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258 Sunny Yoon

However, according to these young students, indecency is not
the most significant issue on the Internet. Contrary to the exagger-
ated claims in Korean media, “E” and “S” claimed that students did
not spend all their time looking for indecent materials on the Inter-
net. At first, students were curious about these materials because
they had heard a lot about them. But “G” contended that while those
who did not know much about computers showed interest in inde-
cency, most Internet users usually looked for “other more interesting
information.” Most students who had looked at indecent material on
the Internet pointed out that the Internet was less problematic as
compared to other media, such as magazines and videotapes. They
resist notions of prohibition by the older generation, even though
they agree that indecency on the Internet has negative effects.

Concluding Remarks

Although many theorists believe that the Internet constitutes a
revolutionary communication tool, this analysis makes clear that
the Internet does not necessarily bring about democratic commu-
nication and the development of a virtual public sphere in the
contemporary social structure. Rather, power interferes with the
potentially democratic uses of the Internet—even though this
power, in the form of symbolic power and the habitus of Internet
users, does not visibly repress Internet users. Adopting Foucault
and Bourdieu’s conceptual frameworks, I have attempted to un-
cover this subtle form of power involved in the virtual world sys-
tem through a discourse analysis of Korean journalism and an
ethnographic study of Korea’s new generation.
Through symbolic power, the Internet integrates people even at
the margin of the world into the habitus of the virtual world system.
The Internet use of Korea’s new generation illustrates that cultural
capital such as language and education contributes to reproducing
existing power. This power affects both authoritative communicators
in the mass society and people at the margins, in their everyday life.
Influenced by the dominant discourse, Korean journalism has
initiated efforts to disseminate the Internet in the schools. However,
these efforts are frequently criticized by grassroots virtual organiza-
tions. They argue against commercialism and negative educational
effects of the Internet movements. While leading social movements
focused on Internet use, Korean journalism does not sufficiently con-
sider the use value of the Internet, nor does it attempt to utilize the
Internet as a participatory communication medium.