This course addresses key features of Korean society from the 1960s to the present day through K-Pop, film, and drama
Global Cultural Fluency
- Explore Korean cultural values and social change through media: Engage with Korean media to explore the nation’s cultural values, traditions, emotional sensibilities, and modern transformations.
- Analyze Korean media in a historical and social context: Analyze how Korean media from the 1960s to the present reflects, critiques, and shapes the social values, tensions, and transformations of each era.
- Compare cultures to cultivate empathy and global perspective: Compare Korean culture with one’s own to identify both shared and divergent values, fostering intercultural empathy and global awareness.
Critical Interpretation of Media and Society
- Critically examine portrayals of Korean society in the media: Critically examine how Korean media portrays key aspects of society, such as family dynamics, social hierarchies, and cultural identity.
- Investigate cultural and historical forces shaping popular media: Investigate the cultural, social, and historical contexts that shape the production and global reception of K-pop, film, and drama, while applying critical media literacy to analyze their content.
- Interpret media as both social reflection and global connector: Interpret Korean media as a reflection of domestic values and a platform for cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.
Media Research and Cultural Inquiry
- Interrogate Korean entertainment as a vehicle for social commentary: Interrogate how Korean entertainment—such as dramas, films, and variety shows—functions as a platform for social commentary, addressing cultural values, societal changes, and international perceptions of Korea.
- Examine the construction of cultural identity through Korean media: Examine how Korean media—including K-pop, film, and drama—both reflect and shape cultural identity in domestic and global contexts, especially within the Korean Wave (Hallyu).
All course materials are available on Canvas. Students will be given access to all class materials.
Assignments
- Film and Drama Assignments: 30% of final grade
- Lecture Response Assignments: 20% of final grade
- Discussion Participation: 30% of final grade
- Two Projects: 20% of final grade
A: 90-100
Superior performance—Exceptional mastery of Korean media content, critical insight, and cultural synthesis expressed in clear and structured work.
B: 80-89
Above-average, high-quality performance--Solid comprehension of course content, thoughtful analysis of K-pop, film, and drama, and clear application of cultural understanding.
C: 70-79
Average (not inferior) performance--Demonstrates basic understanding of Korean media and provides fundamental analysis with limited depth.
D: 60-69
Below-average performance--Limited comprehension of course materials and insufficient analysis of Korean media and culture.
F: 0-59
Unacceptable performance--Insufficient comprehension, minimal effort, and lack of critical analysis of Korean popular culture.
Although an online course offers greater flexibility, please remember that your timely participation and online engagement are key to your success in this course, as well as that of your classmates.
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
One serious kind of academic misconduct is plagiarism, which occurs when a writer, speaker, or designer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, images, or other original material or code without fully acknowledging its source by quotation marks as appropriate, in footnotes or endnotes, in works cited, and in other ways as appropriate (modified from WPA Statement on “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism”). If you engage in plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct, you will fail the assignment in which you have engaged in academic misconduct and be referred to the Office of Student Integrity, as required by Georgia Tech policy. We strongly urge you to be familiar with these Georgia Tech sites:
- Honor Challenge — https://osi.gatech.edu/students/honor-code
- Office of Student Integrity — http://www.osi.gatech.edu/index.php/
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Writing area.
Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.
This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I write effectively in different contexts?
Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcomes:
- Students will communicate effectively in writing, demonstrating clear organization and structure, using appropriate grammar and writing conventions.
- Students will appropriately acknowledge the use of materials from original sources.
- Students will adapt their written communications to purpose and audience.
- Students will analyze and draw informed inferences from written texts.
Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Persuasion