The Changing Information Ecosystem in South Korea

Abstract

This chapter applies the agent-affordance framework introduced in Chapter 2 to the ever-changing information ecosystem in South Korea by identifying changes in key agents and affordances in the country over the past three decades. This is accomplished in the context of co-adapting technological, cultural, political, and legal environments in the country. The chapter provides the background information necessary to explicating the dynamics of information generation and dissemination by and between different agents in South Korea. In particular, it contributes to enhancing understandings of technological, social, political, and legal affordances in South Korea that lay the groundwork for analyses in the subsequent chapters. South Korea’s news media environment, citizens’ use of social media, concerns of misinformation, and issues related to the division of the Korean Peninsula are discussed in the context of agent-affordance interactions. Secondary data analysis is used to document changes in the media environment and ecology in South Korea.