Our research team is examining whether specific motivations, interests, and factors influence how an individual perceives certain media contents, mainly from South Korea. To investigate these relationships, we expose Korean (n = 21), Chinese (n = 16) ...
Our research team is examining whether specific motivations, interests, and factors influence how an individual perceives certain media contents, mainly from South Korea. To investigate these relationships, we expose Korean (n = 21), Chinese (n = 16) and American (n = 11) female participants to recent commercials from South Korea, China, and the US. Unlike traditional social scientific approaches with experiments and surveys, we took an attempt to understand these relationships and the process of media consumption further by examining participants’ brain activities while consuming specific commercials using fMRI. With this method, we could identify particular brain structures that are activated when consuming these media contents consciously and unconsciously. It would be also expected to distinguish different activities that could be correlated with the origin of the media contents and individual factors.
Before the exposure of the media contents, we asked participants to complete a survey to determine factors such as exposure to the culture, motivation for acculturation, and accessibility to culture. After the exposure to media, participants answered another short survey to decide whether or not they remember the products and brands of commercials from the media contents, intent to purchase the product, and involvement with specific brands. With these data, we would like to address whether the factors we measure from surveys influence participants’ endorsement of the product or brand from specific cultural media contents.
Through this research project, we plan to compare survey analyses with fMRI results, and further provide insight into how companies and individuals can appropriately and effectively communicate, especially when dealing with culture, to a diverse set of international communities.