Korean American Media - Essay Example

That was the reaction that went viral when word spread about the making of K-Town in Los Angeles’ Korea town. Even the Korean American greybeards were afraid that this show would make them look bad.K Town’s executive producer, Mike Le, was amazed at how fast the rumor went before they produced anything. This excitement and media coverage illustrate the thrill felt by the world feels, as if they were not expecting such a show to be released. This gave the production crew the much-needed morale to provide quality production, as they enjoyed media coverage before the show’s release.

Magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and New York Post. Even SNL and Chelsea Lately covered the story of KTown’s release (Yang, 2012). Soon, Hollywood also got wind of this upcoming reality show, and two prestigious networks were battling over airing of the show. However, things did not work out from there on. This was until LOUD’s newly launched YouTube channel aired no holds barred online edition of KTown. The show was described as buzz worthy and high impact. From the cast and character development in K Town, it is evident that its production is aimed at challenging some of the existing stereotypes of Korean Americans. . This leads to a series of vengeance, betrayal, and romance.

This depiction contradicts the model minority stereotype. This is according to an article by Yang Jeff, ‘Tough Times for Tiger Mom as Asian America Meets Jersey Shore’ that was posted in Speakeasy on July 17, 2012.K Town portrays Korean Americans as partygoers, with theimmense preference to the nightlife of Korea town. In this show, both men and women party together and the men are portrayed asflirtatious and fighters.This is contrary to the known stereotype that Korean Americans are conservatives and with good morals.

They do not publically display affection like kissing, and they are faithful, sticking to one partner. Furthermore, Korean American women have always been assumedconservative as opposed to outgoing. Their women do not indulge in public drinking, let alone with men. However, K Town’s Scarlet and Jowe both go out, and get seriously drunk after which Jowe starts flirting with other girls. Another stereotype is that Koreans mind about their perception and image they portray to the world. Because of this, the show was met by some criticism since the Korean community was afraid of negative depiction of their culture to the world (Wang, 2012).

And indeed, the show portrayed the side of Korea’ nightlife that they are not comfortable with exposing to the world. As such, K Town was described as an Asian version of America’s Jersey show. It should be noted that these criticisms do not imply that such occurrences do not happen in Korea. Far from it, they do happen but most Korean K Town critics object because of public exposure. This is according to another article titled ‘The Altered Reality of K