North Korea has been an under-explored area in communication research. Limitations on movement and communication, as well as physical isolation of the country in the global arena, has made it difficult for scholars to produce meaningful research about North Korea. In recent years, however, there have been major developments in the communication infrastructure, with the introduction of cellular phones to the general public, resulting in over 70% of Pyongyang citizens having access. Foreign correspondents from the US, Europe and South Korea have been allowed to set up permanent foreign bureaus. In 2018, the North Korean leader has engaged in fast-paced diplomacy with the US, South Korea and China. Taken together, these changes are leading to a new era in communication about, within and around North Korea.
Considering the historical and geopolitical significance of such developments, it is therefore crucial for scholars to pursue theoretically and methodologically sound research on North Korea. This one-day ICA preconference, supported by the Political Communication and Journalism Studies divisions, aims to bring together leading and emerging scholars around the world to register this shift and examine causes, components and civic consequences of a uniquely isolated – but rapidly changing – country.
To register, email program administrator Hojeong Lee at [email protected].
Program schedule
08:00-08:30 Registration
08:30-09:30 Keynote Speech: How the News Created Kim Jong-un: Crisis and Media Strategy in North Korea
Speaker: HyunKyung Kim (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation)
09:30-10:45 Session 1: North Korea’s Diplomacy and News Media
Chair: Soomin Seo (Temple University)
Patricia Riley and Calvin Kim (University of Southern California): A Tale of Two Summits: Mediation of North Korean Government Press Releases on the Trump-Kim and Moon-Kim Summits of 2018
Siho Nam (University of North Florida): It Takes Two Wackos to Make History: The U.S. News Media’s Construction of the 2018 North Korea-United States Summit
Esmail Esfandiary (Tuskegee University): (Re)constructions and Deconstructions of Nuclear Diplomacy in President Trump’s Discourse: A Comparative Study of Iranian and North Korean Cases
Kadir Jun Ayhan and Siyeon Jang (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies): Let the Sun Shine? Inter-Korean People-to-People Diplomacy in the Absence of State-based Public Diplomacy
Elizabeth Shim (United Press International): Hyperreal Peninsula: South Korea’s Digital Revolution and North Korea’s Nuclear Cinema, 2012-18
10:45-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:15 Session 2: Defector, Diaspora and Intercultural Communication
Chair: Yong-Chan Kim (Yonsei University)
Jiwon Yoon (Northwest University): Influence of South Korean Media on North Korean Defectors During Their Journey from North to South
Yejoo Kim (University of Chicago): Same Sky, Different Horizons: Suspended Division and the Semiotics of Hope in the Jangmadang Generation
Min Sun Kim (University of Hawaii): Intercultural Communication Involving North Korea
Hojeong Lee (Temple University): A Digital Passage of North Korean Diaspora to the Secluded Country
Eunbi Lee and Sangyeon Do (Harvard Graduate School of Education) : Humanizing North Korean Defectors through Alternative Schools for Adolescent North Korean Defectors
12:15-01:15 Lunch Break
01:15-02:45 Session 3: Framing North Korea and Audience Reception
Chair: Seungahn Nah (University of Oregon)
Won Yong Jang (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) and Wan Seop Jung (SUNY Cortland): Covering Singapore: International Media Framing of the 2018 North Korea-United States Summit
Richard Murray (University of Queensland): North Korea and the Journalistic Network: Reporting North Korea for an International Audience
Eric Bucy (Texas Tech University), Sun Young Lee (University of Maryland), and Sojung Claire Kim (George Mason University): Viewer Responses to Consequential News: Visual Framing of North Korea’s Nuclear Ambitions, 2006-2019
Kwangmi Ko Kim, Jinhyuck Choi, and Hyun Park (Towson University): North Korea’s News Frame Analysis Using Data Mining
Suk Jin Chae (Seoul National University of Science and Technology):
From ‘Cruel Enemy’ to ‘Intimate Family’: The 2018 Inter Korean Summit as Media Events
Gooyong Kim (Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) and Kyun Soo Kim (Chonnam National University): The US Mainstream Newspapers’ Coverage Patterns on North Korean Issues: Critical Reflection on the Dynamics of the Media’s Multi-level Agenda-setting and Political Economy
Han Woo Park (YeungNam University) and Yon Soo Lim (Hongik University): Social Media Propaganda of North Korea: An Examination of the YouTube Channels Using Social and Semantic Network Analysis
02:45-03:00 Coffee Break
03:00-04:30 Session 4: North Korea, Images and Communication
Chair: Eric Bucy (Texas Tech University)
Sunkyung Choi (University of North Korean Studies): Making a “Socialist State”: Media and Global Imaginary in North Korea
Yong-Chan Kim and Piao Wenling (Yonsei University): Seoul in Pyongyang and Pyongyang in Seoul: How each of the two cities was represented in other Korea’s media?
Jeeyong Shin (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology): The Intimate Other: Screening North Koreans in the New Millennium
Seung Yeon Won (Yonsei University): Pyongyang Style: North Korea’s Soft Power Strategy in Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and Media Effect
Klive Oh (Pepperdine University): North Korea and Military Affairs as Media Spectacle: A Study of ROKS Choenan and Yeonpyeong Island Events
Nancy Steinhardt (University of Pennsylvania): Why North Korea Matters to an East Asian Art Historian
Yonho Kim (Korea Economic Institute of America): North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era
04:30-05:00 Closing Plenary Discussion
Chair: Seungahn Nah (University of Oregon)