2A: Final SAPSA - Mukbang

Video Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4XBlt86CIwYQzZNM0d5cXV2Q1U/view

Powerpoint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8MH_8fqr-a9QXVPTHNJa01RdXM/view?usp=sharing

Kalani Murakami

Karen Nguyen

Riyan Lacara

Robert Zhu

ASA 002 A02

June 4, 2017

Mukbang

Our SAPSA topic is on Mukbang, which is an online broadcast of people eating that started in South Korea. Mukbang typically involves a host eating large quantities of food while interacting with their audience. Our intended audience are people who already know what Mukbang is, and anyone else who is interested in understanding this trend since anybody who has access to the internet can be a part of this community. The main goal of our project is to find out the reasons behind the popularity of mukbang, and discover the reasons that made mukabang cross continents to other countries.  

We believe that we did accomplish our goal because through analyzing videos and interviewing people with different background and perspectives towards mukbang, we were able to learn why this cultural phenomenon has spread to the United States. The type of people that are attracted to this trend are people who like to eat and enjoy watching others eat. These types of people exist everywhere which would explain how the trend mukbang crossed continents. Furthermore, it became so popular in South Korea because many people often would have to eat by themselves so by watching other people it, it helped prevent loneliness. We also learned different favoring and unfavoring views towards mukbang.

Throughout the process of our project, we had a few challenges. The first challenge was formating the video to make it within five minutes because the three interviews we did had very interesting and different takes on mukbang. As a result, it was hard to cut the video down to only five minutes. Another challenge was finding a person from South Korea, but with some networking and communication, we were able to locate a person from South Korea that we were able to have a Q and A session with.

If we were to do one thing differently, we would have created and broadcasted our own mukbang, and implemented it in our video. The main reason we decided not to do it was because of the time constraint for the video. We felt that adding in that part would make our video too long. Another thing that we would have done differently, is to have a video record of the interview with the person from South Korea, but there was technical issues so we could only have a voice recording. We also didn’t want to redo that interview because we felt the first interview is genuine, and asking him again could alter his responses.

For the future of our SAPSA, we would like to find out how mukbang, originally from South Korea, has influenced social culture surrounding food in America. Through researching our topic, we found “Americanized” versions of mukbang like the 10,000 calorie challenge and would like to learn more about how this came about. It is very interesting how this cultural phenomenon has crossed continents to create hybridity.