Teens

   

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.

     

Teens, Games, and Civics

Today, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in collaboration with the Mills College Civic Engagement Research Group, released a report of findings of the first nationally representative survey of how teen video gaming relates to civic engagement. The study was an effort to survey the distribution of certain forms of video game practice in teen culture, as well as to investigate specific questions about what forms of gaming contribute to prosocial and civic forms of engagement. The project has released a report that documents the overall findings of the survey (authored by Amanda Lenhart, Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, Alexandra Rankin Macgill, Chris Evans, and Jessica Vitak), as well as a research paper analyzing the civic potential of video games (authored by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, and Chris Evans). 

A note of disclaimer – I participated as an advisor on this project, so I did have a small role in it, and it is funded by the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Initiative that I also am part of.

This work has a number of interesting findings that are worth highlighting. First, the survey confirms that fact that video games have become a pervasive fact of life for US teens, with 97% reporting that they play some form of video game with boys having only slightly higher rates (99%) than girls (94%). The survey does more than give us these blanket numbers for overall video game engagement, but also asks questions about teens’ favorite games, game genres, and frequency of game play. Here we see a diversity in different forms of game play, with boys more likely to be frequent players, and preferring M rated games more than girls.

Interestingly, the four top games in terms of popularity were Guitar Hero, Halo, Madden NFL, and Solitaire. These four titles span an immense range in terms of genre, giving good evidence that the forms of game play are diversifying and that we should not approach teen game play assuming that there is a single “typical” form of game player or a single game or game genre that is overwhelmingly popular. This may seem to be a commonsensical point, but so often public debates over game play proceed as if there are particular kinds of behavioral effects of game play that apply regardless of the form of game play involved. A teen who lists Solitaire as a favorite game is likely to be a very different kind of gamer than one who lists Madden NFL or Halo.

The survey also confirms that gaming is a social activity for most teens, with only 24% saying that they only play alone. These findings are in line with the work reported on in Grand Theft Childhood, that gaming has become a baseline for social participation, and that teens who don’t game are more likely to be socially troubled than kids who do. I would have liked to know the relationship between game genres and the level of social game play. For example, of the 24% who play alone, are they more likely to play so-called casual genres such as Solitaire? Or are those kids fairly distributed among different game genres? Based on our ethnographic work, I would expect the former, but the report does not break down the results in this way.

After setting out these findings about the overall distribution of game practices, the report focuses on civic engagement measures more specifically. The research paper explains how the authors identified certain features of gaming which they call “civic gaming experiences” that they see as exhibiting features of civic engagement.

The civic characteristics of game play:  Do teens who have civic experiences while gaming—such as playing games that simulate civic activities, helping or guiding other players, organizing or managing guilds (an opportunity to develop social networks), learning about social issues, grappling with ethical issues—demonstrate greater commitment to and engagement in civic and political activity than those with limited exposure to civic gaming experiences?

Overall, the study found that teens who have high levels of civic gaming experiences also tend to have high levels of civic and political engagement. They also found that teens who tend to play with others in real life also have higher rates of civic and political engagement than teens who primarily play alone, and that the same was true for teens who have social interaction around the game, such as commenting on web sites or contributing to online discussion groups. One of the more surprising findings was that the link to civic and political engagement did not hold for teens who played with others online. Included in this category are both more casual “pick-up” forms of online play as well as more intensive forms, such as in MMO guilds. This deserves further investigation; my guess is that the different forms of online play would have different relationships to civic engagement measures. In our observations of youth gaming practice, we’ve found certain forms of engagement that are highly social, but much more focused on competition and performance than what you would think of as a more expansive civic orientation, while other forms of gaming have more explicitly civic and political agendas. The more we can get specific about these different dimensions of practice, the more we can begin to untangle the threads that tie together gaming activity with different dimensions of kids’ lives.

One of the significant findings for educational practice is that civic engagement activities are relatively equitably distributed, where income level, race, and age do not determine levels of engagement. The only major demographic category that did make a difference, not surprisingly, was gender, with girls having lower rates of civic gaming experiences. In our ethnographic work, we also found that girls had lower rates of participation in the more social and “geeked out” forms of gaming. The finding that civic gaming is accessible regardless of socioeconomic status is a significant one. The report authors point out that traditional measures of civic engagement indicate that elite youth are much more likely to have access to these experiences. In other words, if gaming is indeed an avenue into civic engagement, it could become one that provides broader avenues for access for diverse teens.

The survey is an effort to get more precise about the specific forms of games and game practices that might be related to specific forms of public participation. In other words, this report is doing work to move the discussion of the learning outcomes of gaming away from simply positing relationships between media content and behavior. Instead, the report suggests looking at the social and cultural contexts of gaming in practice. In doing this, the report does not assume that participatory forms of gaming automatically result in civic participation.

This work is a promising step in building an empirical base for mapping relationships between recreational and social new media practice and ones that have a closer relationship to formal education and civic engagement. The findings confirm many of the intuitions and initial findings of those of us engaged in qualitative research in this area – that youth engagement in sociable forms of play relate to comparable forms of sociability in other realms of life. At the same time, the report challenges us to be much more precise about positing the nature of these linkages, and to proceed with cautious optimism in interventions that target the space between game play and civic engagement.

     

Social network sites in an international context

Last week, I spent two days attending the Media at LSE - Fifth Anniversary Conference of the Media Studies program at the London School of Economics. The conference had five tracks packed into two days. One of these was titled “Media and New Media Literacies” and there were a number of talks and papers that are relevant to our research efforts. This post is going to go into some depth about the very first session, which was a fascinating set of talks coming from people outside of the United States researching social network sites. (But scroll down to the bottom to see a few other presentations I really enjoyed.)

The first of these talks about social network sites in an global context concerned the use of mobile phones and social network sites in Japan [1]. Toshie Takahashi, from Tokyo’s Rikkyo University, presented the results of two studies . The first were video interviews of Japanese youth on the streets of Tokyo. These interviews showed some of the passion that interviewees had for their mobile phones and how essential they felt they were to their day to day life. But most of the time in the talk and in the paper concerns the second study a comparison of Japanese young people’s take up of Japanese SNS Mixi with their use of MySpace. According to Takahashi, Mixi launched in Japan in 2004 and now has 15 million members. MySpace Japan launched only two years later, in 2006, and currently has 1.2 million users. Takahashi argued that the use of Mixi and MySpace reflected the tension in Japanese culture between the notion of Uchi and Soto. As she puts it in the paper, “Uchi (inside, us)...exists in the belonging of people to social groups linked by close interpersonal relationships.” This social intimacy is linked to strong social obligations. Soto corresponds to “outside, them” and is about an outward-facing presentation.

The details of her study are fascinating and I cannot cover many here (though the paper is online ). Takahashi shows how people’s use of their MySpace accounts and their Mixi accounts are quite different in how they connect (or opt not to) with their friends and how they present themselves. There seems to be a different emotional valence in their use of each site, strongly connected with this tension between Uchi and Soto. Mixi opens up opportunities to be members of multiple Uchis (previously not thought possible), but this comes with significant social obligations to others. Use of MySpace, on the other hand, corresponds with the notion of Soto and people sometimes refuse connections to people they already know and rather present a radically different image of themselves as they connect to outside-Japan popular culture.

Takahashi concludes that contrary to the way a Senior Vice President at Viacom International Japan argued that Mixi is about “us” while MySpace Japan is really about “me, me, me,” both are about “me” and “them.” But Mixi is about “me and them” in Japan and involves a process of “re-Japanisation” while MySpace is about “me and them” in the global world and involves a romanticized process of self-creation and “de-Japanisation.”

Following Takahshi, Fiona Lennox of the UK’s Office of Communication, or Ofcom [2], presented a synthesis of various studies the organization conducted which social networking data was gathered:

One of the more interesting things about the studies, however, is the fact that they have data from both kids and adults and find that there are similarities as well as differences. Both groups primarily use these sites as their communication hubs. Issues of safety and security were not major concerns. Finally, there was a gap between what parents knew about what their kids were up to when they went online.

Another aspect of the studies I found interesting had to do with the way Ofcom created profiles of social network site users, dividing them into “alpha socializers,” “attention seekers,” “followers,” “faithfuls,” and “functional users.” I had trouble understanding the differences at times (and was surprised to hear that “Alpha Socializers” were more male than female in the UK...does this term mean what I assumed it to mean? Perhaps not!).  I also wondered how these user-types may contrast with the way that those of us associated with the Digital Youth research here in the United States tried to purposely move away from grouping people in this way and rather groups practices into various categories. I think one of the things we’ll have to consider going forward are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

The final talk of the session was a presentation by Naeema Farooqi of Dar Al-Hekma College in Saudi Arabia of her ongoing research on Facebook practices in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. She and colleagues gathered the results of questionnaires of college students at their respective institutions and followed some of them up with more in-depth interviews. She also mentioned that a number of Pakistani youth are on Orkut, an older social network site. Unfortunately, Farooqi’s paper is not yet online and my notes on the talk are unintelligible. I would love to hear more from her (and am making an attempt to do so). Despite my lack of details here, I still felt that pointing people towards her work and research would be a great starting point for building connections and the possibilities of comparative work.

I just wanted to conclude this review of these three talks with one meta-comment. Had I not been an attendee at the conference, I don’t know if I ever would have heard of the work of Takashi and Farooqi. More importantly I don’t think I would have gone looking under “media literacy” to find them, though I understand why they were there if one thinks of any literacies as highly contextual, embedded in practices that aren’t easy to abstract from their socio-cultural contexts. I think it shows how tricky it can be to connect researchers who are interested in common phenomena, but are in different fields and disciplines. I wonder if moving between global fields or disciplines is trickier than moving between global regions?

More from the conference

A few other things to check out from the conference:

Finally, you may want to see the final conference program , abstracts , and full papers, all on the conference website.

[1] Actually, the first talk was YouTube, Digital Literacy, and the Growth of Knowledge by John Hartley.  It was more of a theoretical piece on the nature of certain kinds of storytelling and the structuring of this storytelling that go on on YouTube. I am not going to give a recap here though the paper is online and is worth a read for those interested in the development of sites that open up opportunities for media sharing and distribution. Also, the paper mentions a pre-YouTube action research project from Hartley’s research group at the Queensland University of Technology (in Australia) called the Youth Internet Radio Network that is an interesting bit of history.

[2] According the their website, Ofcom is the “the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.” Ofcom was established by the Communications Act of 2003 and has been charged with the promotion of media literacy in the UK, where media literacy is defined by as “the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts.” See their publications and research page for reports.

     

Book Review: Internet and Asian Cultural Studies

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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: 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

English Sources

Bae, I. (2003). Cyber Influences on the Youth and Related Policies in South Korea: Focused on Internet. Journal of Youth Studies-Hong Kong, 6(1), 144-157.

Bhuiyan, S. I. (2004). Use of Internet in Political Participation in South Korea. Asia Pacific Media Educator, (15), 115-130.

Choi, J. (2006). Living in Cyworld: Contextualizing Cy-ties in South Korea.  In Uses of Blogs (pp. 173-186). New York: Peter Lang.

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.

Kim, H. H. (2004). Broadband Penetration and Participatory Politics: South Korea Case. In Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii, USA. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/proceedings/&toc=comp/proceedings/hicss/2004/2056/05/2056toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/HICSS.2004.1265301.

Kim, K., & Yun, H. (2007). Cying for Me, Cying for Us: Relational Dialectics in a Korean Social Network Site. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1). Retrieved July 31, 2008, from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/kim.yun.html.

Kim, K. (2006). Internet addiction in Korean Adolescents and Its relation to Depression and Suicidal Ideation: A questionnaire Survey. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43(2), 185-192.

Lee, H., Han, G., Oh, S., & Phillips, R. (2007). Participation, Young people and the Internet: Digital Natives in Korea. In Generational Change and New Policy Changes: Australia and South Korea, Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2084.

Park, L. (2002). Artisanship, Political Interest and Voting Behavior Influenced by Information Technology: Cyber-Life versus Real-Life of Young Generation. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. Boston, USA.

Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Yoon, S. (2001). Internet Discourse and the Habitus of Korea’s New Generation. In Culture, Technology, Communication. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.


Korean literature

Cho, H. (2006). Jisikjeongbosahweowa Cheongsonyeunmunhwa Jegochal: Cheongsonyeuneui Online Community Chamyeowa Jisik, Jeongbo Seupdeukleul Jungsimeuro (Rethinking Youth Culture in Information Society: Youth Participation in On-line Community and Acquisition of Knowledge and Information). Educational Anthropology Study, 9(2), 141-166.

Cho, H. J. (2007). Internetsideui Munhwayeongu: Juche, Hyeonjang, georigo Seroun “Sahyoi”e dehayeo (Cultural Studies in Internet Age: Subject, Sites, and New “Society”). In H. J. Cho et al, (Eds.), Internet and Asian Cultural Studies. Seoul, Korea: Yonsei University Press.

Choi, W. (2005). Cheongsonyeungwa Cybermunhwa (Youth and Cyberculture). In Cheongsonyeun Munhwaron (Youth Culture Studies). Seoul, Korea: National Youth Policy Institute.

Hwang, J. (2003). Cheonsonyeunui Cybercommunity Chamyei mit Yiyongsilte Yeongu (A Study of Adolescents’ Participation in Cyber community). Seoul, Korea: National Youth Policy Institute.

Hwang, S. (2000). Sinsedae(N sede)ui Jagipyohyeungwa Cyber gongganeseoui Sanghojakyong: Sagowa Hengdong Yangsikui Byeunhwareul Jungsimeoro (Adolescents` Self - Expression and Their Interaction Patterns in Cyberspace ; Exploration of Behavior patterns and Thoughts). Korean Journal of Psychology, 13(3), 9-19.

Hwang, S., Kim, J., & Cho, H. (2008). Cybergonggansokeui Gwangye Mecgi: Cyworld Yiyonghendonge Natanan Social Network Hwaldong Yangsande Dehan Tamsek (Self and Community Experience in Cyberspace: Social Networking in Cyworld). Korean Journal of Consumer and Advertising Psychology, 9(2), 285-303.

Jang, K., & Nam, J. (2006). Cheongsonyeon Jeongbohwa Hyeunhwanggwa Deeungbangan II ( Adolescents’ Informatization and Measures) . Seoul, Korea: National Youth Policy Institute.

Kang, M. (2003). Sayclubeui Cheongsonyeun Community ( Youth Community in Sayclub). In A Study of Youth Participation and Use of Cyber Community (pp. 175-183). Seoul, Korea: Korea Institute for Youth Development.

Kim, J. (2003). Damoimeui Cheongsonyeun Community (Youth Community in Damoim). In A Study of Youth Participation and Use of Cyber Community (pp. 184-197). Seoul, Korea: Korea Institute for Youth Development.

Kim, Y. (2001). Cheongsonyeon Deangongganeuroseoui Cyberspace Hwalyong Siltewa Uimi (Adolescents’ Use of Cyberspace as Alternative Space). Korean Youth Studies, 33, 157-180.

Kim, Y. (2006). Blogui Mediajeok Gineunggwa Hange: Blog Yiyongjaui Blog Yiyong Hengtewa Pyeonggareul Jungsimeuro (A Study on the Blog as a Media: Focused on Media Functions and the Problems of the Blog). Korea Journalism & Communication Studies, 50(3), 59-91.

Lee, C., & Jung, E. (2008). Chotbulmunhwajee natanan Cheongsonyeuneui Sahyeuichamyeo Teukseounge dehan Yeongu (A Study of the Characteristics of Youth Participation through the Candle Culture Festivals against the Import of U.S. Beef). Communication Science Studies, 8(3), 457-491.

Na, E., Park, S., & Kim, E. (2007). Cheongsonyeuneui Internet Yiyong Yuhyeongbyeul Media Yiyong Yangsikgwa Jeokeung: Bloghyeonggwa Gamehyeongeul Jungsimeuro (Media Use and Adjustment of Adolescents according to the Types of Internet Use: Focusing on blog-Type and Game-Type). Korea Journalism Studies, 51(2), 392-524.

National Information Society Agency. (2008). Kukga Jeongbo Sahwoehwa Bekseo (National Informatization Whitepaper). Seoul, Korea.

Park, J. (2003).  Hyudejeonhwa, Internet, Televisionui Media Sokseong Chaiwa Yiyong Donggi Yoin Yeongu (The Media Characteristics and Use Motives of Cellular Phone, Internet and Television In Korea). Korean Journalism Studies, 47(2), 221-251.

Soh, Y. (2002). Internet Communitywa Hanguksahoi (Internet Community and Korean Society. Seoul, Korea: Hanul Academy.

     

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

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