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The transnational Korean media and its active streams to the USA have seemingly increased its potency as new ethnic media. Ethnic media can be defined in more than one way; this demands a shift in the definition, meaning, impact and role of ethnic media at the heart of increasing transnational media use by ethnic minorities and immigrants. This study examines how transnational Korean pop culture has been consumed by Asian American youth and in what ways the Korean media are serving them. All 15 undergraduate students at a public university in the Midwest volunteered for interviews and they were all females, identifying themselves as Asian Americans. According to them, the Korean media has been used along with the media from country of origin; however, the Korean content facilitates their ability to reminisce about the pan-ethnic identity as a member of the East Asian community. The mediated connection to the Korean pop culture presents concrete manifestations of not only the nation, but also the coeval territory of East Asia, which has been limited in their imagined community. Participants also prefer to watch Korean romance dramas because romantic heroes and heroines in Korean romance dramas are depicted to be charming in their roles, and for participants these fresh and positive Asian leads produce pseudo-satisfaction, enabling them to feel comfort from their perception of social marginality.
Ju et al. (Thu,) studied this question.