[Commlist] CfP: Theorizing global popularity of South Korean media

*Theorizing the global popularity of South Korean media within 
de-Westernizing frameworks ***

The flows of South Korean media and pop music (K-pop) across the globe 
(or /hallyu/) are among the most visible signals of a more multipolar 
global media culture. Although there has been a proliferation of 
research in what is increasingly called “Korean Wave Studies,” 
heretofore, most theory-building has relied heavily on explanatory 
frameworks developed outside Korea. The purpose of this special issue is 
to call on scholars to articulate new theoretical directions that center 
local contexts. We are not calling for an abandonment of a Western canon 
but, rather, theoretical contributions that are not overly indebted to 
it. We encourage scholars to push theoretical boundaries in order to 
make generative contributions that not only move forward the study of 
Korean media and, perhaps, the study of other East Asian media but that 
produce multipolar centers of knowledge production, which can contribute 
to a richer, global body of literature.

The counterflows of global Korean media have attracted growing academic 
interest in terms of emerging cultural diversity, resistance to “minor” 
cultures and the ability to envision life outside of the unilateral 
construction of the West as the model of modernity and liberal 
democracy. Currently, however, most efforts to theorize the global flows 
of Korean media and popular culture have applied existing Western 
theories without fully considering local contexts. There have been some 
calls to decolonize and de-Westernize the study of (East) Asian popular 
culture, but even /hallyu/ studies that explain the global popularity of 
Korean media through post-colonial theories such as hybridity, 
self-Orientalism, or post-colonial desire still draw upon existing 
theories popular in the Western academy rather than generate a new 
theoretical ferment.

Although this work has been productive, the context in which these 
theories developed differ from Korea’s postcolonial condition. Unlike 
postcolonial states dominated by the West, Korea’s colonial subjugation 
was violently enforced by Japan, a regional neighbor, and was displaced 
by the U.S.’s imperial ambitions in the Pacific Islands and East Asia. 
The post-coloniality of Korea and Korean culture differs from the 
societies that postcolonial theorists examined. Moreover, the dynamics 
of globalizing Korean media and the current use of new media often fit 
uneasily. Korean media have heavily relied on new media strategies, and 
the nation’s cultural industries currently produce innovative digital 
content and platforms (i.e. digital games, webtoon, digital K-pop 
platforms). In the process, Korean media industries frequently intervene 
in the global political economic system by mobilizing popular 
participation worldwide through new media which raise new social and 
political issues such as affective labor and affective social 
movements.  As global popularity of Korean media matures within the 
existing global hegemonic order, innovative efforts of Korean media are 
oftentimes created for but constrained by its economic need to export 
its media contents within a techno global hegemonic system.

These transformations require more theoretical work and should move 
toward more nuanced explanatory frameworks. We believe that it is 
necessary to develop new directions in the study of global Korean media. 
The purpose of this special issue is to build new theory that richly 
draws upon the specific context of globalizing South Korean media. This 
call takes up a similar ethos to Korean media, which is created within 
its local context but with a motivation to move beyond national or 
regional boundaries. Topics that scholars might address include, but are 
not limited to:

  * New theoretical outlooks in the de-Westernization of /Hallyu/ studies
  * Theoretical implications of new media use among global /Hallyu/ and
    K-pop fans
  * Indigenizing and localizing theories in the context of new trends of
    Korean media and counterflows to global hegemony
  * Theorizing the simultaneity of the post and the neocolonial in
    Korean media and popular culture and localizing cultural theories
  * Reimagination of de-Westernizing theories that take into account the
    creativity of Korean cultural platforms amidst dynamic changes in
    the global media sphere
  * Counterflows of Korean media in the world hegemonic order and the
    theoretical implications of de-westernization
  * Theoretical implications of transnational fandom in relation to
    their social networking and technological production of intimate
    fan-idol relations through new media platforms.
  * Live experiences of global fans’ uses of new media and cultural
    strategies of popular democracy
  * Theoretical issues of popular participation in innovative production
    and civic movements through global /Hallyu/ platforms
  * New methodological directions in Korean wave studies from the
    de-westernizing perspective

*Papers due by December 30, 2025.***

Submissions should be made through the journal website, 
https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/TVN 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/TVN>. Submissions 
should write the name of the Special Issue in the “Cover Letter.” 
Individual articles should be no more than 7500 words inclusive. Please 
adhere to the journal’s submission guidelines, 
http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/45650_Manuscript_Submission.pdf 
<http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/45650_Manuscript_Submission.pdf>

Should you have any queries, feel free to forward it to Dr. Sunny Yoon 
at (syoon /at/ hanyang.ac.kr) <mailto:(syoon /at/ hanyang.ac.kr)>.

*Guest editors***

Sunny Yoon:

Dr. Sunny Yoon is a Professor of Media and Communication at Hanyang 
University in South Korea. She has published widely on cultural studies, 
visual culture and ethnographic studies of media audiences. Her research 
also includes new technologies including digital games, social media, AI 
and digital media from the cultural studies perspective. She has 
authored numerous books including the monograph, /Social media and 
cultural politics of Korean pop culture in East Asia/ (Routledge 2023).

David Oh:

David Oh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communications 
in the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. 
He has authored books about Asian Americans and media and has edited 
books in critical Korean popular culture studies. In addition, he has 
published roughly 50 peer-reviewed essays in journals and edited 
collections, sits on eleven Editorial Boards in communication, cultural 
studies, fan studies, and media studies. In 2018-19, he was a Fulbright 
Senior Scholar at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

*Note*: No payment from authors is required.


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