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INTERNET ACTIVISM in the CONTENTIOUS POLITICS of SOUTH KOREA by JINSUN LEE a Dissertation Submitted To

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INTERNET ACTIVISM in the CONTENTIOUS POLITICS of SOUTH KOREA by JINSUN LEE a Dissertation Submitted To NET POWER IN ACTION: INTERNET ACTIVISM IN THE CONTENTIOUS POLITICS OF SOUTH KOREA by JINSUN LEE A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Communication, Information and Library Studies Written under the direction of Professor John V. Pavlik And approved by ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October, 2009 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Net power in action: Internet activism in the contentious politics of South Korea By JINSUN LEE Dissertation Director: John V. Pavlik This study examines the ways in which the Internet is utilized for progressive civic action, focusing on a detailed case study of Internet activism of South Korea. The goals of this study are to examine: the ways in which the Internet is utilized for progressive civic action; the extent to which Internet activism is differentiated from preexisting social movements; and the ways in which the Internet affects movement repertoires and organizational forms of civic action. Toward this end, this study encompasses four main areas: (1) historical background of Korean Internet activism; (2) social agents of Internet activism; (3) movement repertoires and awareness of citizenship; and (4) theoretical implications of the Korean case. This study employs multiple research methods including qualitative framing analysis, in-depth interviews, and focus-group interviews as well as quantitative methods. The findings of this study suggest that Korean Internet activism has had a huge impact on political and cultural environments. Korea’s liberal and critical younger generations have predominantly used the Internet, constituting amorphous and hybrid groups of Internet users who are aware of citizenship—namely netizens. Positing ii themselves distinctly from preexisting activist groups including social movement organizations (SMOs), Korean netizens have utilized the Internet for resource mobilization, virtual struggles, and alternative knowledge production for progressive civic action. Through serial events from 2002 to 2007, Korean netizens and SMOs have collaborated on the one hand and contended on the other hand. Netizens have expedited horizontal and decentralized networks for communication and mobilization while SMOs have maintained hierarchical organizational forms and centralized leadership. This study also found that Korean Internet activism has brought about noticeable changes in movement repertoires. Netizens have organically combined online and offline struggles, converged sub-cultural and political discourses, and constructed distributed trust and counter-hegemonic frames through interactive communications based on datgul [replies] and pumjil [copy-and-paste]. Different from Chadwick’s hybrid mobilization movement model based on Western experience, organizational innovations of civic action have mainly been led by netizens, rather than by SMOs. While many Korean SMOs have adopted new movement repertoires for resource mobilization, they have failed to internalize new values embedded in the netizens’ movement repertoires. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I left Korea in 2002 for study, I was exhausted and somewhat desperate. I could not understand what was wrong. Though many of my colleagues had dedicated themselves to progressive social movements for two decades since the dark age of Korea in the early 1980s, the healthy and happy world of which we had dreamed seemed still far away. Despite the toils and sacrifice of many people, new dominant power appeared and took the benefits of the democratization movement while human rights and economic justice we aspired to achieve seemed forever poised in some distant, unknowable future. My studies in the U.S. are a small step in long journeys for self-inquiry and for alternative ways to reach what we have dreamed of. It was my good fortune to meet with and learn from many knowledgeable and supportive scholars in the U.S. I am deeply grateful to my teachers, colleagues, and friends for inspiring me and providing me with invaluable support. Most of all, I offer my sincerest thanks to my advisor Professor John V. Pavlik for his unstinted encouragement and thoughtful direction. He was not just my academic advisor but a role model, demonstrating to me that good scholars should be good persons who can accept diverse opinions and willingly share their knowledge with anybody else. I also want to express my gratitude to my committee members, Professor Jack Bratich, Professor Susan Keith, and Professor Dong-hoo Lee for their insightful comments and advice. In addition, Professor Daniel O’Connor, Professor Bill Solomon, and Professor Montague Kern offered me endless support and guidance throughout my graduate years. I iv would like to thank Joan Chabrak for her administrative support and Andrew Grossman for his critical review of my draft. I am indebted to my family and friends for their love and encouragement. My spiritual parents, Althira Romas and Tom Naumann, have prayed for me and enthusiastically supported me. My special thanks go to Bill Lee who encouraged me not to give up my dream. I sincerely thank my husband, Sunyu Moon, for being my lifelong fellow and critical reader of my study. I am also grateful to Kim Gisik, Kim Gibo, Ulcarman, Choi Sejin and many Korean activists and scholars who offered me their inspiring ideas and vivid experience. It is with sincere gratitude that I acknowledge the sustained support of my fellow doctoral students at Rutgers and, especially, those of us who bonded in a special Korean community. Also important to my development as a teacher was the guidance and supportive mentoring of Professor Young-mee Yu Cho. When my work brought me to the brink of mental and physical exhaustion, my five-year- old daughter told me, “Work harder and play a lot, then you will be happier.” She was right. I thank Sarah Moon for her amazing advice and encouragement. I hope I will be remembered by her as a woman who does not give up struggling for a better world. I send my kisses and hugs to her. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION…………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS………………………………………………………………...iv TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………vi LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………..ix LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………….x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION..……………………………………………………….1 Research Background………………………………………………………………....1 Research Purpose……………………………………………………………………...4 Case Study………………………………………………………………………….…5 Significance of Study………………………………………………………………….7 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW …………….…………………………………..9 Studies on Internet Activism in Korea………………………………………………..9 Korea’s Civic Action and the Internet………………………………………………14 World Cup Cheering in 2002………………………………………………...14 Candlelight Demonstrations in 2002………………………………………...17 The 16th Presidential Election in 2002…………...…………………………..25 The 17th Presidential Election in 2007………...……………………………..30 Taean Clean-Up Campaigns in 2007………………………………………...32 Theoretical Shortcomings…………………………………………………………...33 CHAPTER 3 THEORETICAL OVERVIEW………………………………………..…37 Political Impact of the Internet……………………………………………………...38 Dialectics of technology and society…..…………..…………………………38 Debate on fragmentation………………....…………………………………...41 Virtual space and the public sphere……....…………………………………..44 Social Movements and Internet Activism…………………………………………..49 Collective action and social movement in new media age…….……………...51 Three factors of social movement…………………………………………….56 Conceptualization of Internet activism……………………….……………….60 Hybrid Mobilization Movement Model……………………………………………..67 Hybrid mobilization movements……………………………………...………68 Digital network repertoires…………………………………………………...70 Limitations of the Chadwick’s assumptions………………………………….76 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS……………………………………………..79 CHAPTER 5 RESEARCH METHODS………………………………………………84 Qualitative Framing Approach……………………………………………………...84 Qualitative Approach……..….….……………………………………………84 Framing Analysis……….…….….…………………………………………...86 vi Procedure….......….………………………………….………………………. 89 In-depth Interviews and Focus Group Interviews…………………………………..90 Interviewing….………………………………………………………………..90 Procedure…………….………………………………………………………..90 CHAPTER 6 KOREAN MEDIA AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: 1960s-1990s…......93 Media in the Authoritarian Period (1961-1987)……………………………………94 Media in the Post-Democratization Period (1987-present)………………………...96 History of Korean Online Journalism: Emergence, Evolution & Commercialization………………………………………99 Internet Activism in the Formative Period………………………………………..105 The Foundation of Bar-Tong-Mo………………………………………….105 Activists’ online networks..………………….………………………………110 The 2000 Election Defeat Campaigns.………………………………………113 CHAPTER 7 NETIZENS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS………116 Defining Netizens…………………………………………………………………116 Korean Netizens…………………………………………………………………...118 Internet usage in Korea..…………………………………………………….118 The 386 Generation….....……………………………………………………123 The Post-386 Generation.…..…………………………………………….…127 The joint power of the 386s and the post-386s: netizens in action………….130 Korean Social Movement Organizations………………………………………….133 Netizens and SMOs: Conflicts and Collaboration………………………………...137 CHAPTER 8 DIGITAL MOVEMENT REPERTOIRES……………………………..147 Online and Offline Convergence.…………………………………………………148 Virtual struggles…………………………….……………………………..148
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