Construction of digital Korea: the evolution of new communication technologies in the 21st century

Abstract

This article is to document digital Korea. It discusses the sociocultural contexts of the growth of digital technologies and culture because the current boom of digital technologies and culture cannot be separated from each other. Although it cannot go back several decades, it starts to address some early developments of the Internet directly influencing the contemporary Korean society. This historicization process allows us to firmly comprehend several key developments, in particular, the major reasons for development and the implications of the digital Korean phenomenon. While there are several digital technologies, it analyzes a few major digital technologies, such as the Internet, broadband services, and smartphone technologies, as well as relevant digital culture, from three different lens, including information and communication technology policies, corporate competition, and cultural perspectives.

Keywords

digital Korea historiography information and communication technology Internet smartphone social construction of technology

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Advanced Center for Korean Studies (2012) Koreans’ Cultural Gene. Seoul, South Korea: Amormundi.

Aizu

(2002) A comparative study on broadband in Asia: development and policy. In: Proceedings of the Asian economic integration – current status and prospects, 22 April. Tokyo, Japan: RIETI. Available at: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan006049.pdf (accessed 10 May 2017).

Anderson

Curtin

(2002) Writing cultural history: the challenge of radio and television. In: Brugger

Kolstrup

(eds) Media History: Theories, Methods, Analysis. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, pp. 15–32.

Bajaj

(2002) High-speed connections common in South Korea. The Seattle Times, 21 October. Available at: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20021021&slug=btbbandkorea21 (accessed 10 May 2017).

Barney

(2004) The Network Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bijker

Hughes

Pinch

(2012) The Social Construction of Technological Systems (Anniversary edition). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bogost

Montfort

(2009) Platform studies: frequently asked questions. In: Proceedings of digital arts and culture, 2009. Irvine, CA: University of California. Available at: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/01r0k9br (accessed 6 March 2016).

Brennen

Kreiss

(2014) Digitalization and digitization. Culture Digitally. 8 September. Available at: http://culturedigitally.org/2014/09/digitalization-and-digitization/ (accessed 9 May 2016).

Chang

(2010) Compressed modernity in perspective: South Korean instances and beyond. Paper presented at the 5th World Congress of Korean Studies, 25–28 October, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan.

10.

Choi

(2013) Kakao Talk, a mobile social platform pioneer. SERI Quarterly 6(1): 62–69.

11.

Chon

Park

Hur

. (2013) A history of computer networking and the Internet in Korea. IEEE Communications Magazine 51: 10–15.

12.

Edgerton

(2010) Innovation, technology, or history: what is the historiography of technology about? Technology and Culture 51(3): 680–697.

13.

Flanagin

(2012) Technical code and the social construction of the internet. New Media and Society 12(2): 179–196.

14.

Frey

(2015) The Future of South Korea. Available at: http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2015/06/the-future-of-south-korea/ (15 June, accessed 10 May 2016)

15.

Friedel

(2007) A Culture of Improvement Technology and the Western Millennium Culture of Improvement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

16.

Goff

(2014) A history of the social media industries. In: Albarran

(ed.) The Social Media Industries. London: Routledge, pp. 16–45.

17.

Goldsmith

Lee

Yecies

(2011) In search of the Korean digital wave. Media International Australia 141: 70–77.

18.

Hundt

(2015) Neoliberalism, the developmental state and civil society in Korea. Asian Studies Review 39(4): 66–482.

19.

Jin

(2010) Korea’s Online Gaming Empire. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

20.

Jin

(2017) Smartland Korea: Mobile Communication, Culture and Society. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

21.

Jin

Schneider

(2016) Asiascape: video games special issue: the dynamics of digital play in Asia. Asiascape: Digital Asia 3(1–2): 5–15.

22.

Johns

(2011) Korea needs predictable regulatory environment. The Korea Times, 15 May. Available at: https://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2016/06/333_87003.html (accessed 10 May 2017).

23.

Kim

(2011) iPhone effect: a critical analysis of discourses on science and technology in South Korea. In: Proceedings of the international communication association conference, Boston, MA, 25 May.

24.

Korea Communications Commission (2016) 2015 Cyber Crime Report. Seoul, South Korea: KCC.

25.

Korea Creative Content Agency (2013) 2013 Game Whitepaper. Seoul, South Korea: KOCCA.

26.

Korea Creative Content Agency (2015) 2015 Game Whitepaper. Naju, South Korea: KOCCA.

27.

Korea Internet & Security Agency (2014) Annual Survey on the Internet Usage of 2014. Seoul, South Korea: Korea Internet & Security Agency.

28.

Korea Internet & Security Agency (2015) Annual Survey on the Internet Usage of 2015. Seoul, South Korea: Korea Internet & Security Agency.

29.

Lau

Kim

Atkin

(2005) An examination of factors contributing to South Korea’s global leadership in broadband adoption. Telematics and Informatics 22(4): 349–359.

30.

Lee

(2009) Contesting the digital economy and culture: digital technologies and the transformation of popular music in Korea. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10(4): 489–506.

31.

Lee

(2016) On the historiography of the Korean Internet: issues raised by the historical dialectic of structure and agency. Information Society 32(3): 217–222.

32.

Mackenzie

Wajcman

(1999) The Social Shaping of Technology: How the refrigerator got its hum. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.

33.

Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2015) Status of Wireless and Wire Telephone Lines of August, 2015. Seoul, South Korea: Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

34.

Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2016) Status of Wireless and Wire Telephone Lines of March, 2016. Seoul, South Korea: Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

35.

National Information Society Agency (2015) 2015 National Information White Paper. Seoul, South Korea: NIA.

36.

Notley

(2009) Young people, online networks, and social inclusion. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14: 1208–1227.

37.

Larson

(2011) Digital Development in Korea: Building an Information Society. London: Routledge.

38.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2016) OECD Broadband Portal. Paris: OECD.

39.

Pew Research Center (2016) Smartphone ownership and internet usage continues to climb in emerging economies. February. Available at: http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/02/22/smartphone-ownership-and-internet-usage-continues-to-climb-in-emerging-economies/2-23-2016-10-31-58-am-2/ (accessed 11 May 2016).

40.

Richardson

(2012) Touching the screen: a phenomenology of mobile gaming and the iPhone. In: Hjorth

Burgess

Richardson

(eds) Studying Mobile Media: Cultural Technologies, Mobile Communication, and the iPhone. London: Routledge, pp. 133–153.

41.

Shim

Kim

Martin

(2008) Changing Korea: Understanding culture and communication. New York: Peter Lang.

42.

Sinha

(2016) Huawei, Oppo see growth in Q1 2016 as global smartphone shipments fall: strategy analytics. 29 April. Available at: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/oppo-vivo-now-among-top-5-smartphone-vendors-oust-lenovo-and-xiaomi-idc-831304

43.

Usselman

(2010) From Sputnik to SCOT: the historiography of American technology. OAH Magazine of History 24(3): 9–14.

44.

Volti

(2008) Society and Technological Change, 6th edn. New York: Worth Publishers.

45.

Wellman

(2007) The network is personal: introduction to a special issue of social networks. Social Networks: An International Journal of Structural Analysis 29(3): 349–356.

46.

Winner

(1993) Upon opening the black box and finding it empty: social constructivism and the philosophy of technology. Science, Technology & Human Values 18: 362–378.