Cultural imperialism
Schiller and others argued that US-centred media homogenise peripheral cultures, a view criticised for ignoring active audiences and local responses.
Multidirectional flows and hybridity
- Appadurai: disjunctive flows of ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes and ideoscapes.
- Hybridity and glocalisation: Robertson's glocalisation describes the fusion of global and local; K-pop blends US hip-hop and R&B and Japanese idol systems with Korean trainee systems.
- Cultural proximity: Straubhaar found audiences prefer culturally close content, helping explain early Hallyu in East and Southeast Asia.
Phases of Hallyu
The term spread in late-1990s China with TV dramas and idol music, followed by Winter Sonata and Dae Jang Geum in the 2000s, social-media-driven K-pop such as "Gangnam Style" and BTS in the 2010s, and streaming hits like Parasite and Squid Game. Dal Yong Jin calls the social-media phase the New Korean Wave.
Soft power and backlash
Nye defines soft power as getting outcomes through attraction; Hallyu supports national image, tourism and cosmetics exports. Backlash includes Japan's anti-Korean Wave and China's informal restrictions after the 2016 THAAD decision.
References
- Schiller, H. I. (1969). Mass Communications and American Empire. Augustus M. Kelley.
- Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. University of Minnesota Press.
- Straubhaar, J. D. (1991). Beyond media imperialism: Asymmetrical interdependence and cultural proximity. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8(1), 39-59.
- Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. PublicAffairs.
- Jin, D. Y. (2016). New Korean Wave: Transnational Cultural Power in the Age of Social Media. University of Illinois Press.