Cultural Hybridity in the Contemporary Korean Popular Culture through the Practice of Genre Transformation

The focus of this dissertation is to show how the media of contemporary Korean popular culture, specifically films, are transformed into “hybrid cultural forms” through the practice of genre transformation. Since the early 21st century, South Korean popular culture has been increasingly spreading across the globe. Despite its growing attention and popularity, Korean pop culture has been criticized for its explicit copying of Western culture with no unique cultural identity. Others view the success of Korean media, both its creative mimicry and its critique of the West, as a new hybrid form that offers the opportunity for reassertion of local identity as well as challenging the global hegemony of the West. Chapter 1 explains the focus of my study and objectives, research questions, methods and background. Chapter 2 provides a literature review that examines the major scholarly works that characterize contemporary Korean film and surveys the historical development of Korean popular culture in its historical and social context. Chapter 3 considers how I approach Korean films from the perspective of theories of cultural hybridity and film genre, introducing the work of Homi Bhabha, Rick Altman, Thomas Schatz, John Cawelti and other scholars. The two chapters that follow analyze the case studies of two genre films—the Korean Western, The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) and the post-apocalyptic sci-fi action film, Snowpiercer (2013)—to elucidate how these films function as a “hybrid cultural form,” and how the practice of genre transformation has a role in unsettling and changing the cultural messages and codes of the dominant culture’s forms. This dissertation argues that cultural hybridization is a key survival strategy of the contemporary Korean media production commercially, aesthetically and culturally. The practice of genre transformation plays a decisive role in creating cultural hybrid texts, which contribute not only to increasing cultural exchange and dissemination but also to the artistic development of cultural expression and, more importantly, to enhancing cultural diversity in an age of global transnationalism

A Content Analysis Of Advertising Transitions: Impact Of Brand Name, Persona, And Appeals

Advertising has long been considered an element of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) tools and has played a crucial role in delivering messages that are reflected by various environmental situations. The authors of this paper posit that components of advertising including contents of messages, language, choice of persona and appeals are strongly affected by such environmental factors as social, cultural, and economic movements. Based on this consideration, this study investigates the trend in advertising markets by reflecting transitional market issues. In particular, this study investigates the effects of brand name, celebrities’ roles, age groups, gender, and advertising appeals. The purpose of the study is to investigate the following elements of advertising that are often affected by such recent transitions as social, cultural, and economic movements: i) effects of a brand name containing meanings; ii) effects of a brand name stemming from the native language; iii) effects of celebrities appearances in ads, iv) effects of age groups and the role of gender in the persona; and v) effects of advertising messages that include rational or emotional appeals. This study conducted content analysis by examining selected TV commercials and gives implications of how the effectiveness of advertising is related to the aforementioned environmental movements, emphasizing which issues should be considered for future advertising content

Do Buyer's Supporting Efforts For Sub-Supplier Make Prime Supplier's Performance Better?

It is widely accepted that capable suppliers do important role for buyer's competitiveness in today's business environment. Moreover, not only the importance of supplier development but also the importance of sub-supplier development has been emphasized. This study examines how buyer's efforts of supporting sub-supplier development impacts on performance of prime supplier. The study results show that while buyer's effort of monitoring and information sharing to sub-suppliers improve the performance of prime supplier, buyer's effort of knowledge sharing do not improve prime supplier's performance.

Tone, pitch accent and intonation of Korean. A synchronic and diachronic view

Intonation of Seoul Korean is noted for the division of utterances into Accentual Phrases (AP). These have a comparable function to stress and accent in languages like English and German. Accentual phrasing (and dephrasing) distinguishes a verb and verb phrase, e.g., [tsal]AP [motʰada]AP ‘cannot do well’, ‘(be) not good at’ and [tsal.mo.tʰa.da]AP ‘to err’. It also creates the contrasts between broad and narrow focus, analogously to accenting and deaccenting. Nonetheless, it has not yet been satisfactorily explained why accentual phrasing has such functions, and issues are left to be dealt with regarding the representation and realisation of AP tones. Clues may well lie in the history of Korean language. There is evidence that Seoul intonation evolved from the sequences of lexical tones in Middle Korean, suggesting that the process of tonal loss should shed some lights on the structure and representation of the present-day Seoul intonation. We follow the process reflected in literary works in Middle Korean, in which tone was transcribed, and the tone (or pitch accent) dialects of Kyungsang, so as to provide a sketch of how Middle Korean lexical tones were reorganised into the tonal events of intonation. We assume that tones are reflected in F0 peaks and valleys, or turning points, in F0 contours. Under this assumption, we identified the tones that minimally constitute an AP. We also investigated the function(s) and structure(s) of the AP tones by examining the scaling and alignment characteristics of F0 turning points and the factors affecting them. Based on the outcome of the investigation, we propose a new analysis of Korean intonation. We define an AP in terms of a LH phrase accent, which is associated with the AP initial syllable with a melodic unit structure. An Intermediate Phrase and Intonation Phrase, respectively, is defined by a boundary tone which demarcates the end of a phrase

Sodium selectivity of Reissner's membrane epithelial cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sodium absorption by Reissner's membrane is thought to contribute to the homeostasis of the volume of cochlear endolymph. It was previously shown that the absorptive transepithelial current was blocked by amiloride and benzamil. The most commonly-observed target of these drugs is the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC), which is composed of the three subunits α-,β- and γ-ENaC. However, other less-selective cation channels have also been observed to be sensitive to benzamil and amiloride. The aim of this study was to determine whether Reissner's membrane epithelial cells could support parasensory K⁺absorption via amiloride- and benzamil-sensitive electrogenic pathways.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We determined the molecular and functional expression of candidate cation channels with gene array (GEO GSE6196), RT-PCR, and whole-cell patch clamp. Transcript expression analysis of Reissner's membrane detected no amiloride-sensitive acid-sensing ion channels (ASIC1a, ASIC2a, ASIC2b) nor amiloride-sensitive cyclic-nucleotide gated channels (CNGA1, CNGA2, CNGA4, CNGB3). By contrast, α-,β- and γ-ENaC were all previously reported as present in Reissner's membrane. The selectivity of the benzamil-sensitive cation currents was observed in whole-cell patch clamp recordings under Cl^--free conditions where cations were the only permeant species. The currents were carried by Na⁺but not K⁺, and the permeability of Li⁺was greater than that of Na⁺in Reissner's membrane. Complete replacement of bath Na⁺with the inpermeable cation NMDG⁺led to the same inward current as with benzamil in a Na⁺bath.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results are consistent with the amiloride/benzamil-sensitive absorptive flux of Reissner's membrane mediated by a highly Na⁺-selective channel that has several key characteristics in common with αβγ-ENaC. The amiloride-sensitive pathway therefore absorbs only Na⁺in this epithelium and does not provide a parasensory K⁺efflux route from scala media.</p

Human microglial cells synthesize albumin in brain

Albumin has been implicated in Alzheimer&#x27;s disease since it can bind to and transport amyloid beta, the causative agent; albumin is also a potent inhibitor of amyloid beta polymerization. In a pilot phase study of Human Brain Proteome Project, we found evidence that albumin may be synthesized in immortalized human microglial cells, human primary microglial cells, and human fetal and adult brain tissues. We also found the synthesis and secretion is enhanced upon microglial activation by Amyloid [beta]~1-42~, lipopolysaccharide treatment or human Alzheimer&#x27;s brain

Understanding Perceptions of Problematic Facebook Use: When People Experience Negative Life Impact and a Lack of Control

While many people use social network sites to connect with friends and family, some feel that their use is problematic, seriously affecting their sleep, work, or life. Pairing a survey of 20,000 Facebook users measuring perceptions of problematic use with behavioral and demographic data, we examined Facebook activities associated with problematic use as well as the kinds of people most likely to experience it. People who feel their use is problematic are more likely to be younger, male, and going through a major life event such as a breakup. They spend more time on the platform, particularly at night, and spend proportionally more time looking at profiles and less time browsing their News Feeds. They also message their friends more frequently. While they are more likely to respond to notifications, they are also more likely to deactivate their accounts, perhaps in an effort to better manage their time. Further, they are more likely to have seen content about social media or phone addiction. Notably, people reporting problematic use rate the site as more valuable to them, highlighting the complex relationship between technology use and well-being. A better understanding of problematic Facebook use can inform the design of context-appropriate and supportive tools to help people become more in control.Comment: CHI 201

Relationship between Work Hours and Smoking Behaviors in Korean Male Wage Workers

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study are 1) to measure the prevalence of smoking according to weekly work hours by using data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), and 2) to explain the cause of high smoking prevalence among those with short or long work hours by relative explanatory fraction. METHODS: Data from a total of 2,044 male subjects who responded to the questionnaire in the 10th year (2007) and 11th year (2008) of the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study were used for analysis. Current smoking, smoking cessation, continuous smoking, start of smoking, weekly work hours, occupational characteristics, sociodemographic and work-related factors, and health behavior-related variables were analyzed. Log-binomial regression analysis was used to study the relationship between weekly work hours and smoking behaviors in terms of the prevalence ratio. RESULTS: The 2008 age-adjusted smoking prevalence was 64.9% in the short work hours group, 54.7% in the reference work hours group, and 60.6% in the long work hours group. The smoking prevalence of the short work hours group was 1.39 times higher than that of the reference work hours group (95% confidence interval of 1.17-1.65), and this was explained by demographic variables and occupational characteristics. The smoking prevalence of the long work hours group was 1.11 times higher than that of the reference work hours group when the age was standardized (95% confidence interval of 1.03-1.19). This was explained by demographic variables. No independent effects of short or long work hours were found when the variables were adjusted. CONCLUSION: Any intervention program to decrease the smoking prevalence in the short work hours group must take into account employment type, job satisfaction, and work-related factors