On Apr. 9, 2020, this popular American game show included a question about BTS which contained almost entirely incorrect information.
If you guessed, “What is Jeopardy?” then you’d be right.
While at first, it seems like an awesome development in BTS’s acceptance in Western culture - after all, Jeopardy has been a staple of American game show culture for decades - once the initial flash of triumphant feeling has passed, the nature of the question settles in.
The question reads as follows: “In 2019 BTS learned they might be forced to break up due to this country’s compulsory conscription laws.”
Of course, the answer is “What is Korea?” in proper Jeopardy format. However, the only correct part of this question and answer is that Korea does, in fact, have government-mandated military service. Everything else about the question is poorly worded at best and purposefully alarmist at worst.
Before we continue, allow us to present some facts. BTS did not learn in 2019 that they might have to disband due to Korea’s conscription laws. While it is true that at some point enlistment will affect the group, there is no indication that the group will disband, and disbanding is not a requirement when a group or part of a group enlists.
In fact, many K-pop groups that are still operational have been affected by enlistment and have not disbanded; some examples include Shinhwa and Super Junior, who have just released their first album since their maknae was discharged.
The main point is this: disbandment is not a guarantee with enlistment - they are two separate issues and need to be treated as such. This is why this question on Jeopardy is such a glaring problem.
If they wanted to obtain the answer “What is Korea?”, they could have come up with at least a hundred different other questions, both with and without using BTS as their subject matter. The decision to use BTS as their subject matter for the question was most likely to capitalize on the zeitgeist. It’s an understandable business decision but poorly executed.
This poor execution causes the next problem: misinformation.
There are several possible scenarios that could explain why this question or wording was chosen. One is that the team which creates the questions for Jeopardy didn’t know that enlistment does not equal disbandment and it was an “honest” mistake. Another is that the wording was chosen specifically for the shock value. It could also be that they were limited to the number of characters that they could put into the question and worded it poorly because of restrictions.
None of these options are good, and none of them are acceptable in light of modern technology.
Things written for the express purpose of shock value are rarely helpful - they are written specifically to elicit emotion and that is usually done by skewing the wording to make readers have a reaction. Skewing of any nature inherently means inaccuracies.
Additionally, with this being the digital age of Google and Wikipedia, “honest” mistakes are becoming less and less acceptable; it would be simple to do some research about Korean enlistment laws, whether or not groups regularly disband due to enlistment, and also what might make up a better, less controversial question.
Though one could easily argue that it’s “just a game show question,” even something so brief can spread misinformation and potentially create panic, inevitably spreading that misinformation. In particular, this question, whether unintentionally or not, affects newer ARMYs who likely won’t know the ins and outs of enlistment. There are some aspects of enlistment that are still unclear to even veteran international ARMYs, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that newer ARMYs will likely not have all the information needed to brush off this question as a bad one.
Once said unknowingly uninformed ARMY sees this bit of information, the dominoes can start to fall. Someone makes a post like “OMG BTS IS DISBANDING?!” and cites the show, which is typically viewed as a reputable source. It gets liked and retweeted and shared around with more and more people starting to question and possibly panic over the fact that, so soon after finding BTS, the group might disband. At the very least, it’s likely to cause confusion until a veteran ARMY steps in and clarifies matters.
While it seems like a fairly minor thing, it does make a good example to demonstrate the mind games that misinformation can play. Does it necessarily have to devolve into a widespread panic? No. However, using this sort of question is highly suspect because it was so easily correctable if research of any type had been done. With social media and the internet, in general, making it so easy to share information, caution should be taken to make sure that whatever information being used is correct.
Using this type of question, in light of the fact that there were so many other options that would have gotten the same answer, is not helpful nor does it contribute anything useful to the general discourse around BTS.
Lack of research causes misinformation which causes confusion, and sacrificing accuracy for shock value and clicks demonstrates a lack of integrity. No matter the exact reason behind the wording of this question, the end result is that misinformation made its way into the universe, and even something so small can have consequences.
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Written By: Anna Moon
Edit By: Aury
Checked by: Euni
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