This thesis examines how Vietnamese residents living in South Korea experience, document, and share their everyday lives through personal media platforms, with a particular focus on TikTok. The study centers on three main groups: international student...
This thesis examines how Vietnamese residents living in South Korea experience, document, and share their everyday lives through personal media platforms, with a particular focus on TikTok. The study centers on three main groups: international students, migrant workers, and marriage migrants in order to analyze how each group represents experiences related to education, labor, family life, and daily routines within Korean society.
Using qualitative content analysis, the research analyzes 210 TikTok videos produced by Vietnamese residents in South Korea between 2022 and 2024. The findings reveal that although these groups inhabit the same social space, they portray life in Korea in distinct ways that clearly reflect their social positions and migration purposes. International students tend to emphasize diversity and a dynamic lifestyle; migrant workers present pragmatic perspectives closely tied to working conditions and livelihoods; while marriage migrants are more likely to idealize family life and social stability.
Furthermore, TikTok functions not only as a platform for documenting personal experiences but also as a communicative space in which migration experiences are expanded and negotiated through community interactions and comments. In this regard, the thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of personal media in representing and disseminating migration experiences in the context of contemporary digital society.