Lexington Books Communication, Digital Media, and Popular Culture in Korea: Contemporary Research and Future Prospects

In recent decades, Korean communication and media have substantially grown to become some of the most significant segments of Korean society. Since the early 1990s, Korea has experienced several distinctive changes in its politics, economy, and technology, which are directly related to the development of local media and culture. Korea has greatly developed several cutting-edge technologies, such as smartphones, video games, and mobile instant messengers to become the most networked society throughout the world. As the Korean Wave exemplifies, the once small and peripheral Korea has also created several unique local popular cultures, including television programs, movies, and popular music, known as K-pop, and these products have penetrated many parts of the world. As Korean media and popular culture have rapidly grown, the number of media scholars and topics covering these areas in academic discourses has increased. These scholars' interests have expanded from traditional media, such as Korean journalism and cinema, to several new cutting-edge areas, like digital technologies, health communication, and LGBT-related issues. In celebrating the Korean American Communication Association's fortieth anniversary in 2018, this book documents and historicizes the growth of growing scholarship in the realm of Korean media and communication. Review Dal Yong Jin and Nojin Kwak's edited volume of Communication, Digital Media, and Popular Culture in Korea is an ambitious, timely, and resourceful reference that covers a wide variety of ever-expanding scholarship on South Korean (hereafter, Korean) communication, journalism, media, and popular culture, conducted by ethnic Koreans or Korean nationals.-- "International Journal of Communication"Jin and Kwak have assembled a set of essays that are brimming with hard facts and sapid data, and true to their goals, this volume showcases the many important contributions scholars have made that, when taken together, convey a vivid story of Korea's emergence as a global leader in entertainment and engineering. . . this volume will serve as a rare English language reference for Korea-related communication scholarship, ensuring this publication's role as a building block for future studies.-- "Pacific Affairs"There is no doubt that this volume is a valuable toolbox for further research as well as a helpful map to provide an overview of present studies . . . it is useful guidebook for the undergraduate level audience who wants to know the influence of Korean cultural products in this globalizing world and the genealogy of research on communication and media in Korea written in English. Readers who try to understand the current media situation such as digitalization and politico-economy systematization also can gain a clue from concrete cases.-- "Asiascape: Digital Asia"While Korean popular culture and digital media products have global prominence, less is known internationally about the evolution of Korean media and communications scholarship. This book plays a vitally important role in bringing together Korean academic work on media law, journalism, game studies, political economy, and cinema studies. It will feature prominently in any discussions about the relationship of Korean media and communication studies to the field globally.--Terry Flew, Professor of Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology, AustraliaThis collection of essays provides multidisciplinary yet accessible insights into the ways in which popular culture intersects with communications in South Korea. The various contributors explain how popular culture in the country shapes and is shaped by communications laws, policies, strategies, markets, technologies, and infrastructures. This edited volume should be a useful reference for students and researchers of South Korean communications, media, and popular culture for years to come.--Hyung-Gu Lynn, University of British Columbia Ab