Engaging With the Oscar-Winning Parasite on Social Media: Intercultural Use of Country-of-Origin Frames

Abstract

This study examines how 1,576,302 tweets (now called X posts) in Korean and English discussed the Oscar-winning Korean film, Parasite, through the theoretical lens of framing and Country-of-Origin (COO). Method-wise, the current study used big social media data analysis methods, following four steps—manual coding, keyword extraction, computerized coding, and analysis—which allowed identification of big patterns of COO frames as well as more nuanced analyses. The results show that Korean and English tweets preferred to use different types and frames of COO. English tweets tended to discuss Parasite’s COO in terms of language while using more cognitive (e.g., film quality) and normative frames (e.g., social norms). Korean tweets were likely to discuss Parasite’s COO in terms of country and to use affective frames (e.g., history-making). Overall, the number of Twitter engagement increased with the inclusion of Parasite’s COO information and affective frames, but was suppressed by cognitive frames. The use of normative frames decreased Twitter engagement among English, not Korean, tweets.