Presentation Title
K-Pop Twitter as a Site of Transnational Social Media Activism
Abstract
This project aims to examine social media as a platform for political organization and social change beyond geographical boundaries in the context of K-pop fans and their transnational online community. Social media and twitter specifically have long been a site of activism and popular music has always had a place in social commentary. In this paper, I seek to understand this phenomenon in the context of the large and ever growing global community of Korean pop fans. Recently, in mid 2020 we have seen the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and, to the shock of many, a rise in political engagement from the K-pop fan community in a number of highly publicized events. Using data collected from twitter I will study the expressive sentiments and strategic organization of this population and how said action is perceived and engaged with by the media and general public. Similarly, I will study the transnational networks that facilitate this communal activism and the cross cultural communication required for this level of organizational success and notoriety.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Pablo Bose
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Global Studies
Second Program/Major
Geography
Primary Research Category
Social Sciences
K-Pop Twitter as a Site of Transnational Social Media Activism
This project aims to examine social media as a platform for political organization and social change beyond geographical boundaries in the context of K-pop fans and their transnational online community. Social media and twitter specifically have long been a site of activism and popular music has always had a place in social commentary. In this paper, I seek to understand this phenomenon in the context of the large and ever growing global community of Korean pop fans. Recently, in mid 2020 we have seen the re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and, to the shock of many, a rise in political engagement from the K-pop fan community in a number of highly publicized events. Using data collected from twitter I will study the expressive sentiments and strategic organization of this population and how said action is perceived and engaged with by the media and general public. Similarly, I will study the transnational networks that facilitate this communal activism and the cross cultural communication required for this level of organizational success and notoriety.