"Authentic: The Story of Tablo" podcast (eps 3 & 4)

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

Korean hip hop star Tablo was at the height of his career when a rumor started spreading on the internet that he was a liar. As a trivial accusation explodes into an international obsession, host Dexter Thomas Jr follows a bizarre conspiracy that asks one fundamental question: are we who we say we are? From VICE and iHeart Podcast Network.




3. The Sellout

Underground Korean hip-hop heads accused Tablo of appealing to the K-pop mainstream. Tablo’s success was a double edged sword that Tajinyo would use against him.




4. Hell Korea

Why would hundreds of thousands of people join a forum dedicated to finding out if someone lied about their Stanford diploma? There’s history here.









Also on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher & iHeart



source: spotify

Comments

[mortkero.livejournal.com]

I've just listened to all four podcasts and it's madness what he had to go through.

[radowan.livejournal.com]

Right?? It actually makes me sick.

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

Haven’t listened to this podcast (ironically it’s not available in my country 🙃) but Tajinyo was one of those pop culture/public events that had an outsized effect on me. I wrote papers on it in college and it helped influence my decision to go into media studies. It was so disturbing and surreal and in hindsight, it was my first real look into how internet echo chambers, conspiracy theorists, and online cults of mis/disinformation operate, and how their hysteria and mass delusion can seep out from a concentrated core into a larger population. It was a horribly novel thing to see at the time and now versions of it are everywhere, all over the world. The sliver of hope Tajinyo provides as a precedent is how eventually the vast majority of the people swayed by them came to their senses and moved on (though a few true believers remain) but idk how possible that would be in media climates today.

I’m always impressed how well Tablo was able to continue with public life. Those people took so much from him, like the stress even contributed to his father’s death. And he’s talked about how terrified he was for a long time knowing that there were up to thousands of people out there who fanatically hated him but he had no idea who or where they were. He was afraid to take his baby to the hospital bc the doctors or nurses might be Tajinyo. I’m glad he was able to rebuild his trust and sense of safety in society, that can’t have been easy