Oegugin Influencers and pop nationalism through government campaigns: Regulating foreign‐nationals in the South Korean YouTube ecology

Abstract

In South Korea, it has become a growing trend for foreign Influencers to promote Korean cultures, especially through genres like mukbang (livestreamed binge-eating), beauty vlogs (e.g. "A day in the life of"), reaction (e.g., K-pop and K-drama "reacts"). This is observed in popular cross-platform hashtag streams like "oegugin" [#외국인; "foreignnationals"], and "oegugin-baneung" [#외국인반응; "foreigner reactions"]. While institutions frequently deploy Influencers as ambassadors, the popularity of oegugin Influencers-particularly those of White descent-is prominently observed in South Korea alongside the global popularity of K-culture. In response, this paper details the emergent interventions toward the development and regulation of the oegugin Influencer ecology, by reviewing the strategic choices of oegugin Influencers when they work with government ministries and companies, especially around nation branding campaigns and contents. Specifically, we consider how the discourse of nation branding and nationalism is being shaped, promoted, and advocated by oegugin Influencers in the form of popular culture, despite Korea's existing racial system, which can be contentious for its entanglements with online hate and xenophobia. Further, we focus on what we call "pop nationalism" as evidenced in the oegugin Influencers' nationalist

Introduction to the Special Issue of “TikTok and Social Movements”

“…For example, influencers serve as “opinion leaders” of leading the flow of information (Martin & Sharma, 2022). Their roles as “nodes” at which individuals gather and build bonds on social media, and as “mediators” of values circulating through media contents (J. Lee & Abidin, 2022, p. 547), help social movement messages spread and (potential) participants get connected for collective action.…”

Chinese Online Celebrities’ Discursive Strategies of Promoting Domestic Products: Online Posters as Multimodal Ensembles

“…Chinese online celebrities, acting as the "responsible advertisers", spare their efforts to promote the state-initiated "buy national" trend. The online celebrity ecology has become a marketplace for selling nationalism (Lee & Abidin, 2022). In this study, we will adopt a multimodal perspective to investigate how domestic products are promoted or supported by a specific group of online practitioners-online celebrities and how they produce online posters under dual commercial and nationalist agendas.…”