This study explores the relationship between the identity building process of second-generation Korean Americans, peer group dynamics and the mass media. Second generations are different from their parents in the sense that they have several stages of development in their identities as Americans, Korean Americans, and Asian Americans. In-depth interviews with Korean-American teenagers living in the Boston area revealed that not until later in their teens when they meet with Koreans who come directly from Korea, do they think of their dual identities. But once they encounter Koreans, they feel that they are different from their peer Americans but even more so from Koreans. Identity formation at this stage goes through a complicated process that I termed “re-acculturation” and, at this stage, the Korean-American peer group serves as a social support mechanism, whereas the Korean media helps them to bond with their peers and family.
Alba, R., and V. Nee. 1997. “Rethinking Assimilation Theory for a New Era of Immigration.” International Migration Review 31.4: 826-874.
Bahk, C. M., and F. Jandt. 2004. “Korean Immigrants’ Use of Ethnic and Host Media in the United States.” Asian Communication Research 1: 71-95.
Berndt, T. J., and K. Keefe. 1995. “Friends’ Influence on Adolescents’ Adjustment to School.” Child Development 66: 1312-1329.
Berry, J. 1997. “Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation.” Applied Psychology: An International Review 46: 5-68.
Berry, J. 2001. “Psychology of Immigration.” The Journal of Social Issues 57.3: 615-631.
Berry, J. 2005. “Acculturation: Living Successfully in Two Cultures.”International Journal of Intercultural Relations 29.6: 697-712.
Berry, J. W., J. S. Phinney, D. L. Sam, and P. Vedder. 2006. “Immigrant Youth: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation.” Applied Psychology: An International Review 55.3: 303-332.
Dodson, C. J. 1985. “Second Language Acquisition and Bilingual Development: A Theoretical Framework.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 6.5: 325-346.
Espiritu, Y. 1994. “The Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Class: The Multiple Identities of Second-Generation Filipinos.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 1.2-3: 249-273.
Gans, H. J. 1992. “Second-Generation Decline: Scenarios for the Economic and Ethnic Futures of the Post-1965 American Immigrants.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 15.2: 173-192.
Gans, H. J. 2007. “Acculturation, Assimilation, and Mobility.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30.1: 152-164.
Gordon, M. M. 1978. Human Nature, Class, and Ethnicity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Horenczyk, G., and M. Tatar. 1998. “Friendship Expectations among Immigrant Adolescents and Their Host Peers.” Journal of Adolescence 21: 69-82.
Jeffres, L. W. 1983. “Media Use for Personal Identification: Linking Uses and Gratifications to Culturally Significant Goals.” Mass Communication Review 10: 6-12.
Jeffres, L. W. 1999. “The Impact of Ethnicity and Ethnic Media on Presidential Voting Patterns.” Journalism and Communication Monographs 1: 197-261.
Jeffres, L. W. 2000. “Ethnicity and Ethnic Media Use: A Panel Study.” Communication Research 27: 496-535.
Jeffres, L. W., J. Dobos, and J. W. Lee. 1988. “Media Use and Community Ties.” Journalism Quarterly 65: 575-581.
Jo, H. Y. 2000. “Complexity within Ethnic Culture and Identity Formation: Korean Americans in College Korean Language Classes.” Educational Anthropology Research 3.4: 41-77.
Jo, H. Y. 2002. “Negotiating Ethnic Identity in the College Korean Language Classes.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 9: 87-115.
Jung, E., and C. Lee. 2004. “Social Construction of Cultural Identity: An Ethnographic Study of Korean American Students.” Atlantic Journal of Communication 12.3: 146-162.
Kasinitz, P., J. Mollenkopf, and M. C. Waters. 2004. “Worlds of the Second Generation.” In Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation, edited by P. Kasinitz, J. Mollenkopf, and M. C. Waters. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Kibria, Nazli. 2002. Becoming Asian American. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kim, Y. Y. 1977. “Communication Patterns of Foreign Immigrants in the Process of Acculturation.” Human Communication Research 4.1: 66-77.
Kim, Y. Y. 1988. Communication and Cross-cultural Adaptation: An Integrative Theory. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Kim, Y. Y. 2001. Becoming Intercultural: An Integrative Theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Kim, Y. Y., and Kim Y. S. 2004. “The Role of Host Environment in Cross-Cultural Adaptation: A Comparison of American Expatriates in South Korea and Their Korean Counterparts in the United States.” Asian Communication Research 1: 5-15.
Kim, Y. Y., and W. B. Gudykunst. 1988. Theories in Intercultural Communication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
LaFromboise, T., H. L. K. Coleman, and J. Gerton. 1993. “Psychological Impact of Biculturalism: Evidence and Theory.” Psychological Bulletin 114: 395-412.
Lee, S. 2004. “Class Matters: Racial and Ethnic Identities of Working and Middle-Class Second-Generation Korean Americans in New York City.” In Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation, edited by P. Kasinitz, J. Mollenkopf, and M. C. Waters. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Lee, S. K., S. Sobal, and E. A. Frongillo. 2003. “Comparison of Models of Acculturation: The Case of Korean Americans.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 34: 282-296.
Lee, W. N., and D. K. Tse. 1994. “Changing Media Consumption in a New Home: Acculturation Patterns among Hong Kong Immigrants to Canada.”Journal of Advertising 23.1: 57.
Louie, V. 2006. “Growing Up Ethnic in Transnational Worlds: Identities among Second-Generation Chinese and Dominicans.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 13: 363-394.
Min, P. G., and R. Kim. 2000. “Formation of Ethnic and Racial Identities: Narratives by Young Asian-American Professionals.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 23.4: 735-760.
Moon, S. J., and C. Y. Park. 2007. “Media Effects on Acculturation and Biculturalism: A Case Study of Korean Immigrants in Los Angeles’ Korea Town.” Mass Communication and Society 10.3: 319-343.
Park, S. 2005. “The Impact of Media Use and Cultural Exposure on the Mutual Perception of Koreans and Japanese.” Asian Journal of Communication 15.2: 178-187.
Portes, A., and M. Zhou. 1993. “The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants: Interminority Affairs in the U.S. Pluralism at the Crossroads.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530: 74-97.
Portes, A. 1994. “Should Immigrants Assimilate?” Public Interest 116: 18-33.
Portes, A., and R. G. Rumbaut. 1996. Immigrant America: A Portrait. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Portes, A. 2001a. Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Portes, A. 2001b. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Portes, A. 2005. “Introduction: The Second Generation and the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28.6: 983-999.
Portes, A., P. Fernández-Kelly, and W. Haller. 2005. “Segmented Assimilation on the Ground: The New Second Generation in Early Adulthood.”Ethnic and Racial Studies 28.6: 1000-1040.
Rainie, L. 2008. Increased Use of Video-sharing Sites. Pew Internet and American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/ Reports/2008/Increased-Use-of-Videosharing-Sites.aspx (accessed February 1, 2008).
Rajiva, M. 2006. “Brown Girls, White Worlds: Adolescence and the Making of Racialized Selves.” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 43.2: 165-183.
Rios, D. I., and S. O’Gaines. 1998. “Latino Media Use for Cultural Maintenance.”Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 75.4: 746-761.
Shi, X., and X. Lu. 2007. “Bilingual and Bicultural Development of Chinese American Adolescents and Young Adults: A Comparative Study.”Howard Journal of Communications 18.4: 313-333.
Shim, J. C., and C. T. Salmon. 1990. “Community Orientations and Newspaper Use among Korean Newcomers.” Journalism Quarterly 67: 852-863.
Silberman, R., R. Alba, and I. Fournier. 2007. “Segmented Assimilation in France? Discrimination in the Labour Market against the Second Generation.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30.1: 1-27.
Suárez-Orozco, Carola, and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco. 2001. Children of Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Subervi-Velez, F. A. 1986. “The Mass Media and Ethnic Assimilation and Pluralism: A Review and Research Proposal with a Special Focus on Hispanics.” Communication Research 13.1: 71-96.
Tan, A. X., L. Nelson, C. W. Dong, and C. T. D. Tan. 1997. “Value Acceptance in Adolescent Socialization: A Test of a Cognitive-Functional Theory of Television Effects.” Communication Monographs 64.1: 82-97.
Verkuyten, M, and K. Pouliasi. 2002. “Biculturalism among Older Children: Cultural Frame Switching, Attributions, Self-Identification, and Attitudes.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 33.6: 596-609.
Viswanath, K., and P. Arora. 2000. “Ethnic Media in the United States: An Essay on Their Role in Integration, Assimilation, and Social Control.”Mass Communication and Society 3.1: 39-56.
Walker, D. 1999. “The Media’s Role in Immigrant Adaptation: How First-Year Haitians in Miami Use the Media.” Journalism and Communication Monographs 1.3: 159-196.
Waters, M. C. 1999. “Immigrant Dreams and American Realities: The Causes and Consequences of the Ethnic Labor Market in American Cities.”Work and Occupations 26.3: 352.
Waters, M. C., and T. Jimenez. 2005. “Assessing Immigrant Assimilation: New Empirical and Theoretical Challenges.” Annual Review of Sociology 31: 105-125.
Woo, H. J., and J. R. Dominick. 2003. “Acculturation, Cultivation, and Daytime TV Talk Shows.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 88.1: 109-127.
Xiaoming, H., and Z. R. Runping. 2004. “Media Use by Immigrants in the Process of Cultural Adaptation.” Asian Communication Research 1: 49-69.
Yeh, C. J., et al. 2005. “The Cultural Negotiations of Korean Immigrant Youth.” Journal of Counseling and Development 83.2: 172-182.
Zhou, M. 1997. “Growing Up American: The Challenge Confronting Immigrant Children and Children of Immigrants.” Annual Review of Sociology 23: 63-95.
Zhou, M. 1999. “Coming of Age: The Current Situation of Asian American Children.” Amerasia Journal 25.1: 1-27.
Zhou, M., and S. S. Kim. 2006. “Community Forces, Social Capital, and Educational Achievement: The Case of Supplementary Education in the Chinese and Korean Immigrant Communities.” Harvard Educational Review 76.1: 1-29.
Zhou, M., and S. Xiong. 2005. “The Multifaceted American Experiences of the Children of Asian Immigrants: Lessons for Segmented Assimilation.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28.6: 1119-1152.