Jaeho Kang

This essay provides a critical observation of the South Korean government's distinctive management of COVID-19 with particular reference to the state of emergency. It reveals that the success of South Korea's handling of the pandemic is largely attributed by a majority of Western media to the efficient deployment of both information and communication technologies and Confucian collectivism, two components that seem contradictory yet not incompatible under the rubric of techno-Orientalism. Analyz

Abbreviations ix Acknowledgements xi 1 Introducing Dr Benjamin 1 There and Then, Here and Now 1 Figuring Benjamin 5 Configuring Benjamin 15 2 The Crisis of Communication and the Information Industry 24 Introduction 24 Storytelling and the Crisis of the Novel 26 The Newspaper and the Information Industry 38 The Intellectuals in the Age of Mass Media 50 Conclusion 62 3 Radio and Mediated Storytelling 65 Introduction 65 Towards a Critical Sociology of the Audience 68 Radio Model 74 Some Motifs for

This essay examines the Olympic Games as a media-space which comprises both physical and mediated spatial attributes. Focusing on the Beijing National Stadium it addresses the new post-geographical spatial experiences that are produced by the layering of physicality and digitization. Drawing methodologies from the fields of ethnography, media studies and design studies, we aim to develop an interdisciplinary approach which critically explores the multiple and intertwined dimensions of these hybr

This essay reassesses the German-Jewish social and cultural critic, Walter Benjamin's famous, yet widely misunderstood thesis of the aestheticisation of politics with reference to the development of the mass media and the crisis of democracy. I argue that his thesis of the aestheticisation of politics represents the focal point of his account of both the crisis of liberal democracy as a deliberative and representative political system and the emergence of fascism as a form of direct political co

Este ensaio se ocupa principalmente do exame dos aspectos metodológicos da concepção de historiografia materialista de Benjamin, a que eu chamo de crítica da cultura (Kulturkritik). Com a noção de Kulturkritik, quero distinguir a análise de Benjamin de "teorias" da cultura e ressaltar sua preocupação crítica com o conceito de "cultura". Ao fazê-lo, quero explicitar os imperativos metodológicos do exame da modernidade como espetáculo. Ainda, também procuro mostrar que a crítica da cultura de Benj

In his last scholarly work, L’Immatériel, André Gorz grapples with the emergence of the new cognitive capitalism based on immaterial labor and capital and, crucially, he seeks to comprehend how advanced technologies—such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, ICTs, and specifically, AI—reshape the very nature of the human subject. Despite its vital contributions, his conventional form of humanism—one that draws clear lines between organic human culture and inorganic machinic systems—is questioned and

Este ensaio reexamina tese de Walter Benjamin da estetização da política relacionando-a ao desenvolvimento das mídias de massa e à crise da democracia. Essa tese é o ponto central tanto de sua concepção da crise da democracia liberal quanto da ascensão do fascismo. O estudo da análise de Benjamin sobre a interação entre a política fascista e as mídias de massa leva a uma consideração crítica da função do espetáculo político na era da mídia e aponta sua relevância para nossa compreensão crítica d