Korea
Launch!
I’m happy to be launching a new blog that documents a new research effort just getting under way, a follow on to some of the work that I have been doing with the MacArthur Foundation Digltal Media and Learning initiative. After completing three years of ethnographic research on youth new media practice with an extended research team, I am taking a step back and trying to get a better sense of what has been happening in the field while I’ve been deeply immersed in the empirical work. I’ll be among a really great international group of researchers, who will be taking a few months to do reading on research and practice in the area of new media and learning, and also to visit different institutions and projects in the US and elsewhere that are innovating in this space. Along the way, we will be using this blog as a way to share some of what we are learning, and to solicit feedback on our work in progress. We will be posting book and article reviews and reports from our visits to various sites and conferences.
This work is one small piece of the broader effort of the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning initiative and its many partners to support the growth of a field of new media and learning. Our ambition its to help grow a field of research and practice that is grounded in deep knowledge of the changing landscape of new media, as well as in an understanding of innovation in educational and design practice. Just as we hope our earlier research on youth new media practice can inform the research community as well as practitioners in education and technology development, so we hope this review of work in the field can help inform a wide range of stakeholders in this field.
Mobile-Girls @ Digital. Asia
Lee, Dong-Hu, et al, Eds. (Paju, Korea: Hanul Academy, 2006)
The title is catchy, true to the point. It just grabs all the hot spots within current discussion of youth digital culture: mobile, girls, digital, and Asia, in a fashionable yet quite adequate form. As a cultural studies scholar who has been chasing newly emerging digital media culture in Asia, particularly, mobile screen culture in Korea, I am always hungry for this kind of scholarly works that deliver vivid pictures of everyday use of ICTs. In spite of recent academic and popular interest in the Asian innovation and uptake of ICTs, ethnography or cultural studies based research studies are still rare, though increasing, compared to the plethora of the in-depth analyses of technological innovation, macro policy and industry models of ICTs implemented in Asian techno-centers. Often, these attempts to unearth the secret of Asian success seem to consolidate its myth, the image of digitized Asia, leaving our urgent questions unanswered: what people actually do with these technologies? Meanwhile, the linguistic barrier delays the conversation between these sites and outside observers, limiting our access to local perspectives toward what is happening in their everyday lives. Personal, Portable, and Pedestrian (2005) is a nice exception that delivers rich textures of Japanese mobile culture captured by insiders’ eye to the global readers. Turning to Korea, I have to say unfortunately much of its stories still left veiled behind such renowned tags as ‘IT-powerhouse,’ ‘the most wired country,’ ‘online Gamers’ Heaven,’ and ‘digital Korea,’ though we recently see increasing numbers of English-written studies on Korean Social Network Sites (mostly, Cyworld), Game Industry (PC bang and online game), and mobile media.
Considering this situation, I am happy to introduce Mobile-Girls @ Digital.Asia, a timely and valuable work that well serves to fill the gap of knowledge. This anthology came out of the international symposium, “Mobile Practice: Girls’ Culture and Digital Mobile Media”(2005). Nine articles by fourteen Korean scholars from Women’s Association for Communication Studies (KWACS), the organizer of the symposium, and international scholars including Angel Lin, Larissa Hjorth, Abin Tong, and Laura Miller provide substantial ethnographical research findings of gendered mobile phone use (centered on SMS and MMS usage) in the Asia-Pacific region (Mostly Korea, but including Japan, Hong Kong and Australia). In terms of its theoretical orientation and methodology, this book resonates to what Personal, Portable, and Pedestrian achieved, the serious attention to locally specific yet globally resonant youth (particularly, girls) mobile phone practices. As the book is written in Korean and hence does not allow access to most non-Korean readers, the brief outline of contents might be useful to apprehend the range of works.
From the outset, the book acknowledges girls’ marginalized position in this region in terms of social/financial/political hierarchies and attempts to reassure that teenage girls’ mobile phone culture have played a significant role in diversifying and cultivating the mobile phone as a ‘personal medium.’ The book consists of three parts: Part 1: Korean Sonyeodeul (Korean word Sonyeo means girl), Gender, Culture and Digital Mobile Technology, Part 2: Digital Asia and Mobile Girls, and Part 3: Digital Sketchy of Girls’ Subculture: Networking and Dynamics. Three articles in the first part solicit out general theoretical issues of gender, technology and media use through the textual analysis of the commercial advertisement (Lee, Dong-Hu, “Gender Image in Mobile Phone Advertisement”), the assessment of the notion (and the discursive construction) of ‘Sonyeo’ as physical/social/cultural identity and its presence in the technological field (Kim, Ye-Ran, “ Sonyeoseong (Girl’s Identity) and Mediafication of Body: Mobile Communication Culture and Sonyeo Discourse”), and the empirical research of Korean women’s practice of mothering with the mobile phone (Kim Myeong-He, “The Reproduction of Mothering with the Mobile Phone”). While the first part attempts to map and address overarching theoretical issue of gendered mobile phone use in Korean context, the second part extends this discussion to the other Asia-Pacific experiences. In particular, Larissa Hjorth’s article is notable. In “Gendered Mobility: Customization and Gender in the Asia-Pacific Region,” she offers the comprehensive and detailed analysis of what she calls the “topography of personalization” drawn from her accumulated ethnographical researches of teenage girls’ practice of customization (from the decoration of mobile phone device to the use of favored features of the multimedia phone) in four different national contexts (Korea, Japan, HK and Australia).
The third part is particularly interesting as it delves into the micro-level details of everyday life of Korean ‘Thumbelinas.’ Authors argue that Handphone (a Korean word for mobile phone) is an “affective digital technology” that allows high school girls to create and micro-coordinate their intimate personal networks in and outside of the surveillance of elders’ eyes as well as functions as a ‘personal memory box,’ the object of emotional affection (Kim-Go Yeon-Joo & Lee Ji-Eun, “Handphone as Emotional Media: Focusing on the Teenage Girl’s Daily Use of Handphone”), a creative and expressive tool for girls play culture in their use of ‘emotext’ (emotion + Text)(Lim Sook-Hyun et al, “Sonyeo’s Handphone Play”), and the central space for ‘chatting’ among their peers that increases the sense of intimacy and belonging to their community (Kim Eun-Jin et al, “Mobile Sonyeo’s Suda (Chatting)”).
Overall, each article makes numbers of interesting points. One of overarching themes I find notable is the position of youth mobile culture in a broader cultural context, which is often constituted and represented in terms of ‘conflict’ or ‘difference’ in the public imagination. Especially, Part 1 nicely raises questions on the ambiguous status of Korean youth who are called ‘Digital Generation,’ ‘Cyber Sinillyu (new human species: new generation),’ ‘Thumb tribe,’ and ‘Netizen (Net + Citizen).’ Korean youth, as far as digital technologies concerned, remains a contested terrain where the tensions provoked by the digital divide, mainly according to generational gaps, is intermingled with the celebratory expectation of its prosperity. I agree with this point that ambivalent representation of Korean youth in public and even academic discourse, both elevated to the future hope in techno-nationalistic Korea and at the same time condemned as a threatening force to the existing social norms (accused for their cyber delinquencies and different lifestyles), let the real picture of young peoples’ lived experience slip through.
Yet as much as I agree it is vital to account for the contextual specificities in interpreting the actual practices, I sense the potential drawback of context-determinism, as in the case when the socially constructed girls’ role is taken for granted as a given condition without further consideration of other variables. This could lead to another quanundrum that I find from this volume: the implied assumption of biological determinism. I would not see it problematic to argue girls’ mobile phone culture significantly contributed to constructing mobile technology as it is, as a personal medium that consolidates the intimate relationship. However, the simplistic assumption that girls want to continue, or in other words, favor to build their intimate relationship with whatever available technologies somehow seems to easily collapse the gender identity with the specific form of social relationship building (in the same vein, selection of research themes such as ‘mothering’ and ‘chatting’ may be questionable as it tends to preset the boundary of practices.) Even though these are in fact prominent practices of girls/women that have been widely observed and definitely deserve serious attention, we could also learn more from self-reflexive questioning, before hastily moving into this direction.
Finally, just as this book draws on the geopolitical boundary of Asia-Pacific, it is an ongoing challenge to define the ‘regional’ characteristics of mobile phone use, if any. To begin with, generalizing Asia as one entity is certainly problematic considering the unequal dissemination of digital/mobile technologies across the region. It is truly a few technological centers such as Japan, Korea and maybe HK that have spurred this hype of Digital(and Mobile) Asia. More importantly, what implications can we draw from thinking about specific ‘regionality’ in relation to the global and local mobile phone culture? This book does not explicitly answer to these questions. Larissa Hjorth’s article may be a suggestive example that presents the value of cross-cultural research in finding answers, as she provides a comparative frame against which locally specific girls’ practices acquire additional meanings. In the end, this is one of those questions that keep haunting/stimulating our international literature review team along the way.
Book Review: Internet and Asian Cultural Studies
Cho-Han Hae-Joang et al, Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press, 2007
I visited Korea recently. Since it was a short stay, I did not have much chance to update myself with busy observations on ever-changing technosphere in Korea as I would usually do. Yet I managed to meet a young cultural studies researcher, Kim Hee-Won who has been keeping a sharp eye on the Internet world and its young inhabitants, thanks to Larissa Hjorth’s kind introduction. Chatting with/interviewing Hee-Won in the midst of my jet lag stupor was more than refreshing, and we simply could not agree more about the dearth (and urgency) of serious research on new media practices and cultures in Korea in the shadow of the hyped image of wired Korea.
One of interesting points from our conversation that grabbed me was Hee-Won’s view on the generational identity of young Koreans in their 20s with regards to their new media practices. Hee-Won reads their intensive attachment to such new media services as Minihompy, messenger, and SMS and their often obsessive attempt to be constantly connected as a form of performing a reciprocal “check-up of (their) survival for another day.” It is generally true that these new social media intensify the sense of ‘constant on’ for users across generations. Yet as Hee-Won suggests, this practice may reflect the desire for the emotional comfort from assuring one’s presence within the network. In particular, this interpretation makes quite appealing sense when it comes to Korean youth in 20s whose insecure social status, resulted from increasing unemployment rate since 1997 economic crisis, has become a widely acknowledged social issue. In other words, Internet has provided the major playground and outlet for this frustrated generation.
Our speculation on this specific group of youth got me rethinking and reassured about the simple principle of our study on digital media and youth: the importance of considering historical and cultural specificity of diverse groups of young people under the umbrella of the term ‘youth’ as well as recording the transformative and transient nature of media practices. Certainly, Internet would not be the same space for Korean teenager who is born into it with many other available options of digital media and the twenty something whose primal new media experience began with the burgeoning Internet.
Moreover, I am glad to find my question is not wasted yet more profoundly addressed in Internet and Asian Cultural Studies, an anthology Hee-Won kindly gave me. Written in Korean by renowned as well as young cultural studies researchers who are mostly rooted in Yonsei University’s Graduate Program in Culture and Gender Studies, this book provides a great historical standpoint to what they call, “holding back” moment of Internet culture in Korea. Declaring the end of the first stage of Internet fever, it attempts to surmise the legacy of wired Korea in early 2000s and record the transition of the Internet from the wild new space for various voluntary and civil experiments to the striated space for tired/accustomed patterns overrun by the commercial logic, at the threshold of institutionalized “networked era.”
Each article based primarily on ethnographical field research presents so many interesting findings and rich details of what have constructed newly emerging alternative space for Korean and Korean youth. Yet, an anthology format always makes it hard to dwell on each argument. To briefly introduce the gamut of researches, the book includes Cho-Han Hye-Joang’s thought-provoking review of the history of Korean Internet culture with focus on specific ‘agencies’ and ‘sites’; Kim-Cheong Hee-Won’s comprehensive analysis on Cyworld community; Hwang Sang-Min’s, an author of the Dehanminkook Cyber Sinillyu (Korean Cyber New Generation), qualitative study on online community, Gaming(Maple Story), and the role of play for learning and identity formation in cyberspace; Park Geon-Ha on Progamers’ world; Yun Te-Jin on the transnational consumption of popular cultural products, especially reception of foreign television drama content across Asia; Kim Hak-Sil and Lee Chung-Han on active consumption and re-appropriation of Japanese entertainment content by young Korean fans; Kim Hyun-Mi on the lagged establishment of accompanying laws and policies and shifting cultural values in Internet space.
In spite of limited space here, I would like to highlight Cho-Han Hye-Joang’s works as her article presents overarching themes of the book. Cho-Han is a renowned cultural anthropologist who has been delving into the issues of gender and youth culture in modern Korea for the last 30 years. She is one of few anthropologists who not only keep critical eyes but also act out pronouncedly on the emerging cultures and changes of Korean society along with Internet and new media technologies. For example, Seoul Youth Factory for Alternative Culture (Haja Center), where Cho-Han is the founding director, is one of exemplary institutional projects that run alternative and innovative learning programs for young people.
In her article, she raises two questions: how has Korea established the infrastructure of the Internet network so fast and where are the Internet venture companies and online netizens who built and grew out of this environment now? While there have been various academic and journalistic attempts to unearth the secret behind the success of IT-power house Korea, Cho-Hans’s answer to the first question resonates to those views that pinpoint the operating discourse of techno-nationalism underlying rapid technological developments, which I also see as the central drive behind the development of mobile technology in Korea. It is no doubt that the nationalistic and collective (state-leading yet with active engagement of market and citizens) model, which had once worked well for the rapid industrialization of Korea, did the same trick for the informatization during the 1990s. What Cho-Han adds, based on her rich experience as an educator and early adopter of the Internet at every stage, is her reflective examination of the role of the ‘civil’ sector - the vigorous civil and voluntary experiments in online space of early days (1998-2002)- which she characterizes as the process of establishing “condensed modernization,” “cyber democracy,” temporary self-regulated space,” and “alternative public space.”
In spite of many strong points, however, this book bears one noticeable weakness: the limited attention to the ‘Asian’ aspect of given issue. Betraying what the title promises, it mostly focuses on Korean phenomena. When the Asian and transnational perspective comes into play, it only tackles Japan-Korea cultural exchange. Nevertheless, this anthology expresses its commitment to connecting Korea with other Asian contexts by providing the substantial analysis of Korean case that could potentially illuminate similar social changes undergoing in other Asian countries. Yes, it is true that what we learn from early examples could light up the following discussions yet it would only be the beginning step of what we expect from future comparative researches.
New Media Practices in Korea: An Introduction
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.
New Media Practices in Korea: Part 1. The Internet
In 1997, the first major portal Daum began its free email service and subsequently opened Internet cafes (public forums) two years later. Since its early days, online space in Korea was rarely considered as purely cyber or virtual space occupied by techno-geek. Instead, the strong connectivity between online and offline reality defines Internet as an inextricable part of techno-culture in Korea. While the excessive commercialism of internet culture often becomes the target of cultural critique, its potential as an alternative public space that can harbor diverse voices free from the regulations of authorities and can nourish new ways of civil democracy attracts the attention of both Korean and foreign scholars. The early buzz about Ohmynews is a typical example of celebrating the new form of ‘citizen journalism’ (Rheingold, 2002). Cho (2007) assesses that these vigorous civil and voluntary experiments characterize early days of Internet in Korea (1998-2002) as “temporary self-regulated space,” until it was eventually governed by commercial networks.
In this context, it is not surprising that ‘online community’ is at the center of the discussion. Since early 2000s, online community, housed in several major portals such as Daum and Naver, has become the main site for online activities. These domestic portal sites yield the enormous power of structuring Korean Internet culture in unique ways. For example, among general Korean Internet users, Naver is the most popular search engine with its famous Jishiin, one of the early crowd sourcing search system if not the first to incorporate the ‘collective wisdom.’ Although Naver’s search engine mostly provides information within its own network, Korean users prefer its easy and quick access to useful information garnered from its huge database of individual blogs, public forums, news and multimedia content. Naver and Daum occupy 88.3 percent of domestic search engine market while Google falls short with 2.1 percent share (NIA, 2008). At the same time, numerous online communities and public forms in these sites, spread across diverse categories such as tastes, ages, and vocations, tend to be more influential than individual power bloggers in shaping public opinion (i.e. Daum Agora Café). When the controversial social issues arise, they easily turn into the sites for public debate that often accompanies new forms of political actions such as online petition, cyber protest, and the relay of banners. In 2008, Daum alone had around 7.3 million cafes running and the average of 3000 – 4000 new cafes opened daily (www.daum.net).
Young people are main residents of this online space. Their activities in various online communities have become the central focus of the discourse on cyber youth culture. In conversation with the overall changes of Korean society in political and cultural sphere since the 1990s, Bae (2003) and Yoon (2001) define the ‘Net’ generation as a new social group growing out of online community. In the same vein, Choi (2005) argues Net generation embodies a new form of identity that blends newly emerged individualistic lifestyle and anonymous networking in online space, which is distinguished from the existing social behaviors of older generations. This socio-psychological approach constructs the image of Korean youth who easily accept the cyber space as an extension of the real world and enjoy exploring diverse new media tools for self-expression (Hwang, 2000; Soh, 2002).
In particular, interest-driven online communities are major playgrounds for Korean youth. They are the center for active knowledge building and informal learning that is motivated by diverse leisure activities. According to Cho (2006), in 2003, 99.1 percent of Korean adolescents who used computers daily, logged in to the Internet and 89.1 percent of them has a membership in more than one online community: Each person had an average of 13.7 communities. The overpowering presence of the youth in online community is increasing each year. In 2003, 77.7 percent of the Daum café user is in their teens and twenties and they also make the majority of the café managers (Kang, 2003). Young people join online community activities primarily “to share with same interest and taste” (62.9%) and continue engaging with them “in order to attain information or knowledge”(39.9%) (Hwang, 2003). Fan communities are full of these shared learning activities, often about other cultures. For example, it is common for young people to teach each other basic level Japanese in a typical portable game fan community (Cho, 2006). The popularity of online community-based activities is often attributed to its function as the emotional outlet for youth in Korea, where alternative play culture and the democratic communication structure across generations tend to be repressed in real life. In that sense, youth targeted online communities such as Sayclub (Kang, 2003) and Damoim (Kim, 2003) meet their desire to hang out and carve out their own space outside of adult supervision and social pressures.
On the other side, blogging is another prevalent online practice. In fact, Korea “boasts the second largest number of bloggers in the world, surpassed only by the Unites States of America” (Choi, 2006). However, it is interesting that blogging in Korea is closely linked with the adoption of social network sites (SNS). While blogs are considered to be the private space compared to the more public-oriented online communities, young people use blog primarily “to build and maintain social relationship” rather than to engage “journalistic or participatory activities” (Kim, 2006; Choi, 2006). Cyworld, one of the first SNS service in the world that was introduced in 1999, represents this culturally specific tendency in Korean blogsphere. Over 90 percent of Korean Internet users in their twenties are members of Cyworld (http://times.hankooki.com). Its phenomenal popularity and social impact generated cultural syndrome across generations, ages, and genders as its membership equates approximately to one quarter of the nation’s entire population. Referring to the obsessive use of Cyworld, new jargons such as Cying (doing Cyworld)’ and Cy-pein (Cy fanatic/geeks) have become popular additions to everyday conversation. In this context, it is not surprising that most Korean/English studies of SNS and blogsphere in Korea focus on Cyworld.
Most of all, it is the unique formal aspects of Cyworld that distinguish it from common blog applications and thus show how technology is culturally shaped and appropriated into a specific emotional technology. Cyworld provides a personal space called Mini-hompy, which MySpace adopted in a similar way, and Il-chon (literally, the first degree kinship) system, a tool to network with other Cyworld users (an equivalent to ‘neighbors’ in MySpace). In essence, by providing cute layouts, avatars, images, virtual goods, and hip multimedia content, Cyworld represents the cute aesthetics - the unique operating principle of popular culture in Korea as well as in Japan. This culturally friendly system (cute aesthetics, Il-chon) and easy application tools allow the user to express his/her identity through the customization of Mini-hompy and encourage migratory practice across interconnected digital media sphere (Hjorth & Kim, 2005).
Cultural factors are often accredited for the success of Cyworld since long-term human network maintenance is regarded as highly important in the collectivistic and interdependent Korean society. The adoption of blogging as a tool to reaffirm offline social relation is a pervasive phenomenon that is not limited to Cyworld: Relation-oriented blogs are generally more popular in Korea (Na et al, 2007). Korean youth also primarily engage with Cyworld to micromanage their social relationship (Kim & Yun, 2008). In fact, according to Jang & Nam (2006), the most frequented type of sites for Korean youth is Mini-hompy/blog. Café board ranks the second and Internet game site follows. Na et al (2007)’s comparative ethnographic study of blog-type young Internet users and game-type users reveal that blog-type interest users tend to valorize relation-oriented activity. However, young people adopt the careful ‘social’ filtering system by utilizing screening tools embedded in Cyworld (Choi, 2006). In this sense, Mini-hompy functions as a closed or controlled open space. Recently, the closed usage of Cyworld for securing personal space is increasing significantly as 30 percent of Cyworld users identify themselves as solely diary recorders (Hwang et al, 2008).
Overall, as in many other national contexts, youth Internet culture in Korea has met with ambivalent responses in public and academic discourse. Blogging is generally received as a positive activity since it motivates young Koreans to blog to build ‘self-respect’ and ‘self-identity’ (Kim, 2006). On the contrary, young people’s fun-oriented consumption/reappropriation of multimedia content in online space is more vulnerable to securitizing eyes. In fact, Internet has already replaced old media as the preferred mode of media consumption: Creating and sharing multimedia content has become common practice among Korean youth. Before Youtube grabbed the heart of global viewers, Korean online space was already flooded with busy file transmissions as soon as domestic media production softwares and commercial P2P sites and UCC sites (notably, Pandora TV and GomTV) opened their channels. In a broader context, this play culture that messes around with media content forms part of young people’s widespread practice of new media production, which I will dwell on in a following blog post.
Lastly, what is particularly interesting about Korean youth Internet culture is the increasing mobilization of young people for civic engagement through the use of diverse new media technologies. Recent ‘Candlelight Protests’ organized against American beef import in 2008 was a watershed moment because teenagers emerged as the new political agents (especially, teenage girls). Active and organized teenagers’ participation set off and sustained the event. On the first day of candlelight protest in May 2nd 2008, teenagers comprised 60-70 percent of attendees and the image of ‘Candlelight Girls’ immediately became the icon of this civil movement (Lee & Jung, 2008). Although the main cause for the protest was the resumed import of American beef with insufficient measures to screen mad cow disease that might affect their well-beings in the future, many argues that it was Korean teenagers’ ongoing dissatisfaction with the repressive educational system and fear for intensifying competition driven by new government’s educational policies (such as ‘Immersive English Teaching Program’) that triggered teenagers’ voluntary collective action.
However, ‘e-politics’ of Korean youth is not a sudden phenomenon. Candlelight girls have their predecessors. Social issues that mobilized Korean youth to participate in real action are diverse in their scope and scale, from more direct political events such as the 2002 presidential election (Kim, 2004) and the anti-American protest around the middle school girls accidental death by GI (Bhuiyan, 2004) to micro-level problems of educational systems. In particular, Lee et al (2007) traces preceding incidents that “digital natives” have collectively voiced out through online communities: ‘No Cut’ campaign (against rigid hairstyle controls in the secondary schools) in 2000, the protest against reformed university entrance selection system (2004), and the campaign of the ‘National Network for the Protection of Student Human Rights’ in 2005. Significantly, No-cut campaign is recorded as one of the first successful e-political movements of Korean youth that led to the revision of official policy.
Youth also brought new mode of political communication. Korean youth demonstrated savvy use of diverse communication channels in delivering their voices, which is clearly distinguished from the monolithic and centralized mode of dominant media. While online space provides the main channel to obtain and share information as well as to form the public opinion, mobile phone plays a key role in mobilizing and coordinating actions on the spot as well as recording/live broadcasting the progress of the event. These multiple forms of news get spread across diverse media channels including their own Mini-hompy/blog, SMS, and portal sites. At the same time, Lee (2007) highlights young people’s changed attitude toward political engagement, which has become more ‘fun’ oriented. In other words, young people tend to combine participation in social and political affairs with play, parody, humor, wit and caricature to express their feelings and opinions rather than direct criticism. Memorable scenes from the candlelight protest are inundated with creative picket signs of diverse causes and witty performances in a free speech podium. (i.e. skit, dancing, and singing). These displays of playful demonstration resonate with the comparatively unrestrained participatory culture of young people in Internet space. However, the significance and implication of these recent incidents and the e-politics of Korean youth are still under discussion and require more thorough analysis. As Park (2002) criticizes, while Internet provides the alternative public forum for young people to voice out easily, it does not automatically guarantee the actual attendance of young voters.
References
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New Media Practices in Korea: Part 2. Gaming
Online game and PC bang (Internet café) are two key words that represent Korean game culture. In early 2000s, online gaming emerged as the primary mode of gaming due to the rapid penetration of broadband Internet network. In fact, scholars argue that online games were a “catalyst for creating an increasing demand for broadband connection” since the huge success of StarCraft, the first phenomenally popular online game title introduced in 1999 (Huhh, 2008). In a short time, Korean game industry has risen to top and online game services have become representative cultural exports of Korea, particularly in the global MMORPG market. For example, since first launched in 1998, Lineage, the most successful domestic MMORGP, has built one of the prominent MMORPG worlds that boasts the largest share of global market (combining Lineage I (21.9 %) and Lineage II (23.1 %).
Before online game arrived, Korea also had arcade games and video game culture since the early 1980s, but their influences were circumscribed due to Korea’s complex historical context. As a repercussion of the colonial experience, Korea government regulated and imposed restrictions on the import of Japanese arcade games, early portable games, and console games (both hardware and software) until 2004. Arcade game parlors, which operated with pirated or copied game softwares, flourished as popular local hangouts among young people. But console games have not taken up its momentum for Korean gamer as much as in other countries. This social context paradoxically facilitated the growth of domestic online games, which took advantage of the absence of strong competitors as well as the latest technology of broadband Internet.
The context of 1997 economic crisis is particularly important in the development of online game, as for other ICT uptakes. Huhh (2008) elaborates this unique contextual aspect of Korea online game, wherein with the collapse of conventional industries, human/financial resources flooded into the game industry. Massive population of youth in teens and twenties transformed themselves into gamers, often unwillingly with more free time to devote to gaming due to the exacerbated job markets. This migration of cultural resources led to the boom of PC bang as a new profitable business. Subsequent development and the success of adjacent institutions such as game TV channels and professional game leagues promoted gaming as a serious leisure activity: appropriated as e-sports. Like all other ICT uptakes in Korea during this period, online gaming industry also benefited from the government’s strategic support, whose favorable policies for the industry have become a benchmarking model for other countries such as China and Singapore (Chung, 2008). For this reason, issues of policy/regulations, technological innovation, and the business strategies of game culture have attracted the most attention from both domestic and overseas scholars who either aim to promote domestic game industry or unearth the secret of its success (Dai & Chee, 2008).
From the beginning, young people were major players in the gaming scene as well as main residents in the thousands of PC bangs located in every corner of the street. Initially, the public discourse surrounding gaming had a rather positive, at least not condemning, tone as Korean youth’s mastery of new media technology was generally considered productive for the future of the nation. However, the emergence of new forms of social problems that were linked to intensive gaming culture stirred up social anxiety about the ‘incomprehensible youth culture’ spiraling out of control. Such notorious incidents as death by excessive gaming, game item stealing/selling, and murder in the revenge for PK (player killing within game) has easily led to the dismissive public debate on the hazards of game addiction and youth delinquency (Sung & Lee , 2003).
Heaven of Gamers: PC bang
PC bang is perhaps the most discussed topic both in and outside Korea as it represents culturally specific gaming practices in Korea. In 2007, Seoul alone hosted 22,000 PC bangs, which are ubiquitous in most second-levels of buildings on the street (Huhh, 2008). Like Internet cafes in other countries, PC bang provides the physical place where general public can have easy access to the Internet service: It is mainly for gaming in Korea. However, PC bang in Korea is a social and economic institution central to the formulation of Korean business models such as “IP pricing,” “no-subscription fee system/micro-transaction,” and “GongSungJun” (in-game Guild Warfare often collectively conducted at PC bangs) (Yoon, 2003; Huhh, 2008). It is also the cultural space where ‘collective’ gaming formed as the predominant practice of Korean gamers. In addition, PC bang serves as a local community for gamers. Consequently, it nourishes the future career of young gamers to step up into the professional game leagues, bridging between online and offline game world and amateur and professional game sphere. In particular, PC bang is the center of gaming-related youth leisure culture outside of official education institutions and after schools, what Florence Chee defines “the third place”(Chee, 2005; 2006). Motivations and individual needs vary but teens mostly go to PC bang to socialize with peers, whether it is for gaming and/or for dating (Yoon, 2001). Also it provides the pseudo/alternative private space for solitary gamers outside of the parents’ surveillance (Sung & Lee, 2003a). As high-speed broadband has become more easily accessible at home, however, solitary gaming in the private gaming environment is increasing. In 2005, 76.5 percent of gamers reported that they play mostly at home (Ahn, 2005).
Playing Together: MMORPG
It is this ‘social play’ of gaming that represents Korean game culture. Most attempts to recuperate the positive effect of online gaming focus on the gamers’ extended ‘sociality.’ In general, young Korean gamers engage with online game out of such motivations as “drive for power” (Lee, 2002), “easy access”(Nam & Lee, 2005), “stress relief and escapism”(Lee, 2003), “fun”(Jeong & Lee, 2001), and “sociality, entertainment, and escapism.”(Lee, 2003). Among diverse online game genres, MMORPG is the most popular genre and the favored subject of academic studies although online game market has greatly diversified since the sensational success of the casual online game Kart Rider in 2004. Research findings show that social interaction is the central characteristics of the MMORPG genre and the attraction of ‘networking’ is the major factor of the success of online game genre (Yoon Sunny, 2001). In this regard, numerous studies analyze the formation of game community, guild activities, and pro-gamers centered on specific game titles.
Reflecting its cultural hegemony, Lineage world is also the most studied from various perspectives, in terms of its formal structure, aesthetics, social effects, and gamers’ practices. In particular, the issue of ‘sociality of Lineage players’ has generated vigorous discussion (Han, 2000; Hwang et al, 2004; Jang, 2005; Steinkuehler, 2006; Whang, 2003, 2004; Park & Yu, 2008). 50 percent of Korean gamers consider friends who they meet within the Lineage world to be as equally important as their real-life friends, acknowledging Lineage functions as a pseudo real world (Hwang et al, 2004). Experiences in Lineage world have also proven to nourish gamers’ offline leadership (Lim & Park, 2007) and embedded game activities such as micro-transaction, item trading, and internet item buying, encourage young people to engage in diverse economic activities (Kang, 2007; Lee et al, 2007). Scholars argue that these diverse social activities that are manifested in gaming present possible learning opportunities for Korean youth to extend their social interaction and reaffirm their sense of presence (Um et al, 2005).
Mobile Gaming
Overshadowed by the dominance of online games, other modes and forms of games have been marginalized in the academic discussion. Recently, the increasing popularity of mobile gaming for a wide range of generations, especially among women, is particularly noteworthy. In Korea, mobile phone is the common platform to play mobile games, which are mostly mobile version of online games provided through mobile content service. Portable game devices such as Sony DSP and Nintendo DS are slowly taking up the attention of casual gamers, regardless of gender. Since Nintendo DS went on sale in 2006, it has sold 2 mil consoles as of 2008 (http://kotaku.com). The appeal of mobile games based on their female friendly genres and aesthetics raises an interesting question regarding the gendered aspect of gaming culture (Jeon, 2007a, 2007b; Hjorth, 2006, 2007).
Indeed, female gamers have increased from 29.9 percent in 2005 to 31.5 percent in 2006 and they show more preference for mobile games (Korean Game Industry Promotion Agency, 2006). Many women see online and offline game worlds as constructions of masculine space and feel social restraints or societal pressure in navigating these worlds. Jeon (2007b) argues that mobile game provides spatial freedom for female gamers from male dominant social orders in conventional game space. However, there exist continuing (cultural) restrictions of mobility for female gamers, as most female mobile gamers prefer to play at home in contrast to male players who enjoy unrestricted playing at school or work place. Therefore, it is not surprising that ‘solitary gaming’ is the prominent mode among female mobile gamers. The popularity of ‘board game’ genre, especially on mobile phone, seems to reiterate this tendency. For example, Gostop, a traditional Korean card game, was the most popular board game among adult mobile gamer in 2004 and Gostop and poker games have continuously dominate the mobile game market (Han et al, 2005).
Young female mobile gamers play with their peers in a more relaxed environment since the games do not require engagement with collective guild and clan activities as seen in serious PC-based online gaming. They often exchange text messages or chats with their friends while playing the same mobile games. In this sense, mobile gaming forms the part of ‘casual intimacy-oriented’ youth peer culture (Hjorth, 2007; Jeon, 2007a). Significantly, cute aesthetics of mobile games played a key role in attracting these marginalized groups of gamers, who were already accustomed to it through other new media services such as Cyworld. At the same time, simple and easy application of these cute casual games invited female gamers who initially had resistance to serious online gaming due to their lack of technical or social skills. The sensational success of Kart Rider is a good example. When it was first launched in 2004, it was hard to expect this cute racing online game would topple the famous StarCraft. Unlike heavy and complicated MMORPG game, Kart Rider was also easily adapted to the mobile platform. More than 2 million individuals played it everyday and up to 220,000 users are connected simultaneously during peak hours (Cho, 2005). Considering that convergent mobile devices are at the center of the changing new media environment in Korea, there is no question that gaming will expand its charm to a wider population, probably outside of PC bang.
References
English Sources
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Hjorth, L. (2006). Playing at Being Mobile: Gaming and Cute Culture in South Korea . Fibreculture Journal, (8). Retrieved August 29, 2008, from http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue8/issue8_hjorth.html.
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Huhh, J. (2008). Culture and Business of PC Bangs in Korea. Games and Culture, 3(1), 26-37.
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Whang, L. S. (2003). Online Game Dynamics in Korean Society: Experiences and Lifestyles in the Online Game World. Korea Journal, 43(3), 7-34.
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New Media Practices in Korea: Part 3. Mobile Phones
If mobile phones are the driving force of the convergent media culture in Korea, then Eomjijok, the Korean version of ‘Thumb Tribe,’ is behind the wheel. Early global youth mobile phone studies have showed that youth mobile phone culture, which is centered on the use of text message and play culture, redefined the mobile phone technology. Apparently, Korean youth mobile phone culture shares many traits to those in other mobile savvy countries. When the mobile phone was first introduced in 1999, it was mainly businessmen who adopted this new technology as an alternative communication tool (Kim, 2001). With the introduction of the text message, however, the mobile phone quickly became the icon of young people. Their swift texting skills and the use of idiosyncratic code languages became typical indicators to identify the Eomjijok. In fact, this notion of Thumb Tribe is popularly adopted throughout East Asia –across China, Korea, and Japan (Bell, 2005). It is hypothesized that the original Japanese coinage of Oyayubisoku (‘Thumb Tribe’) traveled to Korea and was translated as Eomjijok.
Eomjijok & Thumbelinas
Indeed, Eomjijok, is another name of N generation and Digital Sinillyu. Hence, most discussions in early days of the mobile phone focus on their distinctive cultural identity and significance for the transformation in Korean society (Kim, 2005; Kim, 2005; Choi et al, 2005). On the one hand, young people’s quick adoption of mobile phones was interpreted as the reflection of increasing desire to sustain individualism against traditionally collectivist Korean culture. Young people prefer the mobile phone because it allows informal, personal, and unregulated communication (Kwon & Choi, 2003). In that regards, exclusive text message culture of Eomjijok was considered a part of youth subculture (Park, 2000). However, young people’s excessive use of mobile phones was easily criticized as a symptom of addiction. In other cases, their mastery of this new technology presented subversive effects that might violate authorities and/or principles of the official educational system: as seen in the case of the notorious ‘college entrance cheating incident through SMS’ in 2004 (Sung et al, 2007). The massive scale of the incident and young people’s elaborate manipulation of the mobile phone for the crime generated the sensational scandal and stirred up social anxieties about the digital gap between generations. On the other hand, researches show that mobile phones reconfirm young people’s peer networks, which continues the traditional sociality and cultural identity rather than to encroach on them (Na, 2001). Yoon (2003, 2006) argues this ‘relation-oriented’ usage pattern of Korean youth demonstrates the localized practice of mobile phone use and challenges the general assumption on mobile phone as an individualistic technology.
If Eomjijok defined a newly emerged youth mobile phone culture, then the current young generation is born into mobile technology culture. As mobile phones evolve into convergent personal media in Korea, the popularity of the term Eomjijok is slowly fading out. Korean youth become savvy mobile phone users in the early stages of their life. According to the recent research report by KTF (2009), Korean adolescents (12-18) own their first mobile phone comparatively earlier than those in Japan, China, India, and Mexico (www.hani.co.kr). 80.6 percent of Korean adolescents have their own mobile phone (Japan, 77.3%, Mexico, 64%, China, 48.9, and India, 30.6%). Especially, Korea shows higher penetration rate in younger groups. 87.7 percent of 12 years old Korean adolescents already use mobile phones, which far surpasses other countries (Japan, 50%, Mexico, 45.1%, China, 27.7%, and India 11.6 %). In addition, what they care most about is ‘functions and designs’ of mobile phones. Interestingly, regarding their children’s mobile phone usage, Korean parents consider the (excessive) service charge first while parents in other countries express concern about possible exposure to inappropriate content (like adult content) through mobile phones.
Text message is still the most preferred mode of communication among Korean youth; but, the salient use of other mobile phone features - mobile phone imaging, sharing, and MMS messaging- is redefining the culture of Eomjijok (Lee, 2001; Lee et al, 2002; Lee, 2003). Recently, diverse multimedia content services such as ring tones, music files, video contents, games, and location-based services have become the favorite features for Korean youth (Kim, 2005). In particular, teenage girls appear to be more savvy consumers and active adoptors of these additional services. Studies show that there have been “major gender shifts through the usage of 3G mobile phone practices that have seen stereotypes such as female users as ‘passive’ and male users as ‘active’ dismantled” (Hjorth & Kim, 2005; 51). In general, women are “more active than men in their adaptability and willingness to adopt the multi-media functions of mobile phone” in Korea (Lee & Seun, 2004). Beginning with text messaging, Thumbellinas indeed shaped the way in which the mobile phone was appropriated as ‘affective digital technology.’ As girls play with ‘emotext’ (emoticon + Text) and ‘chatting’ among their peers, mobile phones serve to increase the sense of intimacy and belonging to their culture (Kim et al, 2006). It is also common for girls to use mobile phones as a ‘personal memory box,’ the object of emotional affection in and through which they store and share their pictures and/or various gift items (Kim & Lee, 2007). As observed in other countries, Korean girls are passionate about customizing their mobile phones and consider mobile phones as a tool to display their personal identities, much like a fashion accessory (Hjorth & Kim, 2005; Hjorth, 2008: Lee, 2004).
Mobile Screen
What is particularly unique about Korean youth mobile culture is the prevalent use of screen aspect of the mobile phone that parallels with developments in other mobile media. Most screen-based mobile media services target young people as their primary consumers. For example, 3G mobile multimedia content is a particular service added to meet and maximize the demands of young people. All three mobile operators in Korea have already put emphasis on the youth market sectors by offering specialized rate plans for college students (ages 18-23) and high school students (ages 13-18)(Castells, 2007). Therefore, Korean youth are comparatively more exposed to the latest mobile media service due to the highly segmented and customized service plans and innovative services designed especially for them.
In order to satisfy young people’s appetite, Korean mobile operators explored mobile-specific contents since 2002: SK Telecom’s mobile cinema series and mobile drama are good examples. In particular, Fives Stars (2004) is interesting in that it represents the entertainment business strategy to commercialize and appropriate digital youth culture, particularly, girls subculture (Ok, 2008). Fives Stars was advertised as the first ‘mobile interactive drama’ while simultaneously functioning as a multimedia entertainment project that included other auxiliary media projects such as Idol Boy bands, digital photography picture book, OST, music videos, and even mobile games. Premiering in October 2004, Five Stars set the record as the most popular original mobile drama produced in Korea as well as the 3rd most popular drama among all mobile video contents on SK Telecom’s network. It is reported that 75,000 users accessed its service for the first 15 days and more than 400,000 users have downloaded it. Most of all, its appeal originates from the fact that it adopted the popular Internet novel by Gwiyoni, a famous girl writer whose idiosyncratic writings generated syndrome since early 2000s. In fact, Gwiyoni syndrome represents young people’s increasing new media production in online space, which I will discuss in a subsequent post. In this way, Fives Stars demonstrates how new media technology – such as Internet and mobile phones – constructs the commercial, but yet alternative space for youth and vice versa.
Increasing popularity of PMP (portable media player) and convergent mobile media among youth people intensifies this trend toward the personal screen culture, driving young people, who already migrated to the online for media consumption, further away from conventional media. It is reported that 2,300,000 PMP (portable media player) were sold in 2007, surmounting the sales of TV sets at 2,100,000. Chung Seok-Won, Vice-President of Raincom, credits the dramatic increase of sales of PMP to the “frenzy of downloaded video clip such as American TV shows and UCC since the beginning of 2006”(www.chosun.com). Due to the comparatively high cost of purchasing these devices and accessing multimedia contents, young adults who are in their early twenties more actively engage with the mobile screen. They typically watch downloaded content (TV drama, animation, and movies) or TV broadcasting through the mobile TV service during their commute or down time (Ok, 2008).
It is not surprising that with the vigorous uptake of mobile screens, social anxieties about young people’s private consumption of media content without adults’ supervision have increased. Adult contents, which encompass semi-nude pictures of female star entertainers and erotic cartoons/novels, have proven to be the most profitable mobile video contents. It is acknowledged that from the early days of mobile content services, mobile adult contents have been condemned to be the most profitable yet shameful ‘gold mine’ for mobile phone service providers. It has also been the most visible target of heated public debate for its potential to damage and corrupt social customs, particularly for its presumed ‘bad’ influence on young people. In early 2005, the Commission on Youth Protection, a government agency, expanded its precautionary monitoring on the ‘potentially harmful content’ to mobile content service and urged mobile service providers to install appropriate screening systems in order to forbid children’s access to adults contents through such measure as ‘Special Mobile Service Contract for Youth Protection’. In June 2006, the Commission on Youth Protection filed a lawsuit against mobile service providers for transmitting ‘illegal pornographic content’. Eventually, after legal persecutions, SK Telecom declared the termination of all adult contents in July 2006.
Overall, Korean youth usages of mobile phones demonstrate that mobile phone technology allows young people to create an alternative space outside of their daily institutionalized environment.
References
English Sources
Bell, G. (2005). The Age of the Thumb: A Cultural Reading of Mobile Technologies from Asia. In P. Glotz & S. Bertschi (Eds.), Thumb Culture: Social Trends and Mobile Phone Use (pp. 67-87). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
Castells, M. et al. (2007). Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective. . Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kim, J. (2005). An Examination and Comparison of Mobile Phone Uses by Adolescents and Adults. Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 49(3), 262-386.
Kwon, I., & Choi, J. (2003). Understanding Youth Culture and Characteristics of Cellular Phone Communication in Korea. Studies on Korean Youth, 14(2), 81-118.
Hjorth, L. (2008). Being Real in the Mobile Reel: A Case Study on Convergent Mobile Media as Domesticated New Media in Seoul, South Korea. Convergence, 14(1), 91-104.
Hjorth, L., & Kim, H. (2005). Being There and Being Here: Gendered Customizing of 3G Mobile Practices – Through a Case Study in Seoul. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 11, 49-55.
Lee, D. (2005). Women’s Creation of Camera Phone Culture. Fibreculture Journal, Mobility, New Social Intensities and the Coordinates of Digital Networks, (6). Retrieved September 2007 from http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue6/.
Lee, D., & Seun, H. (2004). Is There a Gender Difference in Mobile Phone Usage? In Proceedings of Mobile Communication and Social Change Conference. Seoul, Korea.
Ok. H. (2008). Screens on the Move: Media Convergence and Mobile Culture in Korea. Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Yoon, K. (2003). Retraditionalizing the Mobile: Young People’s Sociality and Mobile Phone Use in Seoul, South Korea. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6(3), 327-343.
------, (2006). The making of Neo-Confucian Cyberkids: Representations of Young Mobile phone Users in South Korea. New Media Society, 8(5), 753-771.
Korean Sources
Kim, E. et al (2006). Mobile Sonyeodeului Suda Ddeolgi (Mobile Girls’ Chatting). In D.H. Lee et al (Eds.), Mobile Girls @ digital.asia. Paju, Korea: Hanul Academy.
Kim, H. (2005). Cheongsonyeongwa Hyudejeonhwa (Adolescents and Mobile Phone). Issue Report, Seoul, Korea: Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion.
Kim, M. (2005). Yidong Jeonhwareul Tonghan Eomeoni Noreutui Jesengsan (Reproduction of Mothering Role through Mobile Phone Use). Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 49(4), 140-165.
Kim, S. (2001). Homotellephonicuseuui Deongjang: Yidongjeonhwa Hwaksaneui Yeonghyaneul Michin Sahyoemunhwajeok Yoine Gwanhan Yeongu (The Emergence of Homotelephonicus: The Study of Socio-cultural factors of the dissemination of Mobile Phone). Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 45(2), 62-85.
Kim, Y., & Lee, J. (2006). Jeongseojeok Mediaroseoui Handphone: Sipdeyeoseongdeului Ilsangjeok Handphone Sayongeul Jungsimeuro (Handphone as Emotional Media: Focusing on the Teenage Girl’s Daily Use of Handphone). In D.H. Lee et al (Eds.), Mobile . Paju, Korea: Hanul Academy.
Lee, J. (2001). Chigo Tterigi, Munjaserviceui Chogakseong, geurigo Sotongui Kyoirak: N sedeui Munjaservice Sobiwa Munhwa Ilgi (Tinkering, Tactility of Text Message Service, and the Pleasure of Communication: N Generation’s Text Message Culture). In Proceedings of Annual Conference of Korean Society of Journalism & Communication Studies (pp. 48-83). Seoul, Korea.
Lee, S. (2003). Yidongjeonhwa Yiyonge Kwanhan Yeongu: Eumseongtonghwaservicewa Munjaserviceganui Kwangyereul Jungsimeuro (Mobile Phone Use: Relationship between Voice call Service and Text message service). Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 47(5), 87-114.
Lim, S. et al. (2006). Sonyeodeului Handphone Nolyi (Girls’ Handphone Play). In D.H. Lee et al (Eds.), Mobile Girls @ digital.asia. Paju, Korea: Hanul Academy.
Na, E. (2001). Yidongjeonhwa chetaekui Yeonghyangeul michineun Yidongjeonhwa Communicationui Sokseonge Gwanhan Yeongu (The Study of Media Specificity of Mobile Phone in Relation to the User’s Choice of Mobile Phone Service. Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 45(4), 189-228.
------, (2005). Cheongsonyeuneui Yidonjeonhwa Echakyiyong, Hyogwa Jigak mit Communication Hyonyeunggam: 2002, 2004 nyeun Seoul, Sudogweon Jijeok Junggodeunghaksengeul Jungsimeuro (Teens’ Usage of Mobile Phone, Perception of the Effects of Mobile Phone, and Efficacy for Communication: Survey on Middle and High School Students in 2002 and 2004). Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 49(6), 198-232.
Park, J. (2000). Cheongsonyeundeului Yidongjeonhwa Yiyong Hyeonsangeso Natananeun Hawimunhwajeok Teukseonge kwanhan Yeongu (Subcultural Characteristics of Adolescent’s Mobile Phone Use). Master Thesis, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Sung, Y., Park, H. W., & Park, S. (2006). Cheongsonyeuneui Newmedia Yiyonghyeunhwanggwa Munjejeom mit Deyeungbangan - Mobileeul Jungsimeuro- (New Media Use of Adolescents, Problems and Policies: With Focus on Mobile). Seoul; Korea: Korea Institute for Youth Development.
New Media Practices in Korea: Part 4. New Media Production
In 2001, a series of high school girls’ eccentric romance story, That Bastard was Cool (Geu Nomeun Meosisseosda), sparked teenage readers to flock into Daum Internet café. It was the beginning of Internet novel syndrome. The phenomenal success of this idiosyncratic and unconventional novel establishes its author, a sixteen-year-old high school girl whose Internet ID and penname were Gwiyoni (which literally means ‘Cute One’), as the icon of youth Internet culture. That Bastard was Cool scored 8 million views online, sold 500,000 copies when published as a print book later, and eventually was made into a movie in 2004. Its popularity even crossed the border to nearby Asian countries including Japan, China, Taiwan, and Thailand where the popularity of the Korean Wave was surging to its peak. Gwiyoni herself joined the so-called league of ‘Korean Wave Stars’ who enjoyed widespread fandom overseas. Following up That Bastard was Cool, Gwiyoni published five more Internet novels until 2006. Most of her novels have been adapted to movies that target the teenage girl market by starring popular young actors: Seduction of Wolf (Neukdaeui Yuhok; English movie title: Romance of Their Own) and That Bastard was Cool (English movie title: The Guy) in 2004, Doremipasolasido in 2008, and To You currently under production.
The popularity of Gwiyoni’s short, comical, lighthearted, episodic stories about everyday school life and teenage romance not only shook the professional literature community but also the popular media. In fact, Gwiyoni syndrome did not come out of the blue. Before WWW was introduced to Korea, several pre-internet novels, with similar styles and subjects, attracted young readers to a cyber space that was running on Telnet system (PC Tongsin in Korean) in the early 1990s. Gwiyoni syndrome brought out this underground youth subculture, particularly girls’ subculture, to the surface of public discourse (Kim & Kim, 2004).
Most of all, Gwiyoni’s novels were severely criticized and frowned upon by adults due to her constant usage of informal and colloquial languages, internet idioms, foul expression, and emoticons – all in violation of traditional language structure. However, Gwiyoni’s violation of the linguistic code was not new but familiar to young people. Gwiyoni Syndrome is significant in that it represents the migration/expansion of youth linguistic code that young people constantly create and share with their peers through SMS of mobile phone and Internet chats in their everyday life (Choi, 2003). This trend of sharing new linguistic codes within their intimate networks dates back to the popularity of Tongsin Eoneo (Internet Communication Idioms) in the times of beepers and early Internet community. While Gwiyoni’s informal use of language mostly consists of Tongsin Eoneo, there is also a popular trend of using more radical and broken form of language, which is called Oegyeeo (Alien Words). The creation of and the sharing of Oegyeeo tend to be exclusively limited to young people’s intimate networks (mostly, early teens) or special online communities such as ‘Teusumunja Manddang’ (Special Words Heaven, Daum), which has more than 1 million members. The level of deconstruction for Oegyeeo, which dissects and fabricates a grammatical system while mix-and-matches foreign words, is so radical that ordinary Koreans cannot understand or decipher their meaning (Yoo, 2003). In this sense, Choi argues that the Gwiyoni syndrome illustrates the broader changes in culture, from “Print literature based” to “Electronic literature based,” (Cho, 2007) and the advent of a new form of youth digital storytelling.
In a broader context, Internet novel syndrome signaled the expansion of girl’s participatory fandom culture in online space, which already existed before Internet in the form of fanzine (fan magazine) and/or fan art. Right before Gwiyoni syndrome, writing and sharing fanfics (fan fictions) about pop stars (mostly male idol stars) emerged highly visible activities across Internet fan cafes. Daum alone hosted around 9241 fanfic cafes and the largest one had over 300,000 members in 2003. Just like the Gwiyoni syndrome, girls’ fanfic writing also came under public scrutiny, but for a different reason. In 2000, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication introduced new online content rating system for youth protection and fanfics, which often contain the story about homosexual relationship, were selected as harmful contents to censor. As fangirls organized online protests against contents censorship through Internet cafés, girls’ writing culture suddenly emerged as a hot topic in popular media (Jo & Kim, 2005). These examples demonstrate how Internet provides an alternative space and effective tools for Korean girls to create “communities of fantasy”; those in constant struggle with cultural authorities (Kim & Kim, 2004).
As image producing technologies - such as digital camera, mobile phone camera, and editing softwares/applications - became widely available, literary form of youth play was replaced by various multimedia productions. Creating and circulating fun content such as parody pictures, often with political satire, emerged as a representative of online play culture. Two notable examples are Yeopgi Syndrome and JJang syndrome. Originally, the term Yeopgi referred only to ‘weird, uncanny, pervert or frightening phenomena’, but the term now indicates all weirdly funny things and operates as a code of light humor among Korean youth since 2000. All sorts of media contents – pictures, video clips, and literatures – with the Yeopgi code populated online space, feeding young people’s insatiable appetite for unique fun: certain internet cafes such as ‘DC inside’ acquired new reputation for their famous Yeopgi contents. The other example is the Jjang (the best) syndrome, which involves online voting by netizens on uploaded self-photos, which often becomes a “gateway towards stardom”(Choi, 2006). Various types of jjangs, such as uljjang (person with the best face) and mom- jjang (person with the best physique), have become “catchphrases in society, entertainment business and other areas” in contemporary Korea (Choi, 2006: 180).
Recently, various forms of contents produced by netizens are touted in the name of UCC (User Created Contents). In most cases, UCC refers to shared video contents in online space. As major portals open special services for UCC, following on the successful models of UCC sites like Pandora TV, it became a hot item in current mediaspace in Korea. Initially, UCC fever is largely based on the prevalent and notorious P2P file sharing culture. In the past, free/illegal downloading and repurposing were adopted as alternative tactics to share commercially unavailable contents due to limited access to foreign media contents and/or inefficient distribution systems. While media industry is slowly shaping new business models to counteract this practice, the active reappropriation and consumption of popular cultural contents from overseas (particularly, Japanese pop music/TV drama/animation) in the form of UCC is still widespread. For example, young Korean fans’ various fandom activities around trans-Asian television drama contents form a significant part of UCC sites (Kim & Lee, 2005).
Researches show that women, especially female college students, are more active in producing and consuming UCC (Yim, 2008). It is noted that the central motivation to create and share UCC is ‘self-expression’ and ‘getting recognition from others’ (Sung & Lee, 2007). Still, 90 percent of UCC is repurposed works out of existing media contents. In this sense, the significance of UCC culture lies more in that it represents the decentralized mode of media distribution (Jeon, 2008). This aspect of UCC, as a potentially democratic media form, becomes more apparent when it serves a journalistic purpose. Indeed, the social implication of UCC, as an emerging form of journalism to monitor and engage both macro and micro-level social issues, is one of the widely discussed topics in Korea (Kim, 2008; Kang, 2007; Lee & Kim, 2007). During the 2006 presidential election campaign, UCC appeared as the preferred tool for expressing political views, especially among college students (Ban & Kim, 2007).
However, as the cultural influence of UCC is increasing, the debate over its legitimacy as a viable media form is also intensifying. Various issues, such as policies and regulations on UCC for youth protection and legal copyrights, are still unresolved. It has become a daily battle between the major portals who regularly monitor illegal ripping of media contents, media producers who seek for additional profits through ‘one-content-multi-use’ strategies, and bloggers who want to repurpose these media contents. In the end, although debates about whether these syndromes actually reflect young people’s productive use of new media technology still continue, these various forms of syndromes demonstrate that young peoples’ reappropriation of media contents with their newly acquired technological mastery have become a predominant practice in Korean online space.
References
English Sources
Choi, J. (2006). Living in Cyworld: Contextualizing Cy-ties in South Korea. In A. Bruns & J. Jacobs (Eds.), Uses of Blogs. (pp. 173-186). New York: Peter Lang.
Korean Sources
Ban, H., & Kim, S. J. (2007). Dongyongsang UCC yiyongwa Jeongchi Hengtee gwanhan Yeongu: Dehaksengdeuleui UCC yiyonggwa Jeongchi News Yiyongeul Jungsimeuro (A Study of Relationship between UCC Usage and Political Behavior: Focus on College Student Voters` Usage of UCC and Political News). Cyber Communication Studies, 22(0), 123-166.
Cho, H. (2007). Munja Munhakeseo Jeonja Munhakeuro (From Print Literature to Electronic Literature). Seoul, Korea: Hangil Publisher.
Choi, M. (2003). N-sedewa Internet soseuleui Nolli -Gwiyeonieui Soseuleul Jungsimeuro (N-Generation and the Logic of Internet Novels - Centering on Gwiyeoni’s Novels). Public Narrative Studies, 10, 34-63.
Jeon, G. (2008). Cybergongganeui Seroun Sotong, UCC: Dongyeongsang UCCeui Textjeok Teukjinggwa Munhwajeok Hameuieh gwanhan Yeongu (A Study on the Textuality and the Cultural Implications of Video UCC). Cyber Communication Studies, 25(2), 337-370.
Jo, H., & Kim, J. (2005). Cheongsonyeun Mania Munhwaeui Siltewa Jeongchekgwaje (Present of Youth Fandom Culture and Policy Issues). Korea: National Youth Policy Institute.
Kang, J. (2007). UCC Yeongsang Munhwaeui Hameuiwa Munjejeom Yeongu: Simcheung Interviewreul Yiyonghan Dehaksengui Insiksarereul Jungsimeuro (Study on Meanings and Issues Related to UCC Visual Culture: Cognition Case Study by depth Interview with University Students). Korean Broadcasting & Telecommunication Studies, 21(6), 9-43.
Kim, H., & Kim, M. (2004). Fapiceui Sengsangwa Sobireul Tonghe bon Sonyeodeuleui Seong Fantasywa Jeongchijeok Hameui (A Fantasy of Fanfic and the Politics). Korea Journalism Studies, 48(3), 330-478.
Kim, H., & Lee, C. (2007). Cyber J-Dorama: Internetsangui Ilbondrama Sobijuchewa Yutongui Mechanism (Cyber J-Dorama: Agencies and Mechanism of the Consumption and Distribution of Japanese Drama in Online Space). In Cho H.J. et al (Eds.), Internet and Asian Cultural Studies. Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press.
Kim, S. (2008). Cybergongganeui Seroun Sotong, UCC: UCC Journalismeui Yironjeok Gochal (Theoretical Analysis of the UCC Journalism). Cyber Communication Studies, 25(2), 221-262
Lee, K., & Kim, M. (2007). “Chamyeojeok Model"roseoui “Performance hak” sigakeuro bon UCC (A Cultural Study of UCC (User Created Contents) from the Perspective of Performance Studies As a “Participatory Model"). Korean Broadcasting & Telecommunication Studies, 21(4), 217-254.
Sung, M. H., & Lee, I. H. (2007). Dongyeongsang UCCeui Yiyong dongiwa Manjoke gwanhan Tamsekjeok Yeongu (Uses and Gratifications of User-Created Contents: Expressing Self with Self-Produced Video Clips). Korea Association for Communication and Information Studies Journal, 40(0), 45-80.
Yim, J. (2008). Yeoja Daehaksengeui UCC sobiwa Sengsangeul Tonghe bon Suyongja Neungdongseonge gwanhan Yeongu (Reconceptualizing Audience Activities: Female College Students` UGC Consumption and Production). Korean Broadcasting & Telecommunication Studies, 22(4), 320-354
Yoo, H. (2003 10). We don’t want to play with you. Hankyoreh 21,478.
New Media Practices in Korea: Conclusion
This literature review began with an expectation to learn about everyday practices of Korean youth who are exposed to one of the most techno-savvy environments. Since the last decade, a period of time in which Korea transformed itself into Digital Korea, Korean youth have been indulging in the latest new media technologies – from broadband Internet to mobile TV- and continuously making up the rules of its use ad hoc. No other generation of Korean youth has had such cultural power through the use of technology. They are major residents and managers of vast online communities, avid gamers who support the world’s largest online game industry, and users of the newest mobile media. Korean youth’s roles as early adopters and explorers of new media technologies elevate their position to the bearers of future hope: social agents who are compelled to continue future national development in an ever-evolving IT Korea. Most of all, studies of Korean youth media practices provide a fascinating lead to further our awareness about the integral role of culture in shaping technological use, by manifesting how the local appropriation of technology prefigures the potential of technology.
So far, in spite of Korea’s reputation for the most vibrant new media culture, Korean youth’s concrete practices and tactics of navigating this highly charged techno-sphere are not well known to the rest of the world. To fill the gap of knowledge in regards to the ‘locality’ of global digital youth culture, I attempted to draw from as many Korean studies on Korean digital youth as possible. Although the majority of studies on youth practices of new media technologies in Korea revolve around the issues of policies and media effects, it is notable that Korean scholars unanimously confirm the centrality of participatory youth culture in the establishment of Korean new media space across every ICT-sectors. However, as major commercial sites such as portals, Cyworld, Lineage, and Pandora TV become the center of academic attention, youth practices outside of these commercially established media spaces still remain unexplored. In this context, the recent candlelight protest is interesting in that it demonstrates how young people quickly took over established media spaces through their salient and creative use of new media technologies, though momentarily, to mobilize public opinions. The dramatic transformation of fangirls into ‘candlelight sonyeo (girls)’ during the candlelight protest suggests the further potential of new media technologies in cultivating a new mode of civic engagement and political communication beyond the boundary of online.
Under current circumstances where the Korean government and media industry are increasingly blatant and more direct in their control of the creation and distribution of online media content, however, it is not certain if Korean youth online culture is heading toward a bright future that fully maximizes the prospectus of Korea’s renowned technological progress. The notorious “Minerva Case” early this year - in which a star power blogger was persecuted for his critical posts on current government’s economic policies- shows that the power of online space as an alternative channel to expand the freedom of speech is still a vulnerable construct. This tension between regulations and disruptions in regards to the public adaptation of new media technologies is not something new. On a brighter note, as young people continue to respond to and intercept these restrictive attempts with more creative tactics, a new form of public knowledge on how to counteract or measure this centralizing hegemony will accumulate accordingly.
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