shows problems that still occur in North Korea to keep the report’s view balanced. In the middle of the article, he points out that there are too parallel digital worlds, which are