An Analysis of the Korean Wave as Transnational Popular Culture: North American Youth Engage Through Social Media as TV Becomes Obsolete

Authors

  • Dal Yong Jin Simon Fraser University

Keywords:

new Korean Wave, transnational culture, social mediascape, K-pop, BTS, cultural politics

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which the new Korean Wave phenomenon is integrated into a social media–embedded cultural landscape in North America. By employing in-depth interviews with K-pop fans in Canada, it analyzes recent developments characterizing the Korean Wave in tandem with cultural industries in the age of social media. It discusses the increasing role of social media and changing media consumption habits among youth in Canada. It finally maps out why social media has contributed to the enhanced popularity of the transnational media culture produced in a non-Western region.

Author Biography

Dal Yong Jin, Simon Fraser University

Associate Professor.He finished his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2004. His major research and teaching interests are media industries, new media and convergence, globalization and media, transnational cultural studies, telecommunications policy, and the political economy of media and culture. He is the author of a forthcoming book entitled Hands On/Hands Off: The Korean State and the Market Liberalization of the Communication Industry, and his recent work has appeared in several scholarly journals, including Media, Culture and Society, Games and Culture, Telecommunications Policy, Television and New Media, Information Communication and Society and Javnost-the Public.

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Published

2018-01-16

Issue

Vol. 12 (2018)

Section

Articles

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