Cultural Politics of Homeland Media

This study explores how the Korean diaspora appropriates different forms of Korean language media to negotiate their hybrid identities and for cultural heritage learning. With particular reference to 1.5 and 2nd generation Koreans in Canada, the study examines the role that media produced in Korea – often refers to as “homeland media” – plays in the formation of long-distance nationalism and the transnational renegotiation of Korean identity across Korean diasporic communities. Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted in Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, the proposed project explores the meaning and significance of homeland media in Korean Canadians’ struggle for cultural rights and heritage learning. By focusing on Korean Canadians’ consumption of homeland media in diasporic contexts, this project seeks to address lacunas in both sociology of diaspora and media.