"For more than half a century, North Korea’s leaders have relied on a domestic media monopoly to control what information North Koreans can access and how narratives around that information are presented. But the situation on the ground is changing, thanks in large part to North Koreans’ expanding access to unsanctioned foreign media and information sources. InterMedia’s A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment documents this evolution based on research among recent North Korean defectors, refugees and travelers abroad. The project’s assessment of the current state of the media environment in North Korea suggests that substantial numbers of North Koreans are able to access various forms of foreign media. These include foreign TV and radio broadcasts, and particularly foreign DVDs brought into the country from China by cross-border traders and smugglers. Other vectors for information from abroad include smuggled mobile phones capable of receiving foreign signals, and the exchange of illicit foreign content on otherwise legal MP3/MP4 players and USB drives." (www.audiencescapes.org, June 18, 2012)