East Asian Internet Cultures

This course examines the social, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions of internet life in China, Japan, and South Korea. Our focus will be on the formal diversity of internet use (including websites, social media, mobile phones, blogs, gaming, and streaming video); the relationship between the internet and other media (literature, film, animation, documentary); and interdisciplinary methods for studying online life. By considering how the internet has developed in each country and how it has reshaped identity, sociality, politics, public space, and aesthetic form, we will work towards building a conceptual and critical vocabulary for the comparative study of internet cultures.