Published Paper Details:

The widespread popularity of the Korean Wave, often known as Hallyu, has had a huge impact on the culture of youth in most of the nations in the form of music, television shows, digital literature, and graphic narrative sources like webtoons or web novels. As the digital media platforms and streaming services rapidly grow, the popularity culture of Korea has gained more access by the young generation of the world. In India, the given phenomenon has become especially topical due to the fact that the country contains one of the largest numbers of children and teenagers actively involved into online entertainment and digital reading platforms. The emotional experience, preference to certain culture, and identity formation of the young people may be influenced by exposure to the foreign cultural narratives, characters, and ideals of culture. On the one hand, Hallyu content provides a chance to exchange cultures and learn language as well as be inspired creatively, on the other hand, there have been fears of over consumption of media, parasocial relationship with fictional characters and possible cultural disorientation among the youth watching and reading the content. This paper will explore the psychological, cultural, and educational influence of the Korean popular culture such as books, webtoons and web novels on the Indian children and adolescents. The study will take a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative polls and qualitative interviews, discussions in focus groups, and content analysis of widely read Korean digital literature. The research is aimed at determining the trends of media use, emotional reactions, identity perceptions and academic interest/activity related to exposure to Korean cultural stories. Through these relations, the study aims to give evidence-based information about the way the global media can contribute to the development of youths in the educational context. Results are likely to be applied in designing various schemes of media literacy, parental guidance, and school-wide policies that could head to balanced digital use and lessons culturally inclusive of learning.