Communication Patterns and Civic Life on the Internet in Korea.

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]