South Korea is often called the ‘time machine’ or ‘world’s best laboratory’ to get a glimpse of how broadband services may evolve in the future. However, the Internet was not embraced actively en masse until 1998, when the nation was suffering a deepening economic crisis. In only half a decade, South Korea leapt to the most wired nation. What brought such a drastic change? This article seeks an answer by exploring the symbolic and semiotic aspects of information and communication technologies (ICTs), focusing on the implications of personal computer (PC) use. Against economic essentialism, this study examines the relationship between ICTs and discourses of ‘modernity’, ‘progress’, and ‘national identity’ in Korea in comparison with Japan.
AhnT (1986) Computers and children. Chosun Ilbo, 20February, p. 7.
2.
AizuI (2002) A comparative study of broadband in Asia: deployment and policy. In: Asian economic integration: current status and prospects symposium, Tokyo, 22 April.
BaudrillardJ (2003 [1998]) The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage.
5.
BeilockRDimitrovaDV (2003) An exploratory model of inter-country Internet diffusion. Telecommunications Policy27(3–4): 237–252.
6.
ChoiM (1983) Computer, government’s sole passion. Chosun Ilbo, 3June, p. 11.
7.
Chosun Ilbo (1983) PC sales explode. Chosun Ilbo, 26October, p. 2.
8.
DavidPA (1985) Clio and the economics of QWERTY. American Economics Review75(2): 332–337.
9.
ForsbergB (2005) The future is South Korea. San Francisco Chronicle, 13March, p. B1.
10.
GottliebN (2000) Word-Processing Technology in Japan: Kanji and the Keyboard. Richmond: Curzon Press.
11.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2003) Broadband Korea: Internet Case Study. Geneva: ITU.
12.
JinDY (2010) Korea’s Online Gaming Empire. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
13.
JonesRS (2007) Income inequality, poverty and social spending in Japan. Economics Department working papers no. 556. Paris: OECD.
14.
KangI (2011) Going online in the PC graveyard: the sociocultural evolution of Japan’s mobile Internet. In: JinDY (ed.), Global Media Convergence and Cultural Transformation. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, pp. 180–199.
15.
KangI (2014) It all started with a bang: the role of PC bangs in South Korea’s cybercultures. In: KimKChoeY (eds) The Korean Popular Culture Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 56–75.
16.
KiiskiSPohjolaM (2002) Cross-country diffusion of the Internet. Information Economics and Policy14(2): 293–310.
17.
KimH (1984) Every company seeks to fight ‘computer blindness’. Chosun Ilbo, 10May, p. 8.
18.
KimM (1983) Micro computer age approaches. Chosun Ilbo, 17March, p. 5.
19.
LeeSLeeJKimM (2004) International comparisons of high-speed Internet costs. KSIDI Issue Report4(15): 3–57.
20.
LewisP (2004) Broadband wonderland. Fortune, 20September, pp. 191–198.
21.
MauroFGuillénMFSuárezSL (2005) Explaining the global digital divide: economic, political and sociological dividers of cross-cultural Internet use. Social Forces84(2): 681–708.
22.
NorrisP (2001) Digital Divide: Civic Gngagement, Information Poverty and the Internet in Democratic Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
23.
Oldstone-MooreJ (2002) Confucianism. New York: Oxford University Press.
24.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1997) Information Technology Outlook 1997. Paris: OECD.
25.
PressLBurkhartGFosterW (1998) An Internet diffusion framework. Communications of the ACM41(10): 21–26.
WarehamJLevyAShiW (2004) Wireless diffusion and mobile computing: implications for the digital divide. Telecommunications Policy28(5–6): 439–457.
30.
YaoX (2000) An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
YoonS (2001) Internet discourse and the habitus of Korea’s new generation. In: EssC (ed.) Culture, Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 241–260.
