• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.143-180
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• 2019

This article aims to examine the manner in which the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed, and the mechanism of the 'Byeongmat' discourse. I claim that the constructed discourse excludes disabled persons and women. When the 'Byeongmat' first appeared in the mainstream, it was understood as being presented only by webtoons. Furthermore 'Byeongmat' and webtoons were understood as almost synonymous. In this sense, it is no exaggeration to say that the way in which the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed is the way in which 'Byeongmat webtoons' were interpreted. In this article, to find out how the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed, I examine two things. First, the reception of media of 'Byeongmat'. 'Byeongmat' was at first understood as 'kitsch' by the media, but soon after generational meaning was added. Second, the interpretation of 'Byeongmat' in academia. In academia, the 'Byeongmat' discourse is advanced as a refined generationalism. Regardless of the 'Byeongmat webtoon' itself, 'Byeongmat webtoon' is interpreted as a text which is destructing narrative and filled with parodies. Furthermore this characteristic of the 'Byeongmat webtoon' is interpreted as a resistance culture of the younger generation. However, this interpretation serves as a mechanism which excludes the disabled and women. Currently, Korean society faces the popularization of the 'Byeongmat' code, the decline of the 'Byeongmat webtoons' and the crack of the younger generation discourse. The current situation allows the 'Byeongmat' discourse to be criticized without losing its social context while securing a distance of critcism. I expect that this article can contribute to further diversifying interpretations of 'Byeongmat' and 'Byeongmat webtoons', and accelerating the crack on the younger generation discourse.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.106-112
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• 2019

The Korea Copyright Commission has pursued copyright technology R&D projects to prevent illegal copying of comics and Webtoons. We developed a feature-based scanned comic filtering technology in order to apply technical measures to specific types of online service providers. We also developed technologies in order to monitor and identify illegally distributed comics on webhard sites and to monitor and identify illegally distributed webtoons. Even though all comic books posted on webhard sites are illegal, it is no trouble to download and access popular comics by accessing websites in foreign countries. Even under these circumstances, the comic and webtoon copyright protection technologies developed over the past six years have been used at all. In this paper, we examine what the problems are and find solutions to propose a copyright protection method for webtoons.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1017-1034
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• 2021

The "Escape the corset" movement raises the question of gender norms in dressing by rejecting the socially established ideal women's clothing. The context is similar to Rational dress of the 19th century, which claimed that women could also wear pants. Cartoons and webtoons reflect the characteristics of each era, including images and stories, and express social problems of the time implicitly and satirically. Thus, this study examined women's clothes expressed in cartoons and webtoons and analyzed their characteristics. The results are as follows. As an expression to the recipient of both clothes, women tried to form their identity through a rational attitude and break away from their embellishment, which was regarded as oppression from society. On the other hand, as an expression of the attitude of others towards the recipient of both clothes, people argued the changed appearance of women as a non-ideal form which should be corrected. This study is significant for proving that the dressing contains gender norms of the time beyond the trends.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.295-306
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• 2022

This study examined the effects and roles of transmedia such as trailer (i.e., trailer) and webtoon OST (i.e., Original Sound Track), which have recently served as extended content in webtoons. In recent years, the number of transmedias using webtoons has increased rapidly, and production and consumption in various directions have been taking place. However, studies on whether these contents lead to positive emotions and attitudes toward webtoons are not actively conducted. Therefore, this paper examined the effect through loyalty and perceived enjoyment, and found that 'increasing immersion in content through transmedia' plays a major role as a major variable. In addition, it is determined whether these mechanisms appear differently by gender, and in the case of women, media consumption tends to be based on emotional signals compared to men, so transmedia will further increase the level of immersion, but webtoon content did not show gender effects on media consumption. This is a meaningful result that shows that in general, media consumption methods according to gender appear differently in webtoons. Therefore, based on the results, this study presented directions and implications to keep in mind when planning the production of various transmedias using webtoons.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.46
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• pp.85-106
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• 2017

With the media's shift into the digital era in the 2000s, comic book publishers attempted a transition into the new medium by establishing a distribution structure using internet networks. But that effort shied from escaping the parallel-page reading structure of traditional comics. On the other hand, webtoons are showing divers changes by redesigning the structure of traditional sequential art media; they tend to separate and allot spaces according to the vertical scroll reading method of the internet browser and include animations, sound effects and background music. This trend is also in accordance with the preferences of modern readers. Modern society has complicated social structures with the development of various media; the public is therefore exposed to different stimuli and shows characteristics of differentiated perceptions. In other words, webtoons display more relevant and entertaining characteristics by inserting sounds and using moving texts and characters in specific frames, while traditional comics require an appreciation of withdrawal and immersion like other published media. Motions in webtoons are partially applied for dramatic tension or to create an effective expression of action. For example, hand-drawn animation is adopted to express motions by dividing motion images into many layers. Sounds are also utilized, such as background music with episode-related lyrics, melodies, ambient sounds and motion-related sound effects. In addition, webtoons provide readers with new amusement by giving tactile stimuli via the vibration of a smart phone. As stated above, the vertical direction, time-based nature of animation motions and tactile stimuli used in webtoons are differentiated from published comics. However, webtoons' utilization of innovative techniques hasn't yet reached its full potential. In addition to the fact that the software used for webtoon effects is operationally complex, this is a transitional phenomenon since there is still a lack of technical understanding of animation and sound application amongst the general public. For example, a sound might be programmed to play when a specific frame scrolls into view on the monitor, but the frame may be scrolled faster or slower than the author intended; in this case, sound can end before or after a reader sees the whole image. The motion of each frame is also programmed to start in a similar fashion. Therefore, a reader's scroll speed is related to the motion's speed. For this reason, motions might miss the intended timing and be unnatural because they are played out of context. Also, finished sound effects can disturb the concentration of readers. These problems come from a shortage of continuity; to solve these, naturally activated consecutive sounds or animations, like the simple rotation of joints when a character moves, is required.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to see if cultural contents that are characterized by experience goods have different types of One Source Multi Use (OSMU) phenomena. This study classified original works into web-novels and webtoons, and studied how OSMU evolution paths can be different between the two types of originals. In addition, this study compared Korean and Chinese examples. Using eight original works created between 1999 and 2012, which were later used for OSMU, this study investigated how web-novels and webtoons took different OSMU evolution paths in Korea and China. As a result, this study found that web-novels are more actively used in different formats than webtoons, probably because web-novels can more easily stimulate people's imaginations. In addition, Korea was found to use story-centered OSMU before character-centered OSMU, whereas China showed both types of OSMU simultaneously.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2017

This study was undertaken to understand how reference groups, convenience and pursuit of information affect subscription-based Webtoon service usage through reliability and curiosity, through which this study provides some suggestions for developing Webtoons and increasing profitability of service providers. Therefore, the reliability and feasibility analysis were conducted for 449 readers who used the paid webtoon more than once. In addition, the causality test was conducted to verify the research model. As a result of the research, this study shows the following implications: First, it is recommended that webtoon service providers produce webtoons with the webtoonists who have more expertise developing new webtoons. Second, webtoon service providers should focus on advertising during the episodes that are currently being subscribed to, or in the next episodes in order to stimulate the usage needs of readers rather than focusing on advertising the products related to the characters and their development and sales. Third, webtoon service providers are supposed to develop webtoons by using materials that can appear in everyday life. Fourth, webtoon service providers should continue their research in order to develop high quality products and express the unique characteristics of their advertisements by increasing investment in the development of products and advertising.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2018

This media conversion in which webtoons are remediated to movies and dramas has taken off since the mid-2000s. Webtoons may be favorable for media conversion into movies and dramas as the story as finished and has proven to be fun with a fixed readership: however, only a small number of webtoon were successful box office hits or received high viewer ratings. Then in 2017, the movie based on the webtoon, succeed in attracting more more then 10 million viewers. In this regard, this study derived the success factors by comparing and analyzing the narrative structure and visual elements of , which was the biggest hit movie, with the original webtoon. The case analysis showed that there are two necessary elements for success: a text configuration of strategy optimized for media conversion, which is based on understanding the different media characteristics of webtoon and movie; and a configuration strategy that exaggerates the personalities of the characters and compresses the story of a webtoon which features various events and many characters in a long series, in consideration of the characteristics of movie which needs to give a big impact in 2 hours.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.239-250
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• 2019

Recently, young people wearing hanbok are highly visible in the palace and in Hanok Village. However, there is much controversy regarding whether the hanbok the young people are wearing is traditional. Young people in Korea are exposed to hanbok through a variety of ways such as school education, games, webtoons, television shows, and movies. In this study, we presented teenagers with illustrations of hanbok to see which they preferred and which if any they recognized as traditional. The study respondents most preferred the hanbok from the 18th century, but they considered the hanbok from the 20th century to be the traditional style. We next used text mining to analyze the students' freely written, open-ended responses regarding the hanbok they preferred and the one they considered traditional. The hanbok from the 18th century, the one the teenagers preferred, was a sexy, cool style related to gisaeng that emphasized the waist, whereas the hanbok they believed was traditional, the $20^{th}$-century hanbok, was simple, neat, comfortable, and plain. Among the young people's responses regarding which hanbok was traditional, the text mining extracted the following repeated words related to both the 18th- and 20th-century hanbok: "dramas," "mass media," "historical dramas," and "movies." For the 18th-century hanbok only, we extracted "webtoons" and "Hanok Village," and for only the 20th-century hanbok, we extracted "textbooks."

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.40
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• pp.211-242
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• 2015

Recently, the shrunk influence of printed cartoon has been superseded by the influence of Webtoon in the comic industry. Webtoon has gained popularity and interest by being served on internet quickly and easily. Their novel material and sympathetic topic have made it possible for many Webtoons to be reproduced into tv dramas and movies, so, the influence of them has been increased as the copyright industry of culture contents industry. The increasing interest for Webtoon has induced academic studies for the subject. Among the various studies in need on Webtoon, the most important study topics in need are 'Story' and 'Quality' which are criterion for readers to choose Webtoons to read. To create the Webtoon that are great at 'Story' and 'Quality', the study on plots should be preceded, which recast episodes organically through a logical causal relationship. Therefore, in this study, the plots of Webtoons have been analyzed through Rescue plot in and the Riddle plot in selected from the Kang Full's Webtoon series, 'mystery psychology horror season', which are evaluated as the great work at 'Story' and 'Quality.' The analysis was implemented based on Tobias' theory which suggests 'the characteristics of plot' and '8 principles for good plot.' First, Kang Full's webtoons were analyzed through 'the characteristics of plot' and '6 principles for good plot' which is modified from '8 principles of good plot' based on Tobias' theory. Applicability was checked if Tobias' theory could be applied to Kang Full's Webtoon checking through the scenes and contents of the Webtoon. (1) Tobias' 'the characteristics of plot' could be applied to both Rescue plot in and the Riddle plot in . (2) Among '6 principles for good plot', 5 principles are shown in The Lighting Store and all of the 6 principles in Neighbor. The result shows that Tobias theory could be applied to the plot of Webtoon. The fact that Kang Full's Webtoons are composed in a formulaic form could be identified through 'the characteristics of plot' and '6 principles for good plot' shown in Rescue plot in and the Riddle plot in .