Japan and Korea are leading states in Asia and worldwide in the race for technological superiority. At the same time, they dedicate much effort to preserve their traditional culture and represent it in the electronic media. In Japan and Korea tradition serves for mass entertainment and for the creation of a unique national identity. Lately, the internet added a virtual dimension to human relations, to publicity, and to cultural representation, while at the same time broadening the available options for interaction between people, for dissemination of ideas, information, and opinions in Korea and Japan. In the technologically immersed societies of these countries cultural heritage is transmitted through new media. Electronic devices enhance the manner in which traditional symbols are harnessed to various purposes.

The course discusses the ways in which traditional culture in Japan and Korea is presented in mass communication, in the role that the internet serves in preservation and dissemination of ancient heritage, and in the ways in which Japanese and Koreans transform traditions and rituals that used to be performed in a direct face-to-face mode into television and film representations and into the virtual world. During classes we will discuss the use of mass media for promotion of religious festivals, associations of martial arts, and groups dedicated to preservation of ancient structures. We will analyze heritage programs in the television, chats, and homepages of shamans. We will also identify the use of traditional symbols in marketing tourism and commodities, and in political campaigns.