Lights, Camera, Algorithm! AI’s Role in the Ethics and Identities of Korean Hallyu and French Media

As AI technologies rapidly transform media production worldwide, urgent questions arise about cultural authenticity, creative labor, and national identity in an algorithmic age. These issues will be addressed by international experts at the workshop entitled, “Lights, Camera, Algorithm! AI’s Role in the Ethics and Identities of Korean Hallyu and French Media.” Hosted by Boston University’s Emerging Media Studies Division and Feld Professor James E. Katz, the event is free and open to the public.

This workshop will explore the cultural, ethical, and technological implications of generative artificial intelligence in two influential media ecosystems:

• South Korea’s Hallyu (Korean Wave) — a global cultural export characterized by high production values, strategic branding, and alignment with national soft power goals.

• French popular media — particularly television, cinema, and digital content as interpreted through the philosophical work of Sandra Laugier, who views popular culture as sites of moral reflection on the ordinary.

The central inquiry concerns how AI technologies—such as automated dubbing, script analysis, synthetic video, deepfake technology, and AI-generated characters—are reshaping these traditions. We will examine both practical issues (authorship, labor, authenticity) and deeper philosophical questions (representation, agency, moral storytelling) as well as the global implications of such technologies on media production and co-consumption.

Organizer: James E. Katz, Ph.D., Feld Professor of Emerging Media

Boston University Scientific Advisory Board: Juliet Floyd, Eric Gordon, Roy Grundmann, Eugenio Menegon, Wesley Wildman, and Sung-Un Yang

Sponsored by the Feld Professorship of Emerging Media

Co-sponsored by the Emerging Media Studies Division and the Harold Burson Professorship in Public Relations