Mad Cow Blues: South Korea, Clay Shirky and the Digital Public Sphere

NYU Professor Clay Shirky deploys the 2008 beef protests in South Korea as proof of the Internet's democratizing power. I argue that Shirky misunderstands the causes, context and results of the beef protests. First he provides a reductionist assessment of the cause of the protests that ignores the role of yellow journlism in the mainstream media, viral rumors and political blunders by Lee, Myung Bak. Second, Shirky does not account for the historical role of beef in nationalist and anti-American protest movements. Finally, Shirky overestimates the democratic results of the protests.