Page 282 - Culture Technology Communication

“Culture,” Computer Literacy, and the Media 265

weekly section dedicated to computers and the Internet. Beginning
in late 1997, major dailies in Korea, such as the Choso˘n Ilbo and the
Chungang Ilbo, began including the reporter’s e-mail address in
parenthesis at the end of the article, which gives readers the oppor-
tunity to provide direct and immediate feedback on the article. No
Japanese newspaper gives e-mail addresses for individual re-
porters. Articles on the Internet and CMC in major Japanese
dailies, such as the Yomiuri Shimbun or the Asahi Shimbun, ap-
pear in various sections of the paper, with technical and economic
developments appearing in the business section and social develop-
ments in the society and culture sections. The Nihon Keizai Shim-
bun, the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal, has a
weekly section on computers and the Internet, but most of the in-
formation is from a business and marketing perspective. Advertis-
ing in magazines and newspapers also reflects a difference in
interest. Japanese magazines and newspapers carry fewer adver-
tisements for computers and commercial on-line services than Ko-
rean publications. This difference also extends to posters in
subways and other public places.
The greater amount of media attention and advertising in Korea
indicates a higher level of public interest in computers, the Internet,
and CMC than in Japan. In particular, the Korean media’s use of
chat-room discussions as a gauge of public opinion and social trends
contrasts sharply with the infrequent reports of chat rooms as a so-
cial phenomenon in the Japanese media. This, along with the will-
ingness of advertisers to pay for banners on Web pages, indicates the
Web and CMC have attracted a higher level of public interest in
Korea than in Japan. This is despite the greater amount of informa-
tion available on the Web in Japanese and the higher level of eco-
nomic development in Japan. Indeed, Watanabe (1997) correlated
the number of Internet host computers per million dollars of GNP
and found that Japan lagged behind most Asia countries with only
0.07 computers, whereas Korea had 0.09, Taiwan 0.11, Hong Kong
0.17, and Singapore 0.41. Japan was tied with Malaysia (0.07) for
last place on this scale.

Similarities between Japan and Korea

Despite the differences, there are a number of similarities in per-
ceptions of the Internet and CMC in Japan and Korea. One of the
most obvious similarities is the commercialization of the Internet