Women, Television and Everyday Life in Korea: Journeys of Hope

Korea is currently witnessing huge social change with unprecedented divorce rates and the disintegration of the traditional family system. Fusing audience research and ethnography,Women, Television and Everyday Life in Koreapresents a compelling account of women's changing lives and identities in relation to the impact of the most popular media culture in everyday life-television. Within the historically-specific social conditions of Korean modernization Kim analyses how Korean women of varying age and class groups cope with the new environment of changing economical structures and social relations. The central arguments presented revolve around the revelatory and self-reflexive nature of TV talk and its function as a form of empowerment. The book argues that television is an important resource for women, stimulating them to research their own lives and identities. Kim reveals Korean women as creative, energetic, and critical audiences in their responses to evolving modernity and the impactof the West. Based on original empirical research,Women, Television and Everyday Life inKoreaexplores the hopes, aspirations, frustrations and dilemmas of Korean women as they try to cope with life beyond traditional grounds. Going beyond the traditional Anglo-American view of media and culture, this text will appeal to both Korean area studies and media and communications studies.

Youna Kim is Lecturer in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.