Internet Culture Communities Of Korea

Chapter 14. Internet, Internet Culture, and Internet Communities of Korea

: Overview and Research Directions

Information Society & MulticulturalismProfessor Han Woo Park

Presented by Sang Me NAM

2009. 11. 26

Aims to introduce the current trends in Korean Internet communities, culture and research.

Also, recommends the need for more “community capacity” research into online communities.

Community capacity is a well-established concept that is frequently applied to community development and betterment in conventional community health sciences.

Attempts to outline how community capacity research can illuminate aspects of Internet communities, particularly in the Korean context.

_____________________________________This Chapter..

_____________________________________Internet Culture and Community in Korea

OECD Broadband statistics [oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband]

1d. OECD Broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, by technology, December 2008

Rank DSL Cable Fibre/LAN Other Total Total subscribers OECD average1 Denmark 22.6 9.9 3.6 1.1 37.2 2 021 404 22.42 Netherlands 21.8 13.4 0.6 0.0 35.8 5 855 000 22.43 Norway 23.8 6.9 3.1 0.7 34.5 1 607 750 22.44 Switzerland 23.2 9.7 0.4 0.3 33.5 2 533 643 22.45 Iceland 31.6 0.0 0.6 0.6 32.8 99 883 22.46 Korea 7.7 10.5 13.8 0.0 32.0 15 474 931 22.47 Sweden 19.1 6.2 6.5 0.2 32.0 2 905 000 22.48 Finland 25.9 4.1 0.0 0.7 30.7 1 616 900 22.49 Luxembourg 25.6 4.2 0.1 0.0 30.0 141 584 22.4

10 Canada 13.0 15.6 0.0 0.4 29.0 9 577 648 22.411 United Kingdom 22.4 6.1 0.0 0.1 28.5 17 275 660 22.412 Belgium 16.4 11.4 0.0 0.3 28.1 2 962 450 22.413 France 26.6 1.4 0.1 0.0 28.0 17 725 000 22.414 Germany 25.4 1.9 0.0 0.0 27.4 22 532 000 22.415 United States 10.3 13.7 1.0 0.9 25.8 77 437 868 22.416 Australia 19.9 4.3 0.0 1.2 25.4 5 368 000 22.417 Japan 9.1 3.2 11.3 0.0 23.6 30 107 327 22.418 New Zealand 19.5 1.3 0.0 1.0 21.9 914 961 22.419 Austria 13.9 7.2 0.1 0.5 21.6 1 792 408 22.420 Spain 16.5 4.0 0.1 0.2 20.8 9 156 969 22.421 Ireland 15.1 2.4 0.1 2.9 20.6 896 346 22.422 Italy 18.5 0.0 0.5 0.1 19.2 11 283 000 22.423 Czech Republic 6.8 3.7 0.7 6.0 17.2 1 769 684 22.424 Hungary 7.9 7.6 0.5 0.9 16.8 1 696 714 22.425 Portugal 9.4 6.3 0.0 0.2 16.0 1 692 306 22.426 Greece 13.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 13.5 1 506 614 22.427 Slovak Republic 6.6 1.2 2.1 1.6 11.5 618 871 22.428 Poland 7.2 3.1 0.0 0.1 10.5 3 995 458 22.429 Turkey 7.7 0.1 0.0 0.0 7.8 5 736 619 22.430 Mexico 5.1 1.9 0.0 0.2 7.2 7 604 629 22.4

OECD 13.3 6.4 2.2 0.4 22.4 263 906 627 22.4

Source: OECDNotes: See source column of table

Internet Culture and Community in Korea

Korea ranks high in the category of broadband penetration per 100 inhabitants.http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3343,en_2649_34225_38690102_1_1_1_1,00.html


[ Trends in Internet Usage (%, thousand population ages 3 and over]

[ Trends in Internet Usage (%, thousand population ages 6 and over]


[ Internet Usage Rate by Age (%) ]

[ Internet Users by Age (Thousand) ]

Despite the increases in internet usage rate for the 30s and younger, the umber of users have decreased due to the declines in the overall population of those age group


[ Internet Usage Rate by Occupation (%) ]

Four- fifths of high school graduates (81.0%) are Internet users

[ Internet Usage Rate by Education (%) ]


[ Internet Usage Rate by Age (%) ]

[Place of using internet (multiple response, %) – Internet users age 3 and over ]

•A weekly average of 13.9 hours is spent on the internet•Home (97.3%) is the main place for the internet


[ Purpose of using internet (%) Internet users age 3 and over ]

•Main purposes are Getting information/data, Leisure activities, Communication


[ The importance of internet to daily life – user ages 12 and over]

Three-fourths (72.3%) think that ‘ Internet is important to their daily life

[ The importance of internet for study and work– user ages 12 and over]


[ E-mail usage – Internet users ages 6 and over]

[ E-mail usage rate by gender and age – Internet users ages 6 and over]


[ Contents of E-mail sent / received (%) – E-mail users]


[ Instant messenger usage (%) – Internet users ages 6 and over]

[ Instant messenger usage rate by gender and age (%) – Internet users ages 6 and over]


[ Purpose of using instant messenger – instant messenger users]


[ Internet shopping usage – internet users ages 12 and over]

[ Internet shopping usage rate gender and age – internet users ages 12 and over]


[ Purchased items by internet shopping – internet shopping users]


[ The most used news media (%) – Internet users ages 6 and over]

[ The most used news media by gender & age (%) – Internet users ages 6 and over]


[ Internet news usage (%) – Internet users ages 6 and over]

[ Internet news usage rate by gender & age (%) – Internet users ages 6 and over]


[Contents of Internet news (%) – Internet news users]


[ ICT(Information & Communication Technology): environment - Bundled services usage]

[ Change in ICT service expenses after using bundled service

– households using bundled service]

Internet CAFÉS_____________________________________

Internet CAFÉS

[ Community(café and club) usage – Internet users ages6 and over]

[ Community usage rate by gender & age – Internet users ages6 and over]

Internet CAFÉS

[ Number of community used at least once a month – community users]

[ Community usage frequency community users]

Internet CAFÉS[ Purposes of using community - community users]

[ Purposes of community by gender & age - community users]

Internet CAFÉS

Naver Daum

Categories # of cafes Categories # of cafes

1.Socialization 1,677,836 1.Game 299,967

2.Games 780,957 2.Socialization 265,616

3.Hobbies 598,156 3.Hobbies 232,117

4.Alumni 430,690 4.Comics/Animation 157,580

5.Fan Clubs 379,505 5. Fan Clubs 152,563

Identified that Koran college students participate in Internet cafes for the purposes of communication/relationship building, entertainment/leisure, and usefulness/efficiency.

Internet cafes expand their activities to offline environments; face-to- face meeting, parties, group purchases, or trips.

Top five Internet Café Categories (January 2007)

SNS Usage_____________________________________

SNS Usage

▷ What is the SNS ?

SNS Usage[SNS usage rate]

[Rates of those who use at least one SNS more thant once a month 94.4%]

[Rates of those who do at least one social activity through SNS frequently or very frequently 61.6%

[An Internet user who at least one SNS among online club/community, blog/minihompy, instant messenger, personal networking site, and virtual reality service more than a month and does at least one social activity through SNS.

SNS Usage[SNS usage rate by gender and age]

[SNS usage rate by education]

[SNS usage rate by occupation]

SNS Usage

[SNS usage rate by type]

[SNS usage rate by type by gender and age]

SNS Usage

[Motivation for using SNS(%) – SNS users]

[Motivation for using SNS by type – SNS users by type]

SNS Usage

[Daily Average SNS usage time by type – SNS users by type]

[SNS usage frequency by type – SNS users by type]

SNS Usage

[Purpose of using SNS (%) – SNS users]

[Purpose of using SNS by type (%) – SNS users by type]

SNS Usage

[Reason for using multiple SNS or accounts (%) – SNS users with using multiple SNS or accounts]

SNS Usage

[SNS usage behavior – SNS users]

SNS Usage

[SNS usage perceptionr – SNS users]

SNS Usage

[The importance on SNS function – SNS users] [The satisfaction on SNS function – SNS users]

SNS Usage [Experiences in building new relationships though SNS – SNS users]

[Reasons for not bulding new relationships through SNS (%) – SNS users without experiences or suspending in building new relationshiaps]

[Experiences in meeting new relationships offline – SNS users with experiences in

building new relationships ]

Mini-Hompy_____________________________________

Mini-Hompy

Through services provided by the internet portal Cyworld, registered members can create a personalized webpage called a mini-hompy

User CAN,,Upload digital picture, streaming, videos, and digital sounds, as well as textual content.

CAN NOT,,Users are not Cyworld members themselves cannot request access to private mini-hompys.>> Must first receive the permission of the mini-hompy owner to access it.

This network is 1-chon in Cyworld, a familial term that refers to one degree of separation in family trees.

Mini-Hompy

18 MillionKorean have Cyworld accounts.

30%Of the population.

Over 90%The age group of 20-29 year-olds, Have cyworld mini-hompy.

92%Use the service almost daily.

70%User blog and mini-hompy visit their won page at least once a day to post something.

4.4 hoursSpending around a week.

9.7Receiving around visitors to the page each day.

Multiple purposeOnline spaces for self-expression, self-promotion, life logs, personal and social networking and digital entertainment.Mini-hompys are now item that appear on individuals resumes for self-promotion.

Mini-Hompy - Feature

Se Jung Park and Azman will prepare specific information of Cyworld and Mini-hompy

Blog_____________________________________

Blog

1998 First appeared in the United States

2001 Debuted In Korea

2003 Became generalized to the Korean public at large

2005 Over 15Million Korean blogs are on the Internet

Naver Daum Empas

6.5 Million blogs 1.2Million blogs 0.5millioin blogs

The Great Majority of Korean Blogs

The History of Blog

Mostly concentrating on blog usage patterns, motivation for use, and satisfaction with the use.

Korean blogs purposeThese research efforts agree that Korean blogs exist for purposes of self-expression, intetpersonal communication, experience sharing, and information seeking.

Blog

[ Blog usage – internet users ages 6- and over]

[ Blog usage rate by gender and age (%) – internet users ages 6- and over]

Blog

[ Blog ownership – internet users ages 6- and over]

[ Blog usage and ownership rate by gender & age (%) – internet users ages 6- and over]

Blog

[ Purpose of using others’ Blog – Blog users]

[ Purpose of managing own Blog – Blog owners]

Blog

▷ Korean blogs in general are regarded as an alternative communication channel that is controlled by individuals and that allows multidirectional communication between producers and readers about topics that have not traditionally been discussed in public, such as politics, religion, personal finances, mental health, and sexuality.

▷ Blogs in korea are used more for interaction with others and for passing the time rather than grassroots journalism.

▷ However, raising social awareness and the formation of public opinion are still recognizable functions of Korean blogs. Acknowledging such function by online media while protecting freedom of speech.

Content Transfer_____________________________________

Content Transfer

Termed “ scooping” in Korean, content transfer is a common practice among bloggers who take content from other blogs or web media and post them on their own blogs.

A Korean national survey reports that 62 percent of Korean Internet users have experienced scooping.

Some bloggers now add notes to their original content postings asking other bloggers to explicitly mark the source of the content when they scoop up the postings. At the same time, blog services provide a backtrack option, with which bloggers can link others’ original postings to their blogs

Internet copyright and unauthorized content transfer or scooping remain debatable in Korea’s blogging culture.

User-Created Content_____________________________________

User-Created Content

▷ korea’s number one portal, Naver’s, success is attributable to its “knowledge service” that was launched in October 2002.

▷ “knowledge service” come with an “auto completion” feature; that is, the typing of commonly asked questions is automatically completed, thus informing users that many other people have asked the same questions before.

Question

Answer


Internationalization is realized on portal sites where language barriers are reduced by allowing visual UCC and providing a translation service for free. Enjoy japan service was stopped from 08. June. 2009but similar service can use dictionary of Japanese on the NAVER web site

http://jpdic.naver.com/ http://www.naver.jp/ - Enjoy Korea

Dog_Poop_Girl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_vigilantism#Dog_Poop_Girl

Related VideoDog Poop Girl- http://blog.daum.net/happyucc/7698382

Subway performance - http://tvpot.daum.net/clip/ClipView.do?clipid=1974820&q=%C1%F6%C7%CF%C3%B6%20%B0%E1%C8%A5%BD

%C4%20%B5%BF%BF%B5%BB%F3

User-Created Content -


▷ digital image composition, and graphic parodies are hugely popular among Korean Internet users, and the trend in UCC is shifting from texts to visuals.


▷ The sixteenth Korean presidential election in 2002 was notable for the development of candidate support movements on the Internet. Given that the Korean National Election Commission(KNEC) has strict guidelines on the kind of campaigning that can be undertaken in the media, it announced that it would monitor UCC that were relevant to the seventeenth election, scheduled for late 2007.

▷ The KNEC regulation is, however, still being debated in terms of the suppression of the Internet culture and the practicality of monitoring a medium that is used by millions of netizens continuously and simultaneously.

Comment Culture_____________________________________

Comment Culture

▷ In the early years of Internet bulletin boards, responses to a posting were added as separate posting following the original, creating a thread, or series of messages.

▷ On Internet sites where comments are posted rapidly by a large number of participants, a unique culture develops around message formats, expressions, nicknaming, emoticons, images, and other features that are created and understood in particular ways by the participants.

▷ Additional cases were reported in 2006, in which those who posted vicious comments about entertainers and political figures were prosecuted for libel and slander. Those who post mean comments are called “keyboard warriors”

▷ Libel Rate

Comment Culture

▷ Since viewer comments on many websites are posted anonymously, problematic negative and hateful comments sometimes become a public issue.

Comment Culture

▷ www.dcinside.com DC Inside- for creating “DC” style expressions

▷ DC style and other online expressions are criticized for “destroying” the Korean language by creating terms and expressions that are outside of conventional Korean spelling, that are disrespectful or obscene, that can be understood only within a very specific online culture, and thus can cause a disconnect between generations or cultural subgroups.DC Inside- for creating “DC” style expressions

_____________________________________Community Capacity and Internet Communities

Community Capacity and Internet Communities

▷ The ten dimensions include: participation, leadership, skills, resources, social networks, sense of community, understanding of community history, community power, community values, and critical reflection.

▷ Community capacity has been treated as a single-dimension construct in the Internet research arena, particularly regarding sense of community and social networks.

▷ Community capacity is largely a foreign term in Korean Internet community studies, which have mostly focused on the motivation for online community participation and usage patterns, and on user satisfaction.

Community Capacity and Internet Communities

▷ Community capacity building and community developmentCommunity capacity building should not be confused with community development, which may be seen as the product of both community capacity building and community engagement. This leads to strengthened, healthy communities which are equitable, liveable and sustainable. The diagram from Achieving Better Community Development, reproduced below, illustrates these relationships:out those decisions.”

Conclusion

▷ Korea is experiencing changes on the Internet.It has diversified from information search and e-mailing to UCC in blogs, mini-hompys, Internet cafes, and bulletin boards.

▷ Koreans are faced with the invasion of privacy, Internet lynching, and reckless hostility on the Internet in return.

▷ In the arena of Korean Internet community research, mini-hompys and blogs have received the most attention, with a focus on the usage patterns and the factors that influence Internet usage.

▷ But there is a lot more to be done to address the interrelations of community capacities. Korean Internet culture studies should also reflect the changes in trends of Korean Internet communities.

▷ It is anticipated that community capacity research will contribute to further understanding the development of Internet communities and their culture. It is also expected to inform strategy development to respond to negative functions or counter the effects of hostile comments, obscenity, misinformation, and invasion of privacy.

▷ The continuing advancement of the Internet infrastructure and the enthusiastic utilization of the Internet will support energetic activities by Korean Internet communities.

▷ An understanding of fast-paced, multidimensional evolution of Internet communities and culture in the present requires innovative approaches that take diversity into account.

▷ The application of this construct to Korean Internet community research will surely contribute to the widening of Internet studies.

Conclusion

Thank You for Your [email protected]

Sang Me NAM

감사합니다

Internet Culture Communities Of Korea

Technology

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