Futures of Learning

Until the late 1990s, it was hard to imagine that one day Korea would become one of the most powerful players in the global digital media scene. Korea’s current prestige as an ‘IT power house,‘ ‘global digital test bed,’ ‘the most wired country,’ and ‘online gamers’ heaven’ seems to have arrived as a sudden revelation given that “fewer than 1 percent of South Korean residents used the internet in 1984 but by 2004 more than 71 percent of South Korean households subscribed to broadband net service”(Borland and Kanelos, 2004). Since 2002, Korea has been ranked first in the ITU’s Digital Opportunity Index (ITU, 2007), which shows that Korea is fully saturated in most sectors of ICT including games, mobile media, and Internet. In addition, as an early adopter of the latest new media services, Korea’s local experience has become more significant to understanding global new media culture and the dynamics between the local and global. For instance, due to the predominance of domestic technologies and services, Korea has been known for being a difficult market to crack for global Internet services. Yahoo and Google both experienced bitter failure. Recently, after a ten-month struggle, MySpace announced to shut down its local office and the Korean language service by the end of February (www.etnew.co.kr).

To understand Korea’s unique position in global new media landscape, it is vital to consider that, as in most developing countries, rapid technological development has been one of the most urgent collective goals in Korea. Since the 1980s, Korean society, by state intervention, has embarked on an accelerated process of ‘technological modernization’ and ‘informatzation,’ which has been expected to change the fate of the economy, national military power, and social well being in the face of global flows. Considering this social significance, ICT and digital media culture is highly valorized in Korean society. In other words, public discourse surrounding new media practices tends to highlight the economic value of ICT. In particular, after the economic crisis in 1997, this techno-nationalistic discourse has acquired a stronger voice and underlined overall cultural efforts to implement innovative new media services based on ICT. While nation-wide broadband network set the key foundation, game and mobile phone industries have crystallized this paradigm by not only creating the new revenue of national economy but also affecting everyday cultural practices in Korea, particularly those of young people. In this context, it is not surprising to find the sheer opulence of literatures on technological innovations, business models, and policymaking in addition to conventional media effects studies and quantitative communication studies.

Demographic data

Korea has slightly less than 50 million people and the youth population (under 25) makes up about 45.4 percent (KSIS, 2009). About 81 percent of total population lives in urban areas as of 2006 (www.unicef.org). This high-density of urban residence, intensified by prevalent housing patterns in high-rise apartment complexes, is often considered as a favorable factor in wiring the country in a short time. Koreans’ passion for higher education accounts for another secret of the digital revolution. With a well-established compulsory public education system and excessive social expectations regarding higher education, the level of educational achievement in Korea is comparatively high. The most recent nation-wide survey in 2008 shows that adult (over 19 years of age) literacy rate is about 98.3 percent. In 2009, about 93 percent of Koreans are reported to enroll in tertiary school while the primary school enrollment ratio reaches 100 percent (KSIS, 2009). However, as good performance in school education, especially success on college entrance exams, is highly, often obsessively, valorized, private tutoring and cram schools outside of the public education system flourish and other extra-curricular activities for youth are fairly limited. It is reported that Korean adolescents spend their break time after school mostly in after-school programs/tutoring (57.9%), staying at home (15.9%), and gaming (10.2%) (Jang, 2006).

As in other contexts where rapid technological development often entails ruptures within existing social systems and values, the discussion of macro-level social changes in relation to technology use tends to bring up the issue of generational identity of young people, who are the major player in digital media culture. Touted as ‘Digital Generation,’ ‘N Generation,’ ‘Cyber Sinillyu (new human species: new generation)’ ‘Thumb Tribe,’ and ‘Netizen (Net + Citizen),’ Korean Youth have emerged not only as the most powerful and active consumer group but also as new political, social and cultural agents.

Technological data

In 2007, 77 percent of Korean use the Internet on daily base while young people under 30 forms a majority of Internet users, with a usage ratio of 99 percent (NIA, 2008). Since high-speed broadband service was introduced in 1997, it has quickly become the index of digital Korea. In 2005, Korea ranked first for the penetration ratio of high-speed broadband (OECD). Over 14 million Koreans currently are subscribed to high-speed broadband Internet, which is 30.50 percent of the entire population (ITU, 2008). However, if we look at the subscription ratio of high-speed broadband per 100 households, the number increases to 91 percent in 2007 (NIA, 2008). It means that the majority of household enjoys the high-speed broadband connection across the country. Currently, there are eight high-speed broadband service providers including Korea Telecom, SK broadband (Hanaro Telecom), LG powercom, Raincom and others in addition to local cable service providers, which are all private corporations as of now. With KT leading the market, three major telecoms, Korea Telecom, SK telecom, LG telecom, compete in the growing convergent telecommunications market with diverse package products combining broadband internet, IP TV (KT and SKT), mobile phone, fixed landline telephone (KT) and internet phone (VolP).

Korean Internet users primarily access Internet from home computer (96.3 %) or from work (33.1%). Commercial sites such as PC bang (which literally means, PC room, a Korean form of Internet café) follow as 20.9 percent of users frequent these sites. Wireless Internet users through mobile phones are increasing, with 42 million subscribers in 2008 (NIA. 2008). This diversity of locations for Internet access outside of the individual household subscription and the ubiquity of Internet networks unconstrained in physical sites is one of the indicators of the wired Korea. What is particularly interesting is the age-specific preference to certain access sites. While young people in their thirties are comparatively more adaptive to non-location specific (including wireless internet) Internet use, those in their teens and twenties significantly opt for commercial sites (NIA, 2008). In this context, the role of PC bang in shaping Korean Internet culture is noteworthy, particularly to understand youth engagement with the Internet, which I will discuss further in a subsequent post. In general, youth digital media culture in Korea is deeply integrated into the existing commercial entertainment industry, which has actively incorporated digital media devices to expand their conventional venues. Research shows that Korean youth use the computer mostly to find entertainment-related information, to play games, and to use email (Jung et al, 2005). Gaming is indeed the predominant online practice among Korean youth (44.6%)(Korean Game Industry Promotion Agency, 2005). 

Along with broadband, mobile phones, commonly referred to as handphone, emerged as the central player in the midst of transformation toward the digital Korea. Since ETRI and the consortium of corporations launched the world’s first commercial CDMA mobile phone service in 1996, Korea has been a step ahead in exploring CDMA based technological innovations and the latest mobile media services including mobile TV (DMB: Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and Wibro (the first wireless high-speed broadband). Mobile technologies are probably the most rapidly updating sector in Korean technosphere; their impacts are immediate and visible as they continuously replace or refurbish old communication and media services. For instance, as mobile phone subscriptions reached 90.20 percent in 2007, the fixed landline telephones have gradually given away to mobile-based telephony (http://www.itu.int). A teledensity of fixed landline telephones in 2006 was 65.50 yet it drastically dropped to 46.44 in the next year.  Currently, three major carriers run Korean mobile phone service: SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom. They use a monthly billing system that charges according to the accumulated minute usage combined with a range of package options for data service. In fact, Korean mobile carriers are known for their quick and innovative adaptation of/experiments with diverse content service and savvy business strategies to operate the most segmented markets customized for various age groups (McClleland, 2004). Voice and text remain the primary communication modes of mobile phones. However, additional features such as camera, multimedia content service, mobile TV, and wireless Internet are increasingly becoming common.

One of the notable aspects of Korean mobile phones is their continuous evolution to the personal, portable, and convergent media platform. Since SKT inaugurated its commercial 3G mobile phone service (technically 2.5 G with CDMA 2000 1-x system) in 2002, subscribers have gradually increased to about 33 million in 2008 (NISA, 2008). Mobile TV is another memorable addition to this trend toward convergence – especially, convergence between telecommunication and broadcasting- media culture. Two different formats of DMB, T-DBS (Terrestrial DMB) and S-DBS (satellite DMB), have 11 million subscribers in early 2007. Mobile phone is the most common platform to access mobile TV service (95 % for S-DMB and 37.6 % for T-DMB (Ok, 2008)). These new media services not only carry out their intended mission to boost the national economy in the global market but also characterize the multimedia-centered new media practices in Korea.

References

Borland J. & Kanelos, K. (July 28 2004). South Korea Leads the Way. CNET News.com. Retrieved August 25, 2005, from http://www.CNETnews.com.

International Telecommunication Union. (2008). World Information Society Report 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2008, from http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2007.

Jang, K. Y. (2006). Cheongsonyeon Jeongbohwa Hyeunhwanggwa Deungbangan II : Cheongsonyeonui online Senghwalgwa Hakeopjeokeung Hyeunhwang (Informatization among Adolescents and Measures: Online life and School Achievement of Korean Adolescents). Seoul, Korea: National Youth Policy Institute.

Jung, J., Kim, Y., Lin, W., & Cheong, P. H. (2005). The Influence of Social Environment on Internet Connectedness of Adolescents in Seoul, Singapore and Taipei. New Media Society, 7(1), 64-88.

Korean Game Industry Promotion Agency. (2005). Korean Game white Paper. Seoul, Korea.

Korean Statistical Information. (2009). Annuls of International Statistics. Seoul, Korea.

McClleland, S. (2004). South Korea: A CDMA Success Story. Telecommunications International, 38 (9), g S7.

National Information Society Agency. (2008, 2007). Kukga Jeongbo Sahwoehwa Bekseo (National Informatization Whitepaper). Seoul, Korea.

Ok. H.R. (2008). Screens on the Move: Media Convergence and Mobile Culture in Korea. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.