Transnational Media and Communication

                                 Spring 2018 Wednesday 3:15 PM AVC


Lecturer: Tae-Sik Kim, PhD

Office Hour: Tue & Wed 1:30 – 3:00 PM. Office Number: 5. 50

Contact Information: beinkid@mail.muni.cz


Ø Course Objectives

This course examines transnational contexts stemming from the globalized political-economy system
that has facilitated global mobility of people. The first part of the course is focused on early
understandings of national community and its internationalization. The second part of the course
covers recent theoretical perspectives on transnational media. The third part of the course is
focused on cases highlighting the logic of transnational media and communication. By reading a
variety of research articles assigned in the course and participating in class discussions,
students learn to develop their own research projects focusing on recent socio-cultural changes
affected by the transnationalization of media and communication practices.


·        Comprehend multiple theories of transnational communication.

§  Understand our world as the main context of new transnational communication research

§  Review and analyze a variety of research articles on transnational communication.

§  Build professional experiences by conducting relevant case studies

§  Develop a research project by applying sociocultural experiences.


Ø Syllabus

Week 1. Course introduction

Week 2. Once upon a time, Communication with strangers

Week 3. (pre-trans)National Community

Week 4. Cultural Imperialism  (Response Paper on Week 2, 3, 4 Readings Due: 13. 3. 2018)

Week 5. Reading Week (No Class)

Week 6. New Order: Globalization, Transnationalism, Flexible Citizenship

Week 7. Research Plan Due (No Class)

Week 8. Reflexive Cultural Proximity

Week 9. Cultural Hybridity (Response Paper on Week 6, 7, 8 Readings Due: 17. 4. 2018)

Week  10. Case Study: Research Sample

Week  11. Case: Asian Transnational Flow

Week 12. Case: European Media Market (Response Paper on Week 11, 12 Readings Due: 8. 5. 2018)

Week 13. Class Conference


Ø Literatures

Reading Articles: See, below.


Ø Teaching Methods

The format of the course is a combination of brief lectures and controlled discussions of various
assigned readings.

All students are expected to read all articles assigned and to develop appropriate discussion
questions. Each student is a discussion leader for an assigned week.

Student should submit a research paper (topic of student’s choice in consultation with instructor;
minimum 20 pages including references, figures, and tables).


Ø Assessment Methods


v  ATTENDANCE: 4 unexcused absences during a semester shall be denied academic credit


v  Response Papers (150 x 3 = 450)

ü  Essay on related topics with 2 discussion questions.

ü  Submit only 4 response papers

ü Due dates are indicated above

ü No Late Paper Accepted

v  One Discussion Leader (150):

v  Research Paper (400): Due- Midnight, Monday 11. June. 2018 (Late Paper – Subtract 5% for each
day after the due date)

Total: 1000  A: 900-1000  B: 800-899   C: 700-799   D: 600-699   E: 500-599   F:       -499


Ø Study Materials

Week 2. Once upon a time, Communication with strangers

·        Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied
psychology, 46(1), 5-34.

·        Kim, Y. Y. (2008). Intercultural personhood: Globalization and a way of being.
International journal of intercultural relations, 32(4), 359-368.


Week 3. (pre-trans)National Community

·        Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of
nationalism. Verso Books. CHAPTER Introduction, 1, 2, and 3.


Week 4. Cultural Imperialism

·        Dorfman, Ariel, & Mattelart, Armand. (1971). How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology
in the Disney Comic. New York: I.G. Editions, Inc. (From P 27~  )


Week 6. New Order: Globalization, Transnationalism, Flexible Citizenship

·        Appadurai, A. (2011). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy
1990. Cultural Theory: An Anthology, 282-295.

·        Ong, A. (1999). Flexible citizenship: The cultural logics of transnationality. Duke
University Press. (INTRODUCTION)

Week 8. Reflexive Cultural Proximity

·        Straubhaar, J. (1991). “Beyond Media Imperialism: Asymmetrical Interdependence and
Cultural Proximity," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 8, 1-11.

·        Georgiou, M. (2012). Watching soap opera in the diaspora: cultural proximity or critical
proximity?. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(5), 868-887.

Week 9. Cultural Hybridity

·        Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Hybridity in cultural globalization. Communication Theory,12(3),
316-339.

·        Kraidy, M. M. (2003). Glocalisation: An international communication framework?. Journal of
International Communication, 9(2), 29-49.


Week  10. Case Study: Research Sample

·        Kim, T-S. (2014). A qualitative inquiry into the life experiences of unaccompanied Korean
adolescents in the United States, The Qualitative Report, 19 (40).

·        Kim, T-S (2016). Transnational Communication Practices by unaccompanied Korean young
students in the United States, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal


Week  11. Case: Asian Transnational Flow

·        Iwabuchi, K. (2001). Uses of Japanese popular culture: Trans/nationalism and postcolonial
desire for'Asia'. Emergences: Journal for the Study of media & Composite cultures, 11(2), 199-222.

·        Shim, D. (2006). "Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia." Media Culture
Society 28(1): 25- 44.


Week 12. Case: Transnational Media in Europe

·        Theiler, T. (1999). Viewers into Europeans?: How the European Union tried to Europeanize
the audiovisual sector, and why it failed. Canadian Journal of Communication, 24(4).

·        Georgiou, M. (2005). Diasporic media across Europe: multicultural societies and the
universalism–particularism continuum. Journal of ethnic and migration studies, 31(3), 481-498.