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The history of telecommunications development has often been thought as a force that dilutes the notion of geographical space and boundaries in contemporary society. This paper attempts to give an understanding of the interactive mechanism between the spatial characteristics of a city and the patterns of changes brought by the diffusion of technology. This paper includes a case study of Seoul, the capital city of Korea, which is regarded as displaying a remarkable speed and scope in the diffusion of new information and communication technologies. Through observing the pattern of interaction grounded upon actual physical space and the regional efforts to reconstruct spaces of the city, it is assessed that the notion of geographical space is still crucial for understanding the technological landscape in the midst of digital technologies driving people toward virtual space and virtual reality. From a multi-level perspective, it is examined that the spatial infrastructure of city influences the pattern of technological development, consequently transforming spatial interaction including the pattern of individual lifestyle and the interaction among people based on urban space. Micro-, meso-, and macro-level forces interact with each other and subsequently influence the spatial infrastructure of a city. A case analysis on the background spatial characteristics of Seoul and the recent trend of major transformations is given to help understand this interactive mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will look at the appropriateness of history documentaries as a channel through which people remember history by conducting a discourse analysis of the history documentary Battle for Korea, shown on PBS in 2001. Battle for Korea portrays the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 by synthesizing archival films from China, Korea, and the Soviet Union. Through this analysis of Battle for Korea, this paper will explore two issues: (1) How history documentaries legitimize their authority of interpreting history by utilizing audiovisual aesthetic conventions of the documentary; and (2) how the media institution imposes unspoken rules of ideology in constructing narrative structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the two relationships between communication patterns and civic virtues, and between civic virtues and political participation on the Internet. Unlike real world communication, the Internet space can reduce the influence of hierarchical communication structure and social prejudices on sex, income, or education. The anonymity on the Internet encourages freedom of expression and thoughts. Through questionnaire survey conducted to Korean university students, the paper looked at the level of human expression and reception on the Internet. This study considered online writing as the human expression of speaking, and online reading as the human reception of listening. Based on the level of expression and reception on the Internet, this paper divided survey respondents into four groups. The result of the survey showed that two groups with higher level of writing displayed more individuality, i.e. willingness to express. On the other hand, two other groups with higher level of reading manifested more civility, i.e. readiness to hear other people's opinions. However, the participation level on the Internet was higher in balanced two groups of writing and reading than other unbalanced groups. The survey concluded that writing and reading on Internet is equally important to civic virtues. While writing, the expressive function of communication, is related with individual aspect, reading, the receptive function of communication, is related with communal aspect. People who exercised both writing and reading were more likely to be highly participating citizens on Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noting market panic during the East Asian financial crisis in 1997, this paper examined the likely role of the Western elite press in initiating and aggravating financial panic. Four prestigious newspapers; the WSJ, FT, NYT, and WP were selected to examine media performance. Content analysis of 240 articles showed that the Western press had strong bias toward bad news, focused more on internal factors like corrupted political system than such external problems as structural vulnerability of market, and relied more on U.S. sources and private experts who are not immune from national and special interests each. This paper argues that media' abnormal calling attention to bad news with negative spin, lack of alternative views, and contexts free reporting all contributed to prompt herd-like behavior resulting in market collapses. Similar phenomenon repeated in followed financial crises in Russia, Brazil, and Argentine leads us to concern about the international financial information system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines news media coverage on the 2004 new anti-prostitution law in Korea, which emphasized punishing customers and pimps and protecting sex trafficking victims more than have any previous laws. Dominant news frames were identified in two mainstream newspapers and one reform newspaper in Korea to examine the process of the formation of a dominant interpretation of the controversial gender issue. In the two mainstream newspapers, the dominant news frame was “economic loss”: the law was framed as threatening the livelihood of people who were engaged in the sex industry and related businesses, and as a threat to the national economy in a time of economic stagnation. In contrast, the reform newspaper framed the law as “protection for human rights”, but this frame was marginalized in the two mainstream newspapers. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure to indigenize imported social theories in Korea affords precious theoretical insights for the future of critical communication studies. Since Korean society has evolved out of a mixture of the pre-modern, postcolonial, modern and postmodern elements, attempts to rigidly graft modern and postmodern theories onto Korean society have ensured that both theories remain unfinished projects in Korea. This paper argues that contributions from both camps are still feasible and imperative modes of indigenizing social inquiry in Korea. Theorizing the social still requires comprehensive structural analyses and constructive ideals of progress, as well as insights into subject formation that grant social agency to individuals. As the Korean example illustrates well, critical communication studies must transcend the false dichotomies of modern vs. postmodern to answer specific concerns and problems facing a given society today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the articulations of national and sexual differences by way of a detour through the other, third-world women. By exploring the rhetorical effects of Korean child prostitutes in western geography of imagination and the nationalist stance of Korean societies, I argue that both western and Korean males willingly put a paternalistic burden on their shoulders and reinforce their inheritance of power and knowledge. On the one hand, I will examine how young third-world women function in a process of western knowledge production. On the other hand, I will investigate the process of how young Korean women are re-domesticated through nationalist responses to the knowledge production in the West. From the outside, they seem hostile and opposite to each other. By making female bodies an object to domesticate and sustaining the power to get hold of them, however, they are in compliance with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the citizen reporter system, a unique phenomenon in the Korean media environment. The citizen reporter system is based not on professional reporters? coverage but on ordinary citizens? voluntary participation and engagement in the production of news. Through an e-mail survey and textual analysis of Web sites, the paper investigates how six online newspapers in Korea utilize this system and describes their main characteristics. It also analyzes the problems and limitations of the citizen engagement in news production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on deception detection has largely relied on laboratory experiments designed to detect sender leakage. However, Park et al. (2002) suggested that this paradigm may preclude the strategies that people use in real-life situations. The current paper tests the generality of Park et al.'s (2002) finding that most lies are detected after the time of the telling based on discovery methods other than sender leakage. The current findings showed that the lies recalled by Koreans were most often detected with the help of physical evidence or information from third parties, while only few were detected by sender demeanor. Fewer than 25% of the lies were detected at the time of the telling, although almost half of the lies were detected within an hour. The current findings are among the first to provide evidence consistent with Truth Default Theory with data collected outside of North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined cultural differences in terms of the type of feedback students expect, the impact of these types of feedback on motivation, and student satisfaction. Study 1 showed that Korean undergraduates were more likely to expect negative feedback than positive feedback from their instructors, whereas US undergraduates were more likely to expect positive feedback than negative feedback. In study 2, US and Korean undergraduates read a hypothetical scenario depicting a situation in which an instructor provides a student with positive feedback or negative feedback. The findings indicated that American students indicated lower satisfaction with negative feedback than Korean students did, but American students and Korean students did not differ in their level of satisfaction with positive feedback. Both Korean students and Americans students viewed positive feedback to be more motivating than negative feedback. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the causal relationship of expectation about which candidate will win the election and individuals' voting choice. Using survey data collected by Korea Research Center and The Institute for Korean Election Studies, it found that the sizeable portion of third candidate supporters changed their voting decision during the election period. Strategic voting models indicated that voters casted their ballots for the candidate with the expectation about losing possibility of their preferred candidates and negative feeling about winning candidates. Mass media had a significant effect on early swinging voters, but did not have an effect on last minute swinging voters. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changes brought by digital technologies of music delivery in the music economy in Korea. First, I look at how digital technologies impact the reorganization of music industry. The dominant technological mediation of the'idol star system' in the late 1990s gives way to industrial reorganization toward concentration and integration across the information and communications technologies (ICTs) industries and the media/entertainment industries. Secondly, I discuss how digital technologies impacts the way we relate to music and to each other. It is suggested that digital technologies accelerate personal and social use of music and contribute to a diversified music culture. Lastly, I discuss how digital culture of music is framed by this industrial rearrangement. It is suggested that the ongoing digitalization radically transforms how we conceive the music industry, and renders the nature of music redefined and contested. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of local online games as a genre in the global market has become a unique contra-cultural flow. This new phenomenon has raised a fundamental question whether non-Western countries are able to expand their cultural penetration, not only in the same region but also in the global cultural market. It is also questionable whether this contra-cultural flow has to be claimed that an asymmetrical cultural flow in favor of the West, in particular, the U.S.'s dominance has diminished. Using Linage games, in conjunction with the Korean online games, as a case, this study attempts to discuss the way in which the local online game industry has produced a global phenomenon. In other words, the goal of this study is to trace the production dynamics to identify the conditions that have rendered contra cultural flow possible. It discusses the process by which a local culture is appropriated for the global audience. The task this paper sets out to accomplish is to understand the critical dialogue played by the global-local paradigm in transnationalizing local culture for the global cultural market. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to exam the effects of Hallyu that had spread to Southeast Asia and North America, especially focusing on China. However, only the results from the completed pre-test were shown in this paper. The pre-test was done to come up with reliable items of question by removing those items that decreases the reliability of the study. As shown in the Results section, the items related with Hallyu, national image, brand equity and the flow into Hallyu showed high reliability. And Chinese were more interested in Korean dramas and movies than any other Hallyu contents. In the area of national image, they showed a positive response toward Korean economy and society. However, the degree of flow into Hallyu was not significant. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As new media technologies have come into the marketplace of broadcasting, the broadcasting environment has become more tremendously competitive than ever. With the increased number of channels that digital television provides, it can be difficult for a public service broadcaster to survive amongst media systems which are commercialized in many countries around the world. Based on the case study of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), this study articulates the legitimacy of public service broadcasting in the new media age. The question of whether public broadcasting should be sustained and protected is at the heart of current media policy debates in Korea. With some examples of public broadcasting systems in European countries, this study examines the current status of Korean broadcasting policy for the KBS and suggests recommendations of new regulatory frames to accommodate the public broadcaster, KBS with the new digital broadcasting era. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What journalists say about corporate prosocial activity was not what newspaper readers read in Korea. Through in-depth interviews, Korean interviewees could be named as cynical opponents, savvy negotiators, or pure accepters in relation to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) news story readings. One important communality across all interviewees was that they considered CSR news stories to be polluted or affected by public relations activity regardless of the fact that they were cynical opponents or pure accepters. Interviews demonstrated that Koreans basically assumed “CSR news stories are the outcome of publicity rather than the outcome of investigative news reporting by journalists.” The degree of belief about information pollution on CSR news stories leveraged their decoding choices: oppositional, negotiable, and dominant decoding. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I address two crucial questions regarding the strategic voting and mass media uses: What factors affect strategic voters? Do TV campaign related programs influence the strategic voting? Using survey data collected by the Institute for Korean Election Studies, I found that the third candidate supporters strategically cast their votes with the perception of the closeness of the election race and negative feeling about winning candidates. TV campaign related programs, however, were not the predictors of strategic voting. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships among subordinates’ feedback seeking strategies, their LMX qualities, social cost subordinates perceived and superior’s source credibility were examined. Some 134 employees of various civil engineering companies in South Korea completed a questionnaire. The findings showed that LMX quality, social cost, and source credibility independently or jointly influenced subordinates’ feedback seeking behaviors. Preference for using the tactic of directly asking was substantially associated with LMX quality of relationship whereas preferences for using the tactics of indirectly asking and asking third party were not related to LMX quality. The negative relationship between LMX and preferences for indirect tactic is strengthened by source credibility. Finally the negative relationship between LMX and preferences for asking third party is strengthened by source credibility. Implications and limitations were discussed. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korea is one of conservative societies that have various barriers to change people’s attitudes and behaviors toward organ donation. Public health campaign for organ donation has scarcely been conducted across the nation. However, the year 2005 in Korea has seen a big shift in awareness about and attitudes toward organ donation, especially corneal transplantation, which was possible by one entertainment-education television program entitled “Open Your Eyes.” The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the characteristics of the program, ‘Open Your Eyes,’ on para-social interaction and behavioral intention for organ donation. To verify 7-factor structure of measurement model, a CFA was performed by using the LISREL 8.53 SEM program. The study examined the relationship between characteristics of the program, para-social interaction (i.e., involvement with characters in the program), and behavioral change toward organ donation. Identification of the relationship between these variables and examination of the effects of these variables on behavioral intention provides helpful suggestions for entertainment-education programs promoting organ donation in Korea. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how Korean newspapers covered university news regarding higher education, and compares their coverage with those of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. It examines how these newspapers dealt with educational issues, especially in terms of positive vs. negative reporting, functional vs. structural vs. philosophical educational reform, and various news values that reflect characteristics of deviance, objectivity, diversity, and investigation. Our analysis shows that Korean dailies' coverage of university news was dull, superficial, one-sided, inaccurate, and less investigative. Nevertheless, the gaps of educational coverage between these newspapers were not too wide to be bridged. Based on these findings, we pinpoint typical characteristics of news values and suggest new ways of covering the educational beat in a newly democratized country. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a survey of officials in a Korean government ministry, this study examined the relationship among three types of trust¬¬––trust among peer officials, trust between lower-level and higher-level officials at the interpersonal level, and organizational trust at the institutional level. To explain how these three discrete dimensions of trust influence open communication intentions, two models were constructed from previous studies on trust. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results show that the model in which the effects of institution-level trust are mediated by the influence of the two kinds of interpersonal trusts better explains intentions to communicate openly, rather than the one in which the three kinds of trust were predicted to have direct and simultaneous effects on the officials’ open communication intentions. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to investigate how Korean online news media rely on news source selections to set up frames regarding the issue of the participation of Korean troops in the Iraq War to help the United StatesÂ’ troops. A content analysis based on 300 news stories from OhmyNews and Chosun.com showed a number of significant differences. The progressive OhmyNews published news stories that presented Anti-war frame more frequently, while the conservative Chosun.com published news stories that presented Pro-war frame more frequently. This study also showed that the patterns of source selection of both OhmyNews and Chosun.com clearly emphasized one-sided perspective that was consistent with their frames. They included more sources that fit with their basic storyline between anti-war and pro-war, highlighted favorable sources by locating them before unfavorable sources, and reflected those favorable perspectives in their headlines. Thus, this content analysis suggests the patterns of source selection can be one of primary framing devices. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the extent to which one year age difference influenced college students’ communication behaviors in the United States and Korea. Korean students clearly differentiated themselves from one year older or younger students. They agreed that one year difference between college students made a big difference, and thought the one year younger should show respect and use formal languages to the one year older. They also felt that the one year older should show respect to the one year younger. American students thought differences in experiences was more important than age differences. This study proposed an alternative way of explaining cultural differences in the conception of age: relativity in perception, cognition, and behavior. The reason Koreans showed higher sensitivity to age differences was due to their strong tendency of seeing, thinking, and acting relatively. The findings that Korean students felt that they had to be respectful towards the one year younger can be better explained by relativity than the collectivism-individualism distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With various social changes, South Korean women have been endowed with a new identity of activity and self-assertiveness, and young married women of South Korea, in particular, started to be called “Missy,” which implies a young and sophisticated married woman who voices her thoughts. The identities of “Missy,” however, were mainly defined in the categories of consumer culture. It was said that young married women called “Missy” pursued distinctive lifestyles and identities, which could be gained through individualistic consumption. Main argument is that the need to define (young) married women as a market segment in South Korea during the post-Fordist era allowed them active and individual identities. However, the dominant patriarchal ideology of the feminine that perpetuates women’s roles as life-givers and sex objects was still being articulated with the “Missy” discourse. In this research, using discourse analysis, I analyze newspaper content about the consumer culture of young married women in South Korea during the 1990s. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that examined multinational brands' visual strategies in web advertising. It compares Korean and U.S. local sites. A content analysis of a sample of 31 brands was conducted for this study. Results show significant between-country differences in the type of visual functions, the use of photographs and illustrations, and the frequency of product portrayals in the visual, implying that the observed between-country differences are attributable to the differences in cultural values between Korea and the U.S., particularly high versus low information context.

Knowledge-Search [Jishik-Keomsaek, in Korean] websites, on which questions and answers posted and exchanged by users are collected, categorized, and made searchable, are gaining remarkable popularity as information-search tools in Korean society. Noting that the Knowledge-Search websites may be characterized as a hybrid of virtual community and search engine, the current study explores the effects of gratifications of Knowledge-search website use on intensity of use, information-seeking efficacy, and generalized social trust. Based on a cross-sectional survey with college student sample, our findings suggest that channel gratification was significantly and positively associated with intensity of Knowledge-search use; content gratification was significantly and positively associated with information-seeking efficacy, and relational gratification showed a significant and positive relationship with generalized social trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study which focused on the formation of Korean youth culture in 1970. The study emphasized the cultural consumption of popular music. It was found that Korean youth culture was the first form of Korean popular culture to be distinguished in terms of age and its audience. It was the first site in the history of Korean culture that a state of tension was generated between a dominant group of the cultural hegemony and its subordinate counterpart.

From a technical perspective, the convergence between telecommunications and broadcasting now emerges as both industries move towards digital standards. Yet from a policy perspective, convergence seems not be ready yet and may not be desirable. This study surveys the current convergence of broadcasting and telecommunication, examines the policy questions which arise in Korea and presents review of current regulation in this field. In particular, this study focuses on digital media broadcasting service which is currently being developed in Korea. It suggests the perspectives on forthcoming satellite DMB service developments, and implications to cope with this emerging technological breakthrough. This study indicates that current broadcasting-based regulatory framework may have a room for deterring technological convergence and thus delay service introduction in market. It concludes with new regulation model in consideration of service providers and users perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the women's movement in Korea and argues that the radical women of 1920s Korea expressed their subjectivity through writing publicly about their personal lives and advocating sexual liberation. The study proposes that Korean women encountered the western ethos of gender equality and sexual liberation through foreign popular culture and embraced them as embodiments of modernity, freedom and abundance of things. Radical women's configuration of women's liberation and power structure within Korean society led them to individualistic modes of negotiating their identity and claiming agency. The Korean society's male-centered critique that marginalized the ways that radical women actively negotiated and resisted the social and familial constraints upon them contributed to the public censure and the symbolic social death of radical women.

The study analyzes several advertisements (eight television commercials and six print advertisements) of Hetbahn--an instant rice product in Korea. The study found that Hetbahn ads employed the myth of the traditional mother. The traditional image of a loving mother, whose role is to serve and cater food to the family is continuously represented in Hetbahn advertisements. The examination of the narratives and images of a series of Hetbahn ads, revealed that Hetbahn ads exploited the notion of mother nostalgia by creating a never fulfilled yearning towards the mother.

This article presents a study which focused on the theory planned behavior as tested in alcohol-involved social gatherings of workers and college students in Korea. In Korea, people form and accept hierarchical relationships with others, based on similarities in organizational membership. Korean college students impose hierarchical relationships among themselves.

The antecedents of relationships are the first stage of the relationship framework (Broom, Casey, & Ritchey, 2000), for they are what cause specific relationships between an organization and its publics to develop. The purpose of this study was to integrate two possible antecedents into employee-organization relationship research. I explored the influence of organizational structure and internal communication on dimensions of employee-organization relationships. This study tested hypotheses by conducting a survey of employees in 31 Korean organizations. Measurement items taken from studies of relationship management, organizational structure, and internal communication were employed. In addition, the multilevel nature of main constructs of this study was addressed by using the multilevel analysis method. The results of this study showed that organizational structure and internal communication do function as the antecedents of employee-organization relationships. This study can help people understand how and why organizations come to have specific relationships with their employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores whether the cross-cultural uses of media products influence beliefs, emotions, and attitudes. In particular, this study focuses on Chinese people's consumption of Korean dramas, films, compact discs, and books and examines whether this consumption affects Chinese people's beliefs, emotions, and attitudes regarding Korea. A research model was developed to account for the cognitive and affective processes leading to the formation of attitude, where the impacts of interpersonal interactions with Koreans and other intervening variables were also controlled for. A total of 2,017 respondents were interviewed in Beijing and Shanghai. The results showed that the consumption of Korean media products as well as interpersonal interactions with Koreans led to a characteristic formation of stereotypical beliefs and emotions about Koreans. Attitudes toward Korea were found to be affected by the consumption of media products. The implications of the findings were discussed in terms of increasing mass mediated cross-cultural experiences in the Northeast Asian region.

The article looks at the processes of telecommunications liberalization in China and Korea. It uncovered that telecom liberalization of China can be characterized as corporatization, while that of Korea is a strategic movement for positioning itself as a leading country in telecom and information technology sectors after the initial reluctant stance faced with the threats of the World Trade Organization, especially the U.S. For China, the particular operational and organizational arrangement initiatives and the outcomes that follow through corporatization are in line with the Chinese government's political agenda of avoiding a fundamental change to state ownership and its economic reform program to inject vitality into state-owned enterprises. By contrast, the Korean government combined its strategic leadership and investment in infrastructure with the private sectors' accumulated capabilities and resources, actively embracing the privatization of the telecommunications sector.

This study examines the causal relationship among the issue agenda of the online wire service and the two major online newspapers in South Korea in terms of two different time periods, at Time 1 and Time 2. The issue agenda of the online wire service at Time 1 does not have stronger effects on the issue agenda of the two Korean online newspapers at Time 2 than do the two online newspapers at the same time periods. A leading online newspaper influences both the issue agenda of the other online newspaper and of the online wire service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how a Korean American girl displays identity and cultural adaptation based on audio taped interviews and ethnographic observations. It focuses on three main questions; (1) to which cultural identity did the girl primarily orient herself (2) with what communication style did she interact in the Korean community;(3) how did she adapt her communication style to the Korean culture? The main subject was a 17-year old Korean American girl living in a southern coastal city in the United States. In-depth interviews of both the informant and her mother revealed bicultural orientations. In other words, the 17-year old girl considers herself as both an American who is familiar with Korean culture and a Korean who is familiar with American culture. Her discourse, however, shows the dominance of an American identity. Additional studies are needed to further our understanding of how such an identity is constructed in everyday interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancements of Korean women?s status have been attributed to modernization and westernization. Although women were encouraged to work in the 1970s and 1980s, women?s status was marginalized then and is still so in 2002. Since the end of the Cold War and, especially, the birth of second civilian government, Korean women?s status has been gradually changing. Democratization of the state made the rise of popular feminism possible. The study explores how cultural and political changes intersect. Popular culture, as a barometer of people?s sentiment expressed at a given time, resonates with the changes. As an example of popular feminism that captured women?s repressed wishes of reform of patriarchal society, a Korean television show Viva Women and its bulletin board messages are studied. While not inherently political, the messages express the repressed wish that has political implications and can help initiate collective activities that resist dominant consensus on womanhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the field of public relations is growing rapidly in Asia, more females enter the field, believing this new field is less conservative and more open to women. Despite their expectations, female PR professionals in Asia often face a more difficult work environment compared with their male counterparts. This study examines how Asian female PR professionals in Japan, Korea and Singapore perceive their job responsibilities, roles and difficulties at work and their methods of coping. Online questionnaires were sent to female professionals in public relations agencies and in-house public relations departments in these three countries. Findings indicate they tend to deny such difficulties and gender inequalities while acknowledging them and trying to cope with the difficulties. The researchers conclude that their inner-conflict resolutions reflect Festinger?s theory of cognitive dissonance and Wrigley?s theory of negotiated resignation and are strongly related to social norms of collectivism and masculinity reinforced in Asian culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the practice of reviewing the first edition of newspapers by public relations practitioners in Korean organizations. These practitioners frequently follow up their screening process by asking journalists to make changes and deletions in their next editions, and can be considered yet another form of news gatekeeping. Research was based on in-depth interviews with public relations practitioners in Korean corporations and government agencies. Articles in the Korean press watchdog Media Today were also analyzed. From this data, we developing a typology of the form by which "third gatekeeping" takes place. We conclude that through their task of screening first edition newspapers, public relations practitioners serve as gatekeepers even after newspapers are published. The study also provides a basis for a critical approach toward first edition screening, one that goes beyond the existing gatekeeping viewpoint and offers suggestions for how to modify its impact on Korean news content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On August 6, 1997, Korean Air Flight 801 crashed in Guam, United States territory, killing 228 passengers and crew. During a 16-day coverage of the air disaster, journalists from the United States and South Korea reported the cause of the crash very differently. Korean journalists framed the cause on a combination of bad weather, faulty navigation devices, and negligence on the part of the Guam air traffic controllers but American journalists highlighted pilot error as the most probable cause. The comparative textual analysis of the news stories in the New York Times and NBC Nightly News of the United States, and JoongAng Ilbo and KBS News at 9 of South Korea, as well as depth interviews with the journalists who covered the crash, traces the divergent reporting to national interest, dissimilar interpretations of information from news sources, and preconceived personal biases held by these journalists. Through different news frames, they constructed different social realities of the same air disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most adaptation research focuses on immigrants' experience adapting into the host culture. In light of the growing globalization of world economy and the fact that more companies are setting up branches around the world, we would like to address the issue of cultural adaptation for employees in a multicultural organization. Samsung-Tijuana Park is the site for a Korean electronic company and its manufacture site in the U.S.-Mexican border city of Tijuana. One the one hand, Koreans move to Mexico and face a real sense of cultural adaptation into the host culture. On the other, local Mexican employees also need to adapt to the Korean organization culture. Through a search in previous literature on culture adaptation, we determined four factors about the individual's conditions: preparation, expectation, communication skills, and time in contact with the second culture. Many adaptation models use stages to represent the process, therefore, we summarized four states: anticipation, peak, valley, and smooth. We treated these eight concepts as variables and focused our study on finding possible correlations among them. Results show a general tendency for positive factors such as preparation and communication abilities to be positively correlated to positive states of adaptation such as peak and smooth. Consequently, there is a negative correlation between these positive factors and the valley state, which is the most obvious negative state. The similar patterns of correlation for both the Korean and Mexican cultural groups suggest that adaptation takes place when both parties are involved in the effort. We use the term "co-acculturation." Limitations and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the differences and similarities in the relationship of intercultural communication apprehension (ICA) with intercultural conflict management styles (ICMS) and assertiveness/cooperativeness tendencies between U.S. and Korean college students. With Neuliep and McCroskey¡¯s PRICA scale, Wilmot and Hocker¡¯s ICMS scale and Volkema and Bergmann¡¯s assertiveness/cooperativeness dimensions, this study attempted to expand McCroskey and his colleagues¡¯ studies by employing three levels of ICA: Low, medium and high. This study found that there were significant differences across the levels of ICA, ICMS and assertiveness/cooperativeness tendencies between U.S. and Korean college students. The findings of this study suggest that across culture high ICA is a public enemy that we must eliminate; ICA is an important factor in determining how an individual manages intercultural conflicts across culture; reducing ICA may contribute to building more productive intercultural conflict management across culture. However, the findings of this study further implies that besides ICA, there may be some other important factors, influencing ICMS and assertiveness/cooperativeness tendencies, such as shyness, silence, and face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine if gender bias exists in the U.S. and Korean online media. For this purpose, this study compared male photos and female photos presented by two countries' online media coverage of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games and the 2002 Pusan Asian Games respectively. The collected male and female photos were analyzed in four ways: (1) how many photos were posted (2) how impressively the athletes were described in the photos (3) how importantly the photos were presented (4) which sports categories were more prominently covered according to gender. The findings showed that there was an inequality between photos featuring male and female athletes in terms of frequency and sports categories. However, there was no significant discrimination between photos with male and female athletes in presenting importantly. Impressiveness of athletes in photos was not different between male and female in the U.S. online media, but difference was found in Korean online media. The result of this study suggested that online media have a more potential of treating males and females equally compared with traditional media. However, this online media's potential should be interpreted according to different cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is designed to explore various aspects of film-viewing experience under new circumstances of diverse screen technologies. As one of the most significant film-producing/consuming countries, Korea is one of only a few countries where Hollywood films lose an edge to domestic films. At the same time, Korea is a leading country in communication technologies, including internet and mobile phone. Therefore, it will be very interesting and valuable to closely look at the change in film-viewing practices of Koreans youngsters.. In Korea, we can observe that the mode of reception of film is more and more multiplicated with the rapid diffusion of new technologies such as home theater, digital TV, PMP, mobile phone or the internet. In this context, this paper attempts to investigate differences and significations which are generated in film viewer's experiences, by uses of new screen technologies. For the purpose, we will focus on film-viewing practices of young Koreans in their twenties. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology does not exist in the vacuum of culture. The Internet is no exception. Many discussions of the Internet, however, center around technological essentialism, if not vulgar technological determinism, in that they assume inherent natures of the Internet and that they predict certain social changes based on such assumptions. For example, there are widespread claims that the Internet is "inherently anti-hierarchical" and that the anti-hierarchically organized communications technology promotes anti-hierarchical communication, and the anti-hierarchical communication leads to anti-hierarchical society. This "internal approach" assumes a one-way relationship between technology and society: technology causes social change, not vice versa. Against such common-place technological essentialism in understanding the Internet, this paper offers a context-specific analysis of the Internet in Korea and Japan through a comparative and media historical perspective. This research is basically an attempt to explore specific cultural, political and economic conditions for Internet technology to exercise a certain influence on society. Through case studies this paper argues that Korea's Internet culture and successful use of the Internet as an alternative medium is a result of the interaction of various factors including Korea's Confucian tradition, education system, governmental policies, economy, geography, and civil society that existed before the Internet was introduced. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently Korean cultural products have been popular in East Asian countries. It is an extraordinary situation in history of the Korean culture, because modern Korean culture has been established mainly by being affected from foreign countries.Since 1997, Korean TV programs have broadcast in Asian countries including China. They have been a great success. In this paper, I investigate why and how Korean TV programs, especially focusing on dramas, get popularity from young Chinese audiences. Through this, this research tries to explain the operation of cultural globalization in intra-Asian context and its influences in recreating young East Asian's cultural identities. In order to understand this, this study analyzes textual and contextual factors behind the popularity of Korean dramas in China. As textual factors, this study shows that, 'Asian' modernity and cultural similarities that Korean drama texts embody, are significant in making Chinese audience feel attractive to Korean dramas. Also, contextual factors, such as China's reform policy, the development of cultural industry and the emergence of young audience as a major consumer of cultural products, play an important role in diffusing Korean mass culture in China. Finally, this paper discusses that this kind of cultural flow indicates the diversities of globalization, by presenting a significant example of dynamics intra-regional interaction among the non-western countries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explore the cross-cultural differences of e-business factors in Korea and U.S. car company Websites. By categorizing online car business elements as attracting, delivery, informing, and positioning (AIPD) contents, this paper compares and contrasts different business characteristics of two countries' car Websites. More specifically, using content analysis technique, this paper studied the total of 59 Korean and American car company websites to examine how Simeon (1999)'s AIPD e-business strategies differently illustrates 2 different cultures applying the concept of cultural differences in the online context. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers insight to a study conducted for examining of transmedia storytelling of webtoons in Korean cinema. It informs that Korean cultural industries, including film and broadcasting, have attempted to adapt webtoons into films and television programs. It also mentions about movies such as "Misaeng," "26 Years," and "Inside Men."

This study examines how Korea was represented through the photos of the records written by the foreigners visited Korea during the last period of Chosun Dynasty Period. To this end, photos and sketches printed in 11 Korea-related books written by missionaries, diplomats, and scholars were collected, categorized and analyzed. To clarify the contents of photos, the explanations written in the books were used as reference. As a result, total of 349 photos were collected and were categorized by several types and themes. First, they were divided into people, life, landscape, custom and institution. The groupings of such photos represented where the interests of the Westerners were. Also, these topics had some common messages, which could be expressed as pre-modernity, historicality, absence, and eccentricity. The description of the child without care, ‘spiritless’ woman, people engaged in simple labor, disordered and messy market or wash place, primitive form of traffic, woman’s dress with exposing breast, and superstitious behavior could be recognized as ‘uncivilized’ when looked by the people unaware of Korea ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges the fundamental assumptions of the concept of cultural hybridity in understanding the swift growth of Korean popular culture, especially films. It investigates whether hybridity, as a cultural globalization perspective, has generated new possible cultures, which are free from western dominance, by analyzing the hybridized Korean cinema. Unlike previous studies emphasizing the crucial role of hybridization in creating the third space, this paper empirically argues that the hybridization process of the local popular culture is heavily influenced by Western norms and formats, and newly created local cultural products are rather representing Western culture, instead of unique local culture. It finally discusses the reasons why hybridity cannot adequately explain local cultures and identify some issues we have to consider in employing hybridity in interpreting globalization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]