• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.25-34
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• 2014

The current study investigates the impacts of empathic concern, as a personal trait, and rational/emotional appeal on responses over the campaigns to help the disabled. Empathic concern is an emotional personality known as strongly activating altruistic motivations. The experiment proceeded at two stages that in the first stage, the personal disposition was measured and in the second stage, the condition of appeal type was presented. Thus, the whole experimental design was empathic concern(2) ${\times}$ appeal type(2) on attitudes and behavioral intention. Individuals high in empathic concern showed higher ratings, compared to people low, on attitudes and behavioral intention in the condition of rational appeal. The difference between high and low empathic concern in the condition of emotional appeal was small.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.426-438
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• 2022

The current study explored the relative effects of reciprocal/empathic type on messages appealing to help patients with Lou Gehrig's disease and their family. By this, we attempted to examine the applicable scope of the reciprocal type, a way of appealing rationally in the delivery of helping messages. The focus was on the moderation of empathic concern trait, a representative altruistic personality. Conducted as the online experiment, empathic concern trait was measured in the first stage, and the helping messages presented each by reciprocal/empathic type were shown and evaluated in the second stage after about 7 days. The data of 134 people were finally analyzed, excluding insincere participants. As a result, the relative advantage of empathic type was shown, but it was only limited to the subject attitude. In the result of the interaction, the reciprocal type were as much or more influential as the empathic type for the individuals high in empathic concern trait.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.49-62
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• 2015

This study investigates the interactive effects of guilt appeal level and empathic disposition (personal distress/empathic concern) on responses over the international relief messages. Guilt appeal level refers to the high or low degree of a message eliciting guilty feeling from the recipient. Empathic disposition is defined as personal tendency to assimilate and concern about the experience of others and we used two sub-dimensions, empathic concern and personal distress. The experiment was composed of two steps. At the first step, the participants rated the personal disposition measures and at the second step, they were shown one of the relief messages with different guilt level. Thus, the whole experiment was guilt appeal level ${\times}$ personal traits factorial design on guilty feeling, attitudes and behavioral intention. The results showed that guilt appeal level interacted with the personal distress disposition on the responses. The interaction was induced mainly from the differences of personal distress in the condition of high guilt appeal. High empathic concern individuals showed more favorable attitudes and behavioral intention regardless of the appeal conditions compared to low empathic concern individuals.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.44
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• pp.307-331
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• 2016

Webtoon is the most popular cultural contents representing contemporary Korea. This study explores the cultural aspects of participatory culture surrounding Webtoon, and reveals the cultural implications of webtoon in contemporary Korea. Particularly, this study notes that the engagement of the participatory culture is formed from the user-generated images and analyzes the reproduction patterns of them. Chapter 2 analyzes the mimicking process of user-generated images based on the 'meme' concept. Especially based on the variation degree of text or image, the user-generated images could be classified into three types of 'completely variant', 'partly variant', and 'completely same'. Users use these images as one of the fun factor by transplanting them into daily messenger conversation. Chapter 3 reveals the cultural meaning which is derived from the process of user-generated images creation. In particular, this study notes that most of the user-generated images are mimicking the main character of the original webtoon, and analyzes the underlying desire of the mass based on the literary theory of Northrop Frye. The main readers of webtoon are petit-bourgeois living in Korean metropolitan, and the user-generated images also reflects the daily lives of these ordinary people. User-generated images of webtoon are imitating the original contents in a way of replicating or mutating the images or texts. Also, they are consumed and enjoyed as an amusing code among users. Especially by mimicking the appearance of the main character in a self-reflective way, they appeal to day-to-day sympathy of users. In that user-generated images reveal the desire of the public living in contemporary Korea, this study examines the cultural implication of webtoon.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.47-57
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• 2022

Newtro is gaining popularity recently as one of the media content genres. Newtro contents are not just a restoration, but are the creations that create new values by adapting to the current situation and appealing to the nostalgia for the past. A total of 254 people participated the online survey. Result showed that users prefer Newtro content that is in the 'moderate incongruity' state with moderate novelty, rather than content that is very new or too familiar. In addition, both 'personal nostalgia' from direct past experiences and 'vicarious nostalgia' from indirect experiences were found to have a positive effect on preference for Newtro content. Finally, it was confirmed that the image of Newtro contents affected the purchase intention of Newtro contents positively. But the attitude toward Newtro contents did not. Based on these results, this study suggested the implications for the differentiation strategy of Newtro contents.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.279-284
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the direction of communication design through in-depth interviews on the topic of gender equality, which is an active theme of social issue happening worldwide, and to suggest a direction to provide better social issue communication direction. In order to do so, firstly, I researched case studies and investigated the characteristics of gender magazines such as If, Ferm and Womankind. Secondly, I conducted an empirical study of in-depth interviews to identify the emotional adjectives by women and men by different age groups from gender equality storytelling magazine experience. As a result, I was able to grasp two points necessary. First of all, for the gender equality content messages closely related to everyday stories level down the barrier and become easier to empathize with. Second of all, the more complex the social issues are, the more sustainable and credible if the content developed steadily and contingently. This study is meaningful in that it suggested a series of directions for communicating gender equality issues. Future research should complement the suggested directions for gender equality communication design and contribute to guiding further directions.