Radio as pacifier of the people

Michael Robinson, in his article "Broadcasting, Cultural Hegemony, and colonial Modernity in Korea, 1924-1945," explains that the story of Korean radio is "more that one of a single Korean culture resisting Japanese assimilation. It was also a space of intra-Korean elite struggle over how their culture should evolve in modern form, a debate decisively shaped by the cultural and political structures of colonialism" (68). The disparate modes through which radio functions as a cultural object are illustrated in "Radio Dayz" in order to emphasize the ambiguity and malleability of "modernity" as it is adopted and harnessed in 1930s Korea. K sees radio as a medium for calling to action the people of Korea to rise up against the colonial government, Lloyd sees radio as a fun form of entertainment that can unite those who participate, and the Japanese authorities in the film see radio as a way to disseminate pro-Japanese sentiments. Importantly, all of these modes require people to buy radios in order for the messages to be received, and on a large enough scale to make a difference.
The dependence on the participation of the people in radio highlights modernity's creation and definition of the mass public sphere. The disparate ways radio is imagined in the film transforms the listeners either into colonial subjects, consumers of entertainment (and/or goods), or Korean patriots. The direction the film seems to emphasize is the public's adoption of Western capitalist processes of product obsession, celebrity reverence, and widespread subscription to a pop series. This is best illustrated near the end of the film when people crowd around the station with signs rooting for their favourite character in "The Flame of Love," the success of product placement in the show, and even mockeries of the program popping up in the streets. The whole fake advertisement of Moranga chocolate parodies commercial radio yet has very real effects on the audience who take it as their cue to go out and consume the product. K even scoffs at one point when he sees a group of people crowded around the radio in a shop, claiming that no one is interested in gaining independence anymore because they just listen to the radio. In this way, radio functions as a homogenizing process, an example of the universalism that modernity brings, and can even be said to be a pacifier of the people in the way it uses entertainment to soothe those it reaches, less of a space of resistance than a vehicle for capital and validation of the entertainment industry.