Korean Women Go Global on Social Media: Representation, Algorithms, and Audiences in Transnational Content Creation

Abstract

This dissertation project investigates transnational Korean women content creators’ cultural production at a time when their Koreanness circulates as popular transnational commodities across social media platforms. Drawing on multiple qualitative methodologies, including critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) and in-depth interviews with transnational Korean women content creators, I focus on how the content creators capitalize on and communicate their identity and cultural differences to global audiences by navigating platform architectures, participatory culture, and global hierarchies of culture on social media. Through an exploration of their transnational content creation and influencer labor, this dissertation project addresses three central research questions: 1) How do transnational Korean women content creators capitalize on their Korean identity and culture? 2) How do platforms’ technical architectures and participatory cultures shape how they capitalize on their identity and culture? 3) How do the creators navigate through these dynamics, and what do their experiences imply about the significance of their transnational content creation in the global creator economy? By answering these questions across three empirical chapters, this dissertation illustrates how content creators capitalize on their Korean identity and culture in ways that are personally meaningful to their careers but also have significant cultural implications and value. While algorithmic systems and participatory cultures of social media shape their transnational visibility in ways that often conform to global hierarchies of cultures and race, the creators strategically manage these dynamics, performing transnational influencer labor that facilitates transnational connections and understanding across differences. Ultimately, this dissertation project contributes to transnational popular culture studies, influencer studies, and critical platform studies by expanding on previous conceptualizations of the value and practices of influencer labor on social media by focusing on its transnational, racial, and gendered dimensions.