Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Drawing upon in-depth interviews with young smartphone users, as well as socioeconomic analyses, this study examines a localized media landscape emerging with the smartphone and its applications (apps). With particular reference to young Koreans’ engagement with the popular local app platform, KakaoTalk, the study explores how smartphone technology is reimagined in a local context. The KakaoTalk-scape shows that smartphones and their apps are articulated with community-based local modes of communication and the rhythm of urban space. It also demonstrates that media convergence occurs not only between different media platforms but also between global and local media practices.

Keywords

Anipang app (application)KakaoStory KakaoTalk Korea mobile communication mobile gaming smartphone youth

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bolin

(2012) Personal media in the digital economy. In: Sinckars

Vonderau

(eds) Moving Data: The iPhone and The Future of Media. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 91–103.

Call

Whitlock

Voorhees

(2012) From dungeons to digital denizens. In: Voorhees

Call

Whitlock

(eds) Dungeons, Dragons, and Digital Denizens: The Digital Role-Playing Game. London: Continuum, pp. 11–24.

Cho

(2012) Player of puzzle game AniPang tops 20 mil. The Korea Times, 12 October. Available at: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2013/01/133_122101.html (accessed 4 March 2013).

Christensen

Prax

(2012) Assemblage, adaptation and apps: Smartphones and mobile gaming. Continuum 26 (5): 731–739.

Chung

(2013) KakaoTalk users passed 100 million. Available at: http://www.bloter.net/archives/157860 (accessed 15 December 2013).

de Souza e Silva

Hjorth

(2009) Playful urban spaces: A historical approach to mobile games. Simulation Gaming 40 (5): 602–625.

Einhom

Frier

(2014) WhatsApp vs. Asian rivals: The mobile-messaging war goes global. BloombergBusinessweek, 27 February. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-27/whatsapp-vs-dot-asian-rivals-mobile-messaging-war-goes-global (accessed 19 September 2014).

Fiske

(1987) Television Culture. London: Routledge.

Goggin

(2010) Global Mobile Media. London: Routledge.

10.

Herring

(2003) Computer-mediated discourse. In: Tannen

Shiffrin

Hamilton

(eds) Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 612–634.

11.

Hjorth

(2007) Home and away: A case study of the use of cyworld mini-hompy by Korean students studying in Australia. Asian Studies Review 31 (4): 397–407.

12.

Hjorth

(2009) Mobile Media in the Asia-Pacific: Gender and the Art of Being Mobile. London: Routledge.

13.

Hjorth

(2011) Games and Gaming: An Introduction to New Media. Oxford: Berg.

14.

Hjorth

Burgess

Richardson

(2012) Studying Mobile Media: Cultural Technologies, Mobile Communication, and the IPhone. London: Routledge.

15.

Huh

(2011) Interview with Jae Bum Lee of KaKao Inc. Hankook Ilbo, 10 February, 17.

16.

Ito

Okabe

(2005) Intimate connections: Contextualizing Japanese youth and mobile messaging. In: Harper

Palen

Taylor

(eds) The Inside Text: Social, Cultural and Design Perspectives on SMS. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, pp.127–145.

17.

Ito

Okabe

Matsuda

(eds) (2005) Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. Cambridge: MIT Press.

18.

Jenkins

(2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.

19.

Jin

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

20.

Jin

Chee

Kim

(2013) Transformative mobile game culture: Sociocultural analysis of Korean mobile gaming in the era of smartphones. International Journal of Cultural Studies. Epub ahead of print 18 November 2013. DOI: 10.1177/1367877913507473. Available at: http://ics.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/11/20/1367877913507473 (accessed 10 December 2013).

21.

Juul

(ed) (2005) Where the action is. Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research 5(1). Available at: www.gamestudies.org/0501/ (accessed 20 March 2013).

22.

Kang

(2012) ‘Truth’ about Samsung smartphones about which Korean media have been silent. OhMyNews.com., 2 November. Available at: www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0001795469 (accessed 3 March 2013).

23.

Katz

Sugiyama

(2006) Mobile phones as fashion statements: Evidence from student surveys in the US and Japan. New Media & Society 8 (2): 321–337.

24.

Kim

(2011). The Collapse of the Korean IT Industry. Seoul: Book House.

25.

Kohiyama

(2005) A decade in the development of mobile communications in Japan (1993–2002). In: Ito

Okabe

Matsuda

(eds) Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. Cambridge: The MIT Press, pp. 61–74.

26.

Korea Bank (2014). National Accounts. Seoul: Korea Bank.

27.

Korea Communications Commission (2013) Statistics. Available at: http://www.kcc.go.kr/user.do?boardId=1030&page=P02060400&dc=K02060400 (accessed 10 March 2013).

28.

Korea Telecom (2010) Market Prospects for the iPhone and its Economic Implications. Bundang: Digieco.

29.

Lee

(2011) Social and cultural meanings of mobile phone adoption in Korea. In: The Korean Society for Communication Studies (ed) Digital Media and Culture in Korea. Seoul: Communication Books, pp. 215–248.

30.

Lee

(2010) Mobile big bang strikes S. Korea’s smartphone market. Yonhapnews, 20 December.

31.

Lee

Kim

Chang

(2013) A Study of Youth Protection in the Diffusion of Smartphones. Seoul: National Youth Policy Institute.

32.

Ling

Yttri

(2002) Hyper-coordination via mobile phones in Norway. In: Katz

Aakhus

(eds) Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 139–169.

33.

Lukman

(2013) Messaging app war: WeChat and Line are leaving KakaoTalk behind; WhatsApp should be worried. Tech in Asia, 25 July. Available at: http://www.techinasia.com/messaging-app-war-wechat-line-kakaotalk-whatsapp/ (accessed September 18 2014).

34.

MacMillan

(2009) Inside the app economy. Business Week, 22 October. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_44/b4153044881892.htm (accessed 1 March 2013).

35.

McCracken

(1988) The Long Interview. London: Sage.

36.

McVeigh

(2003) Individualization, individuality, interiority, and the Internet: Japanese university students and e-mail. In: Gottlieb

McLelland

(eds) Japanese Cybercultures. London: Routledge, pp. 19–33.

37.

Nielsen (2012) America’s new mobile majority: A look at smartphone owners in the U.S. Available at: www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/who-owns-smartphones-in-the-us.html (accessed 10 March 2013).

38.

(2011) New media practices in Korea. International Journal of Communication 5: 320–348.

39.

Parks Associates (2005) Taiwan and Korea lead in the adoption of consumer technologies (press release), 21 November.

40.

Qiu

Kim

(2010) Global financial crisis recession and progression? Notes on media, labor, and youth from East Asia. International Journal of Communication 4: 630–648.

41.

Rheingold

(2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. New York: Basic Books.

42.

Silverstone

Hirsch

Morley

(eds) (1992) Consuming Technologies. London: Routledge.

43.

Sinckars

Vonderau

(eds) (2012) Moving Data: The iPhone and the Future of Media. New York: Columbia University Press.

44.

Statista (2013) The United States ranks 13th in smartphone penetration. Available at: http://www.statista.com/topics/840/smartphones/chart/1405/the-united-states-ranks-13th-in-smartphone-penetration/ (accessed 10 December 2013).

45.

Ward

(2004) Where high-speed access is going mainstream the Korean experience: Government policy, high levels of urbanization. Financial Times, 9 June, 4.

46.

Watkins

Larissa

Koskinen

(2012) Wising up: Revising mobile media in an age of smartphones. Continuum 26 (5): 665–668.

47.

Wemade (2012) Introduce Candypang. Available at: social.wemade.com/game/game_info.asp?GmCode=7 (accessed 10 March 2013).

48.

Williams

(2003) Television: Technology and Cultural Form. 3rd ed. London: Routledge.

49.

Wilson

Chesher

Hjorth

(2011) Distractedly engaged: Mobile gaming and convergent mobile media. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 17 (4): 351–355.

50.

Wolf

MJP

(ed) (2002) The Medium of the Video Game. Austin, Texas: The University of Texas Press.

51.

Yonhap News (2012) No life without KaKaoTalk … The average daily use of 43 minutes, 23 December. Available at: http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/economy/2012/12/22/0303000000AKR20121222039800017.HTML (accessed 1 March 2013).

52.

Yoon

(2003) Retraditionalizing the mobile: Young people’s sociality and mobile phone in Seoul, South Korea. European Journal of Cultural Studies 6 (3): 327–343.

53.

Yoon

(2006) The making of neo-Confucian cyberkids: Representations of young mobile phone users in South Korea. New Media & Society 8 (5): 753–771.

54.

Yuan

(2012) From ‘perpetual contact’ to contextualized mobility: Mobile phones for social relations in Chinese society. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 5 (3): 208–225.

Reimagining smartphones in a local mediascape

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References