Description
Book SynopsisDigital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea deepens the current understanding of online activism and its impacts on society by highlighting how various forms of social movements have been mobilized in Korea. Through exploring movements in Korea such as political participation based on SNS, the 2008 U.S. beef protests, and the 2016-2017 candlelight vigils, the contributors study the intersection of digital media platforms, current trends, and social, cultural, and political conditions within Korean society. Using a wide range of events and movements, this book analyzes how people have utilized the development of digital media to facilitate social movements and effect social change.
Trade ReviewEditors Lee and Oh collected 16 chapters examining how the use of and access to digital media support democratic activism in South Korea. They acknowledge that autocrats can manipulate the reception of digital media as easily as democrats can. Each chapter, whether a newly or previously published journal article, follows the same format: hypothesis with literature review, a data analysis based on surveys or a deep dive into online resources, and discussion. The best chapters are 4 and 5 (examining political blogs), 10 (the dynamics of relationships by internet use), and 15 (comparative study of East Asian youth engagement) because of the strength of their analysis and discussion. The authors are active academics in communication and political science, so readers should have a basic understanding of Korean history and social development in South Korea and a thorough knowledge of the pedagogy and methodology of these disciplines to follow arguments and data analysis…. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates and graduate students.
* Choice Reviews *
Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea provides innovative and refreshing perspectives and insights on a wide range of instances of online activism in South Korea since the early 2000s. This collection offers scholars and students of Korean politics and society an excellent reader which will enable them to understand and learn about how netizens used digital media to gain information, express themselves, and actively participate in social movements to bring about change in their daily lives and society at large.
The contributions engage with a booming literature on media and communication and also provide readers with a helpful overview of how different methodologies can be deployed to study these diverse sets of phenomena.
Scholars interested in the way in which contemporary social movements have used advances in information and communication technologies will find this book extremely valuable as a tool to understand the key drivers, actors, and debates surrounding the rapidly evolving environment of online activism in South Korea, through single case studies and comparatively.
-- Youngmi Kim, University of Edinburgh
The relationship between new/digital media and democracy has been an important topic for many fields, including communication, media studies, sociology, and political science. As a frontier of digital technology, culture, and activism, Korea provides a rich site of scholarly engagement to understand the intersection of digital media and democracy—the task that Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea, edited by Hojeong Lee and Joong-Hwan Oh, successfully delivers. The anthology provides a timely contribution, like K-Pop and Hallyu today, to accessing intimate and ‘organic’ scholarly discussions on the evolution, impacts, and synergy of digital technology, culture, and politics in Korea.
-- JongHwa Lee, Angelo State University
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Diversity of Online News Media: Source and Frame Analyses
Chapter 2: Constructing Collective Memory in the Digital Era: An Analysis of News Stories on the Former President’s Death
Chapter 3: Relationships between Online Users’ Perceived Journalistic Roles and News Engagement: The Moderating Role of Credibility
Chapter 4: A Functional Analysis of the 2007 South Korean Presidential Campaign Blogs
Chapter 5: The Influence of Blog Posting on Issue Involvement and Political Participation
Chapter 6: YouTube Videos as a Means of Grassroots Mobilization in Korea’s Candlelight Movements: "Learning from YouTube" Revisited
Chapter 7: Who Talks Politics?: An Empirical Study of Online and Offline Casual Political Communication
Chapter 8: The Internet and Social Media: Integrated Consequences for Political Discussion for Korean College Students
Chapter 9: Why Does the Press Still Matter? Explaining the Conditional Effects of Online Mobilization of Protest on Newspaper Market Structures in Asia
Chapter 10: Digital Revolution or Digital Dominance? Regime Type, Internet Control, and Political Activism in East Asia
Chapter 11: Does SNS make Gender Differences in Political Participation? South Korean Case Study
Chapter 12: Revisiting the Cultural Logic of Politics in the Digital Age: Internet Use, Personalization of Political Action, and Asian Values
Chapter 13: Determinants of Unaffiliated Citizen Protests: The Korean Candlelight Protests of 2016-2017
Chapter 14: A Matter of Trust and Utility? Perceptions of Online Political Content, Protest, and Political Participation in South Korea
Chapter 15: Same Despair but Different Hope: Youth Activism in East Asia and Contentious Politics
Chapter 16: #MeToo in South Korea: A Comparative Analysis of Feminist Perspectives in a Cultural Context
