ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of production techniques in shaping representations of cultural diversity in South Korean reality television. We first discuss the South Korean government’s evolving guidelines concerning the representation of minorities on television and identify in the guidelines exhortations against discriminatory framing of migrants. Next, we qualitatively examine three popular multicultural-themed reality television shows and demonstrate that the shows ultimately circumvent the government guidelines via specific production techniques, including voice-overs and format decisions. We argue that these techniques, in combination with genre constraints and financial constraints, play a crucial role in othering the migrants portrayed on South Korean reality television. We conclude by considering how reality television can, and should, more accurately reflect the country’s changing demographics, more positively represent minority guests, and more actively encourage transformative dialogue about South Korea’s multicultural present and future.

摘要

本文探讨了制作技术在塑造韩国真人秀节目中的文化多样性表现中的作用。我们首先讨论韩国政府不断发展的关于少数族裔在电视上的代表性的指导方针，并在指导方针中指出反对歧视性地诬陷移民的建议。接下来，我们定性地研究了三个流行的以多元文化为主题的真人秀电视节目，并证明这些节目最终通过特定的制作技术（包括画外音和格式决定）规避了政府的指导方针。我们认为，这些技术与类型限制和财务限制相结合，在韩国真人秀节目中描绘的移民中发挥着至关重要的作用。最后，我们考虑真人秀电视如何能够而且应该