The Production of Locality During the Pandemic: Feel the Rhythm of Korea and “Dynamite”

Abstract

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the social construction of locality? To examine the impact of the ruptures between physical mobility and digital fluidity on the media representation of locality, I analyzed two cases (the Korea Tourism Organization’s Feel the Rhythm of Korea project and BTS’ media performances for “Dynamite”) produced during the pandemic. Based on a textual analysis of the chosen video projects, I identified three social techniques in shaping locality: a mixture of the past and present, the territorialization of cultural references and performed bodies, and the rhetorical dichotomization of cultural space. I thus claim that locality is molded through a social practice of subjectivity that theatricalizes place attachment and spatial imagination, both influenced by border closures and digital adoption during the global crisis.