Locating North Korea in Communication Research

This volume showcases continuity and change in communication with and within North Korea. By approaching the country from three distinct angles – news media, popular culture, and digital technology – this volume looks at media portrayals of North Korea, at cultural discourses in various media, and at the impact of new and emerging technologies.

Taking a variety of communication studies perspectives, this book first addresses why North Korea matters for the general audience, academic audience, and communication scholars in particular, and how communication studies can benefit from studying North Korea. Drawing on insights from history and international relations, this book shows how the Cold War and Old-World Order shape media and communications in places like North Korea, as well as how the desire for people to communicate and to be understood can surpass such a regime’s tight control.

This multifaceted look at communication within this fascinating and under-studied nation will appeal to scholars, researchers, and upper-level students of communication studies, media studies, journalism, new and digital media, and political communication.

Seungahn Nah (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Professor of political communication and journalism, holding the Dianne Snedaker Chair in Media Trust at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. He is also the Research Director of the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology (CTMT), part of UF AI Initiatives. His scholarship examines digital communication, including AI, media credibility, citizen journalism, public deliberation, and civic engagement.

Soomin Seo (PhD, Columbia University) is Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at Sogang University, Seoul, Korea. She writes about news institutions and global journalistic practices. A former journalist who worked in Asia and Africa, Seo studied public policy at Harvard. She has published in journals such as New Media & Society, Journalism, Journalism Studies, and the International Journal of Communication.

Yong-Chan Kim (PhD, University of Southern California) is Professor in the Department of Communication at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. His research focuses on new media technology, urban communication, and risk society. His recent books include Post-Mass Media, Risk, Society, and Media, The Candlelight Movement, Democracy, and Communication in Korea, and The Communication Ecology of 21st Century Urban Communities.

Dal Yong Jin is a Distinguished Professor at Simon Fraser University. Jin’s major research and teaching interests are digital platforms and digital games, globalization and media, transnational cultural studies, and the political economy of media and culture. Jin was inducted as an International Communication Association (ICA) fellow. He is the founding book series editor of Routledge Research in Digital Media and Culture in Asia.