Living co-ops in Korea 147particularly current affairs podcasts such as Podcast Yoon Yeo-Joon, Iteolnam,
and Nakkomsu (aka Naneun Kkomsuda or I’m a Weasel). The latter is a satirical
weekly podcast focusing on current political, economic, and social events within
Korea.^3 It presents an irreverent but penetrating presentation and analysis of
prevailing (and sometimes overlooked) issues, and this has garnered fanatical
nationwide popularity that has resulted in it being the most downloaded podcast
in the News and Politics section on iTunes globally as of 19 October 2011. As a
pioneer of the new political media shaping Korean politics, it raised the question of
whether the advent of social networking, blogs, and other avenues of information
dissemination (in short, alternative media) may change the political landscape in
Korea, and reinforce just social sustainability. Following this, media co-ops such
as Pressian have since been launched, promulgating the philosophies of both just
sustainability of the local media environment and social enterprises.
These grassroots-driven alternative media activities in turn facilitate the current
steep rise of co-ops, as social networks are similarly based on mutual recognition
and sharing similar interests and visions. In their book Understanding Alternative
Media, Bailey, Cammaerts, and Carpentier suggest four different conceptual
approaches to describe alternative media: serving a community; alternative media
as an alternative to mainstream media; linking alternative media to civil society;
and alternative media as rhizome (2008). In regard to the fourth point, they indicate
that the complexity and illusiveness of alternative media have now become
defining elements. Alternative media not only functions “as an instrument giving
voice to a group of people related to a specific issue but also become a medium for
rearticulating impartiality and neutrality and grouping people and organizations
already active in different types of struggle for equality” (Bailey, Cammaerts, and
Carpentier 2008, p. 29). This approach highlights the fluidity and contingency
of community media organizations where alternative media can question and
destabilize public and commercial media organizations, while their elusiveness in
turn guarantees them a degree of independence as it makes them hard to control
in terms of legislation (Bailey et al. 2008, p. 29). In Korea’s oppressive media
environment, ordinary citizens welcomed alternative media that challenged the
monolithic views of state-controlled media and allowed alternative voices.
In the case of Korea’s co-ops, alternative media outlets such as online community
radio are used to serve communities directly. A close link between these co-ops and
the podcasts allows alternative voices, which in turn helps to promote the offline
co-op movement. For example, Gongjongongsaeng is a podcast that is dedicated
to co-ops and social economy, which discusses information and new trends in
co-op movements.^4 One of the weekly regular spots of YTN’s Fresh Economy
(which also provides a podcast service) introduced a broad range of co-ops that
were able to promote their projects and operations to listeners, simultaneously
adding to their audiences’ knowledge of co-ops. Iteolnam covered various co-
op-related issues, such as the launch of media co-op Pressian in episode 344.
After a couple of years, however, many leading podcasts―including Nakkomsu
and Iteolnam―had to shut down due to complex socio-politico-economic
reasons. The seizure of these many once-leading-podcasts aptly demonstrates the