• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.311-325
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• 2016

The communication via MIM(Mobile Instant Messenger) has unique characteristics; one of them is use of emoticons. Although using emoticons in MIM is getting a lot of attention from business fields and emoticons markets in MIM is growing rapidly, there are little researches focused on emoticons in MIM in consumer behaviors and marketing area. So, the purpose of this study is to fill this theoretical and practical gap. For this purpose, we explore the effect of and trust in MIM system and attitude toward use of emoticons on purchase intention to emotions in MIM. Our study used structural equation modeling analysis; the results showed that perceived benefits and perceived risk to MIM affected trust in MIM system significantly, more specifically, while perceived benefits affected trust in MIM system positively, perceived risk affected trust in MIM system negatively. We also found that perceived usefulness of emoticon in MIM and flow experience influenced attitude toward use of emoticons positively. Lastly, trust in MIM system and attitude toward use of emoticons had positive effect on purchase intention to emoticons in MIM. The implication and limitations of this study are also discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.129-140
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• 2015

The objective of this study is mainly to examine factors affecting utilization of graphical emoticons in the environment of mobile messenger. For this purpose, this research identified several determinants including demographic variables that have influences on utilization of graphical emoticons by an overview of prior research on Big 5 model and Uses and Gratification (U & G). An online survey was employed to collect data, and hierarchical regression analysis was used for data analysis. The results showed that females and younger respondents have higher utilization of graphical emoticons than males and the older. The findings also showed that extraversion as personal traits has influences on the utilization. And they indicated that people increase their utilization of graphical emoticons when they want to communicate with others efficiently and succinctly, and to follow the trend. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings in this study are also discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.138-146
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of usage motivation of SNS emoticons in Northeast Asian culture regions, with the strong influence of normative society and to interpret these characteristics based on traditional humanistic thought. Since the mainstream SNS of each country is different, this study focused on China's WeChat. For the research, we found 38 motivations for the use of emoticons through literature research and interviews with 21 users, and we surveyed 209 participants for usage motivation. The results were as follows: First, six factors were derived from the motivation for use of emoticons, these factors were named emotional expressions, aesthetics, usability, impression management, entertainment, and sense of collectivism. Second, we explained how the ideas of 'Hwa(和)' and 'Ye(禮)' appeared in the use of emoticons, focusing on 'Impression management' and 'Sense of collectivism' among the motives of using emoticons. Hwa(和) is interpreted as a factor of 'sense of collectivism' which intends to strengthen the feeling of belonging in the chat room using emoticons and actively emphasize oneself and to be well integrated in the communication process. Ye (禮) is interpreted as a factor of 'impression management' which forms and maintains a better relationship with the moral code of ethics.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.209-215
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• 2017

Character of emoticon is considered suitable for expressivity in the digital era mixing and using contents of conversation with images in the course of having a talk with the other party in the mobile space. For the foregoing, this study carried out multiple regression analysis having factors of character attribute such as awareness, friendliness, self-expressivity and image differentiation as independent variables, and purchase intention of purchasers as a dependent variable. Analysis results show that awareness and image differentiation had a positive influence on the purchase intention, whereas friendliness and self-expressivity exerted no significant influence on the purchase intention.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.914-917
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• 2019

SNS 의 발전으로 기업이나 공공단체는 소셜 데이터가 가지고 있는 감성이나 의견, 여론 등을 분석해서 신흥 가치를 창출하려 한다. 소셜 데이터를 기반으로 하는 감성 분석은 사람들의 소비 측면 및 제품 평가 파악은 물론 기업 매출 및 정책 수립 등에서 도움이 된다. 하지만 소셜 데이터는 각종 신조어 및 이모티콘이 다수 포함되어 있어 기존 감성 분석 방법으로는 정확한 분석을 하기 어렵다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위해 본 논문에서는 신조어 및 이모티콘 감성 사전을 구축하고, 분석 과정에서 기존 감성 사전과 본 논문에서 구축된 신조어 및 이모티콘 감성 사전을 사용하여 감성 분석 정확도를 비교한다.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.407-417
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the motives for using emoticons on mobile messengers and determine whether an individual's character (extrovert/introvert) played a moderating role in the relationship between the motives and purchase intention. To achieve that, this study had 198 users in their 10s to 60s fill in a questionnaire and analysed the answers. The analysis first showed that the motives of using emoticons on mobile messengers were enjoyment, utility, simplicity, and general utility. It was also found that only enjoyment among all the motives had a significant effect on purchase intention. Finally, the analysis showed that the extrovert character of the individual using emoticons on mobile messengers played a moderating role in the effect on purchasing intention.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.151-158
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• 2020

SNS on the mobile platform is an essential element and tool for communication and has become a part of life for many people. Having been accustomed to non-face-to-face communication, people today have chosen to use emoticons instead of text to express their feelings and the use of emoticons is constantly growing. This is because the emoticons in various styles of drawings and movements can evoke emotional and sentimental reactions in users and express their tastes in addition to feelings. The current study was conducted to analyze the use of initial emoticon characters released by two most leading SNS platforms in Korea--Kakao for Kakao Talk and Naver for Line--and their expansion to various platform businesses. Based on the cases of the two companies, it discussed the development and goals of Korea-made emoticons in the future as cultural contents.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.197-204
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• 2011

In line with the development of Media, the use of character has been developed in various ways. Specially, it has been emerged the functions of written language of visualization and delivery of emotion in the digitalized environment due to speedy growth of internet and Mobile. The emoticons emerged as a tool for the convenience of communication proved to have taken effective role in the part of communication culture. Particularly, Hangul emoticons which contains the meaning of communication and sharing in tandem with the principle of Hangul invention, provides convenience in combination & use due to its structural and design characteristic for which it plays a significant role of visual element. Hangul emoticon is definitely a part of Hangul culture and in view of globalization of visual language in connection with media development, there is a huge potential being to be used as a international communication tool. In this study, it will be reviewed on the increased utilization of Hangul emoticons and related public issues as being a part of typography media, in view of the generalization of private media as well as change of subjective user.

• Archives of design research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.319-328
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• 2004

The communication environment made by digital technologies has made it possible to exchange information and deliver messages fast and easily among people of various classes in virtual space beyond time and space. Net-generation, who is accustomed to this virtual space, couldn't be satisfied with the linear text-oriented language any more, and began to make signs by use of computers in order to differentiate itself from others and to express its desires. Among the signs, emoticon created by joint of popular culture and digital communication centering around young generation is a new visual sign and emotional sign that can deliver a sender's feelings contained in a message. This paper has studied social phenomena, their relationships with emoticon and background of its creation through documentary review of media development, changes in the communication environment and popular culture. Furthermore, it has analyzed the meaningful action and roles of emoticon as a sign in terms of semiotics and also, studied a possibility of using emoticon as a new emotional sign. The study results say that emoticon can play the roles of a non-linguistic sign just like general signs that make mutual exchange through meaningful action, and also that it can be used to effectively deliver messages not only in virtual space, but also in advertising, posters, magazines and CI. However, emoticon is better at emotional expressions yet than other textual signs or visual signs, but in order to position itself as a universal and popular sign, emotional expressions should be clear, any difference in understanding messages should be removed, and message delivery should be more efficient.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.91-101
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• 2021

Visual communication based on socio-cultural context, such as emoticons on social media, is increasing. Therefore, it is necessary to study the visual expression of metonymy as a means to correctly understand the communication method in the age of visual culture. The purpose of this study is to explore how metonymy is visualized within a cultural context. Specifically, , a typical underlying phenomenon of metonymy expression, and the expression principles of various reproduced through it are identified by pairing them with the cultural context. Based on context theory, which is a representative discourse in the social science field, emoticons from in high context and emoticons in in low context were selected and compared as case study subjects. The major findings are: First, a visual application model of metonymy was proposed regarding the process through which metonymy is reproduced as a visual result. Second, the types of metonymy and their salience attribute applied to the emoticon expression method was identified in detail. Third, based on the contextual theory, how the characteristics of high-context visual metonymy differ from that of low-context visual metonymy were presented. In the future, the results of this study can be used as a criterion for judging the local acceptability and local suitability of design results in the design development process that requires the use of localization strategies.