The Korean Wave: The Seoul of Asia

The main issue that was being discussed in this article is the effect of Korean wave for cultural influence on neighboring countries and how national identity impacts framing processes related to media coverage and public response. South Korea was known for its negative images such as the Korean wars, cycles of poverty and political instability. However, Korean wave has been successful in diminished the entire negative images due to trendy entertainers, new technology and the image of contemporary South Korean lives through dramas and movies.

In my opinion, the author did not directly establish her experience to write on this topic because she used prominent newspapers from different countries and reviewed scholarly studies. She selected only major newspapers based on their national reputation in each country: Korea Herald, Korea Herald (Singapore), Korea Herald (Thailand), and Korea Herald (Tokyo). The important facts that were presented in this article are about the number of tourists to Korea that had increased until 7 million as of Nov.

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23 according to the Korea Tourism Organization.

On the other hand, the number of tourists in Korea’s neighbor which are Japan and China had decrease sharply. Korea’s tourism also has recorded a surplus of $320 million in the January-September period. This fact indirectly had shown that how big was the impact of Korean wave towards Korea’s tourism. The other facts are about how different countries have their own responds to cultural products. For example, in Taiwan, Daejangguem is the most popular Korean drama, while in Japan, Korea Herald was most popular.

This shows that Korean drama had served as an important part for the different countries to encounter Korean Culture and indirectly learn about not only Korean music and drama, but also its films, food and fashion. The arguments in this article were presented in the form of generalization in which the author is giving facts and analysis based on different newspapers from different countries. In addition, when she wrote the opinion of Korea’s neighbors about Korean wave, she stated it clearly based on the articles that she had analyzed.

I think that I can verify the facts that were presented by the author because she clearly cites the sources of the information that she wrote in this article. In addition, in every facts or information that she stated, there are citations of sources that she used. For example, when the author wrote about the statistics of tourists in Korea, she wrote that the facts were cited from Korea Herald. The conclusion that the author made about the main issue is that the Korean wave has fundamentally changed the perception and overall national image of South Korea.

Because of Korean wave, Korea is arguably one of the greatest national success stories of the 20th century. Based on the news, Korean wave was framed as commercial driven phenomena and a victory from a nationalistic perspective. The second conclusion was made about how the Korean wave has contributed in improving South Korea’s national image. The Korean government had taken advantages on the Korean wave by aiding the Korean media in publicizing Korean popular culture around the world.

The final conclusion was made keeping in mind the framing process and the relationship between the journalistic news coverage and the public’s new interpretation. The Korean wave which has made Korea a national powerhouse in the Asian region had caused its neighbors soon began to portray hostile attitudes and growing sentiments through news coverage. In my opinion, the article was written in a neutral manner as we can read that all the information was cited from reliable sources.

This means that the article consists of facts only and does not contain any personal opinion from the authors. For example, when she wrote about Korea’s neighbor’s opinion about Korean wave, she stated it clearly based on the articles that she had analyzed without being biased. Although the U. S. newspaper stated that South Korea as the underdog compared to Japan, the author just wrote it and did not give any personal opinion or objection towards the statement.