Full Description
This book examines key features, problems, and implications of the 2016-2017 Candlelight Movement, a historical cornerstone for democracy and social movements in South Korea.
The Candlelight Movement brought profound social changes with important lessons and questions for scholars, practitioners, activists, and the public. To examine the full complexity of the movement, this edited volume utilises wide-ranging methodological and theoretical approaches, which include case study approaches, ethnography, survey, feminist film criticism, critical discourse analysis, and rhetorical criticism. Chapters place 'communication' at the centre of their analyses, calling attention to the mediated and mediatised, the performative and other discursive practices of the 2016-2017 Candlelight Movement. In doing so, the book discusses not only the usual players and factors - nor the institutions that exert their influence through democratic politics and the public sphere - but also the counter-public embracing new and social media, collective singing, the body, and performance, as their choice of political media. As such, this volume offers important insights into how communication plays a critical role in forming, moving, and transforming new social movements.
The Candlelight Movement, Democracy, and Communication in Korea will appeal to students and scholars of communication and media studies, political science, sociology, and Korean studies.
Contents
Part 1: Media and media space 1. A crisis of press freedom: Investigative journalism and the downfall of the President 2. One small action for the larger movement 3. Social media use on protest sites during the 2016-2017 candlelight vigils in Seoul Part 2: Culture and performance 4. "With the brightest light we have": K-pop fandom in candlelight movement and diversification of Korean protest culture 5. Channeling anger into hope 6. Dancing for hope: The shamanic ritual and performative Koreanness at the candlelight protests Part 3: Counterpublics and representation 7. Contested neoliberal vulnerability: Laboring, feminine, and queer subjects in the streets of the impeachment protest 8. The conservative news media outlets: Blowing out candles for economic democracy 9. From flags to candles: Visual hailing and articulation of nation Appendix: An analysis of contemporary Korean society through the candlelight movement: A historical perspective to the social phenomena and changes
