Transnational Media Consumption: Case of K-pop

1. Transnational Media Consumption: Case of K-pop Sun Jung International Communication 2011

2. Global Asian Popular Culture Circulation • Japanese samurai films (50s-60s): e.g., Akira Kurosawa films(Seven Samurai, Yojimbo) etc.. • Hong Kong martial arts films : e.g., Bruce Lee films (70s) & Jackie Chan films (80s)… • Hong Kong Noir films (80s): Tsui Hark & John Woo films (A Better Tomorrow series featuring Chow Yun-fat) etc • Taiwanese arthouse films: Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Ming-Liang, Edward Yang etc.. • Chinese arthouse films: 5th & 6th generation directors like Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke • Japanese Animation (Anime) and manga, computer games… • Bollywood films (Hindi cinema): Kal Ho Naa Ho featuring Shahrukh Khan (2003) • Korean popular culture (Hallyu – Korean Wave): Korean TV drama series, Korean pop music & stars etc…

3. New Media Circulation of Asian-pop • Most recently, it is evident that Asian pop is widely circulated via new media technologies such as fan-blogs, UGC websites, peer to peer file sharing websites, microblogging and mobile internet. For instance, one can easily find over five million K-pop related websites on Google (English only). Almost 1million “Super Junior” related UGC on YouTube. • Super Junior “Bonamana” MV 20million hits; “Sorry Sorry” 25 million hits • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix7MctZpW7E

4. Hallyu(Korean Wave) & K-pop • Hallyu: Since the late 1990s, Korean popular culture has become broadly recognized and embraced by the Asian regional and, to some extent, the global pop consumers, which is commonly known as the Hallyu (Korean Wave) phenomenon (Chua and Iwabuchi 2008). • ‘K-drama’ refers to South Korean television dramas while ‘K-pop’ usually refers to South Korean popular music in the overseas market. • The term K-pop is equivalent to the term J-pop (Japanese pop music).

5. K-pop vs. J-pop (Google Trends) On Google Trends, the search volume for K-pop has exceeded the one for J-pop since late 2009. Up until recently J-pop had always been the most sought after Asian pop both within and beyond Asia.

6. Increased Democratization of Cultural Production • At the center of this newly emerging online phenomenon is increased democratization of cultural production empowered by digital technologies (Fetveit 2007), which enables online participatory culture (Jenkins 2006) and transnational fandom (Darling-Wolf 2004). • With the rise of Web 2.0, fans and pop consumers, as grassroots media, now easily reproduce and circulate cultural products.

7. Participatory Culture • Jenkins’ definition: • “A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another. Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement.”

8. Transcultural Pop Circulation & Grassroots Media Practices • Focus on the transnational paradigm of cultural circulation where “bottom-up” grassroots participatory culture enhances transcultural transmission of pop products which once were marginalized and hard to access. • It is clearly evident from the recently emerging online circulation of K-pop

9. New Media Channels EnableGlobal Circulation of K-pop • 1. Fan-Made UGC on YouTube • 2. Fan-websites • 3. English-language K-pop (& Asian popular culture) News websites • 4. Web-subbing sites • 5. Social-networking websites

10. 1. Internet UGC • User-generated content (UGC), also known as Consumer Generated Media (CGM) or User Created Content (UCC), refers to various kinds of media content that is publicly available and that is produced by end-users. The term entered mainstream usage in 2005 after appearing in web-publishing and new media content production circles. It reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. These include digital video, blogging, podcasting and mobile phone cameras.

11. Various Fan-Created Online UGC • Posting/reposting of mainstream media products: e.g., Music videos, game show clips • Fan-cam (fan camera) • Fan-Vlog • Tributes • Translated version • Parody version • Cover clips (Both Song and Dance) • Flash Mob

12. Participatory fandom • According to Jenkins, “fan culture is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon, inviting many forms of participation and levels of engagement” (1992: 2). • As such, participatory fandom refers to the active involvement of the fans with various activities such as the creation, circulation, and consumption of cultural products. • Over the past decade, new digital media technology has enabled participatory fandom to be more diversified, more active, and able to act faster. Fans have always been early adapters of new media technologies such as the digital camera and new software programs, and they use these technologies to create amateur media content.

13. Phil Inmates “Sorry Sorry”

14. 2NE1 “FIRE” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISEoXdHb4W4 Asian Cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lR4c-sf9io&feature=related

15. SHINee “Lucifer”JelenaKarleusa (Serbian) “Muskarac Koji Mrzizene” (MAJA) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dww9UjJ4Dt8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8VL_AKSu_A&feature=related

16. Wonder Girls “Nobody”Wonder Gays (Thailand) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFjP-OJ7Bh4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=031N31B4EvM&feature=fvw

17. SNSD “Mr. Taxi” (Japanese Single) with English Translation (???)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMQfhMXgHYM

18. Convergence Culture • Henry Jenkins’ notion of convergence culture: • “where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways” (2006: 2). • Jenkins’ convergence culture involves “technological, industrial, cultural and social changes in the ways media [circulates] within our culture” (2006: 282). • Because of the power of new media, cultural content, through online fan practices, freely flows across multiple media channels and across cultural/national borders. So, it is evident the ways in which online fan practices blur the boundaries between industries, languages, markets, spaces, nations as well as sexualities. Such online fan practices reflect the notion of new media-driven participatory fandom.

19. 2. Fan Sites • Fan-club sites • Fan-made forum • Fan-made blogs – information of K-pop culture and K-pop stars…

20. Online Fan Community • Paul Booth (2008) explains: • “ As media fandom has moved online, fans have started to use a variety of different means to interact with, and to create, texts . . . New media produce new modes of fandom . . . The fan may ‘‘poach’’ the text (Jenkins, 1992), may reinterpret it (Baym, 2000), or may make ‘‘a tactical response’’ to it (Tulloch & Jenkins, 1995); but importantly, will first consume the text, and only then will interpret it . . . New fans use digital technology not only to create, to change, to appropriate, to poach, or to write, but also to share, to experience together, to become alive with the fan’s community.”

21. BoA’s Fan Club Website “BoAjjang” • www.boajjang.com • Fan created Boajjang Radio where fans are DJs and Producers, and create fan-made radio programs… • Contests… • Link to “Sidewalks TV”

22. SNSD (Girls’ Generation) • http://soshified.com/forums/ • Soshified Radio • Videos: http://soshified.com/forums/index.php?autocom=video&CODE=details&id=463 • Gallery, News, FanFics… • Affiliates…

23. Super Junior Brazil • Music Videos (YouTube) & Twitter • Links to A-pop websites: e.g., www.yesasia.com, http://kbox.com.br • Free mp3 download: www.midiafire.com or www.4shared.com • Other K-pop (Asian pop) fan sites: http://dbsk.com.br, http://www.soshibrasil.com , f(x) Brazil (http://effectsbrasil.freehostia.com/),http://www.t-arabr.com

24. Technologically savvy • The main function of these online fan clubs is the sharing and exchanging of information about their stars via the Internet. The fans are technologically savvy and that their online activities are at the core of their fandom. • These online activities embody one of the aspects of media convergence, which is the high technological literacy of the fans.

25. Prosumer (Producer + Consumer) • Likewise, these technology savvy fans (consumers) is one of the main driving forces behind the regional and global circulation of K-pop. • Henry Jenkins states: “This circulation of media content––across different media systems, … and national borders––depends heavily on consumers’ active participation” (2006:3) • Thus, such new media circulation of K-pop demonstrates various ways in which fans and/or web-users practice media convergence and participatory culture in which they are not only consumers but also producers, as Alvin Toffler has indicated with his term, the “prosumer” (The Third Wave, 1980).

26. 3. K-pop News Websites • www.yesasia.com • Soompi.com • GetAsianMusic.com • Sensatian.com • Popgoesasia.com (Asian pop internet radio) • Imprinttalk.com (Asian pop culture blog) • www.allkpop.com • K-popped.com • Popseoul.com • Kpopmusic.com • Hancinema.net • … and many k-drama related websites

27. Allkpop.com Launched in October 2007 by two K-pop fans/web bloggers, Paul Han and Johnny Noh, allkpop has now become one of the most dynamically operated K-pop websites, with an average of over 300,000 unique visitors everyday.

28. Near Real-Time Posting & Blurred Boundaries • allkpop is popular among K-pop fans especially because of its “near real-time posting.” • Noh said, “Our team can translate and have an article up within five minutes of release from the Korean media” (personal interview). • allkpop also represents blurred boundaries between different regions and/or cultures, e.g., the East and the West. • According to Noh, “approximately 40% of the users are from the US and the remaining 60% is spread across globally.” Every day, over 300,000 users from all around the world visit the site, including “39% Asians, 39% Caucasians, 13% Hispanics, 8% African Americans, and 1% other.” • Noh stated, “It’s actually been quite an eye-opener for us to see the amount of cultural diversity and interest levels among the various ethnic groups. K-Pop is really starting to become a global phenomenon, and music really does bring a lot of people together, regardless of the actual spoken language” (personal interview).

30. DJ MASA (BRAZIL) HOT K-POP 2010 ~ special mashup part 2 ~ (60 songs in one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz2Fgdbj9lc

31. 4. Web-Subbing Sites • Fan-Subbing: • A fansub (short for fan-subtitled) is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program which has been translated by fans and subtitled into a language other than that of the original. • There have been many fan-subbing groups and websites, beginning with the anime fan-subs (fan-subtitled content) during the explosion of anime production in the 1980s. More recently, many Asian drama series, movies and game shows have been fan-subbed as these products have gained international recognition.

32. ViKi.com ViKi is a coined word that combines ‘video’ (or visual) and ‘wiki.’ According to its introductory statement, ‘The ViKi Story,’ the ViKi system was created to break down the language barrier through building a web-user volunteer translation community.

33. Web-Subbing • There are many web-based fan-subbing groups, so fan-subbing is not new or unique to ViKi. However, ViKi has moved a step further in creating an advanced web-translation system and community where ‘any website user’ can easily participate in subbing even if only a couple of lines, meaning that subtitling occurs much more quickly. • It also means that more diverse languages can be subtitled, as ‘ViKi supports subtitles in more than 100 languages’. The translation system ViKi pursues, therefore, should be explained through the notion of ‘web-subbing’, distinguished from ‘fan-subbing’. The web-subbing system of ViKi will have a revolutionary impact on transnational pop-consumption practices. Remarkably, sometimes a program’s subbing can be completed within only a couple of hours of its broadcast.

34. 5. Social-Networking Websites & Microblogging • MySpace • Facebook • Twitter etc…

35. http://twitter.com/#!/donghae861015 Super Junior Dong-Hae Twitter

36. SUJUnesia Twitter

37. http://www.facebook.com/bigbangtoaustralia#!/pages/Blue-Boys/235910131042http://www.facebook.com/bigbangtoaustralia#!/pages/Blue-Boys/235910131042 Blue Boys: Chilean Cover Team of Super Junior

38. http://www.facebook.com/UnitedKpopLoversIndonesia UNITED KPOP LOVERS INDONESIA

39. http://www.facebook.com/bigbangtoaustralia 40,000 Fans to bring BIGBANG to Australia!

40. Concert K-Pop à Parishttp://www.facebook.com/concertkpop?sk=wall SM Town Live in Paris will be held in June 2011 and the tickets were sold out in 15 minutes. French K-pop fans created a Facebook page to request an additional date for SM Town Live in Paris and finally held a protest on 1 May at the Louvre Museum via flashmob.

41. SM TOWN Live in Paris for 2nd Concert • French fans’ protest on 1 May at the Louvre Museum via flashmob.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1PyjYNelLI

42. Interview with Jase, K-pop fan / Joy Station DJ On Jarimdi’s Channel on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/jarimdi?feature=mhum#p/a/u/2/RPGvQKS-lX4 K-pop in Melbourne (Jase)

43. K-pop in Melbourne (Cal, Ben, Jono)

44. Thanks!