DIGITAL MEDIA AND THE KOREAN DIASPORA: A JOURNEY OF IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

This dissertation explores how developed digital media technology influences individuals’ daily lives and their everyday practices. Furthermore, it examines how digital media usage has impacted diasporic members’ identity construction process. With the example of the Korean diaspora in the United States as a case study, this dissertation focuses on the impact of digital media, first, in regard to the ways in which diasporic members communicate with others and respond to the national and social issues of the homeland, and second in regard to their understanding of themselves, as well as their surroundings. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with 35 Korean immigrants and my fieldwork in the New York City, Jersey City, and Philadelphia metropolitan areas from October 2016 to March 2017, this dissertation examines how and to what extent Korean diasporic members have connected to and paid attention to their homeland issues, and how they have responded to them, in tandem with the development of media communication technology throughout the immigration history of the Korean diaspora. This research finds that the advent of digital media has had a significant impact on the Korean diaspora. Despite a generational split in terms of Korean diasporic members’ digital media usage, all of my interviewees use digital media on a daily basis to interact with others, regardless of geographical limitations. As a result, global digital diaspora enables Korean diasporic members to reconfirm the significance of the Korean diaspora. These members recognize the Korean diaspora not as an exclusive community limited to specific local individuals, but rather as a transnational community on a global level. Hence, Korean diasporic members’ self-identification is often based on such an understanding of the Korean diaspora.