Page 294 - Culture Technology Communication

“Culture,” Computer Literacy, and the Media 277

companies and schools. Reports of “virtual universities” formed by
a consortium of a number of universities are a sign that this is al-
ready happening (Choso˘n Ilbo 1998). As another example, an ele-
mentary school in Taegu, a large city in southeastern Korea, has
started computer classes for parents so they can assist their chil-
dren in using computers at home (Oh 1998).
In Japan, however, diffusion will proceed slowly with worries
over telephone charges and the effect of CMC on communication pat-
terns in Japan. The establishment is torn between trying to reform
the post-war system and promoting dramatic far-reaching reforms.
Should the establishment embrace the Internet and CMC and insti-
tute policies that foster diffusion, media and public perceptions will
become decidedly positive, and rapid diffusion will follow. The follow-
ing story from another leading Korean newspaper, the Tong-A Ilbo,
tells of an Internet policy success in Japan (Yi Munung 1997). In the
village of Yamada in the Toyama Prefecture, the prefectural govern-
ment gave 325 of 548 villagers a PC with videophone functions. All
citizens were offered computers, but some refused for personal and
health reasons (age, eyesight, etc.). Every citizen has an Internet ID
so that they can send e-mail or communicate by videophone. Village
meetings are held through Internet conferencing and the village
homepage (<http://www.vill.yamada.toyama.jp>) has links to vil-
lagers with individual homepages. The village and individual home-
pages promote local agricultural products and recreational facilities.
The success of this project shows that CMC will spread rapidly in
Japan or anywhere else when it is perceived as convenient, economi-
cal, and as enhancing existing patterns of communication.

Notes

I would like to that the International Studies Research Institute at
Kumamoto Gakuen University for providing a research grant to visit Korea
in February 1998.
1. The data for this study were taken from a variety of Japanese and
Korean Web pages, newspaper and magazine articles, and Master’s degree
theses. I will also refer to an interview with Chang Yunhyo˘n, director of
Cho ˘psok, a popular Korean film about a chat-room romance. Largely, my
sources reflect what was available on the Web from my office in Japan and
references that I could gather during a weeklong research visit to Korea in
February 1998.