The Cultural Mediatization of the Korean Wave Phenomenon in Malaysia: The Role of Social Media Influencers as Social Agents

This study seeks to understand the role of social influencers in promoting and maintaining the power of the Korean Wave phenomenon. Aims to understand the process of mediatization in contemporary youth culture and how social media has played a role in creating the mediated world. This study also analyses the role of social influencers as social agents in the Korean Wave phenomenon in Malaysia. This study used qualitative research netnography and in-depth interviews due to the movement control orders or lockdowns in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Content on open-account social media was chosen as part of the observations. In addition, in-depth interviews among the social influencers and the person in charge from Korean Embassy Malaysia were also conducted. This study shows social media as a catalyst in connecting fans and allowing fans to create their own mediated world via online community. Social influencer plays a critical role in consolidating the process that brings fans and Korean popular culture closer with the information on the Korean Wave obtained without interruption and filters. Social influencers helped lead to negotiated creations of social reality, empowerment of fans and evolution of the Korean Wave became an essential part of the phenomenon.