WCU Project Yeungnam University

It takes an exceptional situation for me to begin the day by viewing a video copy of a TV program, but chance would have it that I took to watching  ’Another Perfect World’ this morning, which was broadcast last night on one of the Dutch PBS channels. As it turns out, this production was prepared in collaboration with the UK Channel 4 broadcaster and, as it happens, there is a 30-minute trailer of the program available in English here. So far as I can tell, the trailer is pretty much all of the televised version.

More to the point, the producers devoted much time to game and virtual world development in the Republic of Korea, where an estimated 80% of the population has avatars and where, according to text promoting the program, exchange of avatar information is as common as exchange of real-life name and telephone number: “In Zuid-Korea wisselen mensen in plaats van telefoonnummers gewoon de naam van hun avaatar uit. Hun online-identiteit valt samen met de echte.” Leave the accuracy of the percentages in limbo, it appears that virtual world activity has a high place in Korean culture, at least for particular sectors of the population.

Another sector of saliency is, of course, the place and presence of North Korea in the lives of all, particularly to those south of the Demarcation Line. There are many, many issues involved but one of the most striking and moving is the ‘underground railroad’ existing and used by citizens of the North wanting to flee, called ‘Seoul Train’. The Dutch PBS broadcaster VPRO is making this program available on its Internet site during the last week of July. A three-minute trailer is available here; a website devoted to Seoul Train is here.

What, those involved in the WCU project might wonder, has this to do with a  a study of e-research and, specifically, investigation of political communication in Korea by means of Web-based research tools? The reply ‘nothing at all’ would be both naively premature and theoretically myoptic. My ‘thesis’ is that such cultural conditions, both those related to engagement in virtual worlds as well as those related to the delicate real-world stance with the ‘neighbor to the north’ are inevitably related to the nature and mode of political communication in the Republic of Korea. How, exactly, such relation is manifested is the overriding query, and I would contend of much more saliency for the WCU project than concern with the place of Twitter in the communication mix of Korean politicians. Of course, why and how political actors utilize whatever communication tool is interesting, even Twitter, but I would argue need for consideration of relevancy to larger issues than merely mapping a network and measuring relation between nodes….

- Nick Jankowski