Media & Politics in East Asia

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

How has the Internet changed the ways people voice their opinions, gather information, and organize social movements? Have marginalized groups become more empowered by mobilizing online? Why does increased social media activity often exacerbate political polarization and populism? How has social media affected national elections? This course will analyze these questions and more within the context of East Asia. In analyzing the impact of the Internet on state-society relations, students will analyze state attempts to control media consumption and surveil Internet-use in Communist regimes like North Korea and China. We will compare these trends with similar efforts made by state actors in advanced industrialized countries such as Japan and South Korea. While the Internet-usage is in many ways, still tightly regulated by the state, the Web has in many ways, also empowered people formerly detached from politics to become politically engaged. This has led to both political polarization (and the influx of political extremist groups), as well as large-scale grassroots movements for democratization. Along these lines, we will examine the growth of far-right "netizen" groups in Japan, South Korea, and China and the subsequent proliferation of hate crimes, populism, and ultra-nationalism. We will also read studies of how teenagers used their presence on social media and the blogosphere to eventually lead large-scaled national protests like the 2016 Candlelight Movement in Seoul and the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. Finally, in studying the global diffusion of social protests in the digital age, we will analyze how the #MeToo movement reignited new waves of feminism in South Korea, Japan, and China. What implications does the Internet have for the future democracy?