Brand name multiculturalism: the dynamics of the emerging social trend of multicultural awareness in South Korea

Abstract

"Multiculturalism" has been gaining momentum as a buzzword in Korean media and government discourse for the past decade. With Korea‟s relatively low ranking in the 2008 Nation Brand Index, President Lee Myung Bak commissioned the Presidential Council on Nation Branding to raise the overall image of Korea to the world by highlighting multiculturalism as one of its key focuses. Foreign brides, multicultural enclaves, and multicultural citizenship have now become important factors in facilitating Korea‟s growth as a globalized nation. With this new emphasis on "multiculturalism," how much has the situation for foreigners really improved? Koreans are not strangers to collective consciousness, as a history of trauma has shown, and combined with the high connectivity of Korea‟s modern media, issues surrounding multiculturalism are more readily absorbed by society when the national agenda is concerned. By analyzing 4 examples of multicultural issues in the Korean media, the dynamics of the multicultural voice, societal awareness, and emerging trends in multiculturalism can be explained.