• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.109-146
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the determinants of participating in the candlelight protest for the impeachment of Park Geun-hye from 2016 to 2017. In particular, it revealed the effects of social economic factors, emotional factors, political orientation, and political attitudes and behaviors in participation of candlelight protests. To this end, the survey was conducted for candlelight participants and non-participants. The results of the study confirmed the effects of gender, ideology, political party, anger, dissatisfaction with the presidential performance, non voting activities, TV and newspaper use, and political association activities.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.37-66
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• 2017

Massive civic protests and consequent presidential impeachment requires a serious revisiting to democratic theories of Korean democracy. This paper explores the strengths and limitations of macro and micro approaches. Changes in democratic realities was manifested on three fronts. First, the rise of new political subject, that is, participants to massive protest. Second, changing nexus between representative institutions and civic protests. Third, parliamentarization of presidential democracy. Specifically macro approach has changed its negative assessment of democracy into positive evaluation. Macro theory has to revisit it's notion of 'minjung' to cope with the rise of new subject. Also macro approach has to struggle with the declining role of civic organizations and political activists. Micro approach has to deal with new mode of networking among citizens and to unravel the evolving relation between democratic institutions and civic protests. In sum, theories need to expand the analytic scope, to revitalize analytic tools and to rebalance value judgment and analytical efforts.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.221-254
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• 2020

This paper finds a solution in the social context which cannot be explained thoroughly by well-timed release date, revival of comedy films, and the attraction of Lee Byeong-heon's comedy etc. while it throws question of how the film, Extreme Job captivated 16 million audience. The incredible hits of Extreme Job cannot be explained by analyzing the text alone. After this essay investigates a function and a role of comedy as a public sphere, it examines people's desires and wishes in the comedy and other genres since 2008 when the conservative government has seized power. Since 2008 a series of dark tone's action thriller, social problem film, and disaster film have emerged, these genres showed absence of public security, crisis of democracy and criticism against rulling class. On the other hand, hit comedy films have showed escapism such as weepie, nostalgia, and fantasy at the same time, generally. Although Veteran (2015) is not full-blown comedy, after this film's big success, "comic mode" has gradually revived. A light tone's films which are truer to genre rules has started representing the wishes of people toward social reforms and changes. Meanwhile, "Candlelight Protest" served as a momentum to recover the democracy which has been in crisis, but it could not lead changes in economic and daily lives. Exreme Job can be read as a question how we will survive since "Candlight Protest." The lives of detectives as self-employed workers who has taken over a fried chicken restaurant for going undercover are appearances of ordinary persons who must survive in the edless conpetition. Furthermore, this film shows a dream of a "great success myth" which becomes well-known as a famous restaurant and a self-management such as brand-naming and an exapansion of franchise business. We can read ganster's chicken franchises as a huge distribution industry which disturbs market system by delivering drugs secretly. While applauses that we give to the police having identities of self-employed workers which sweeps the ganster are giving support to oridinary neighborhood like us, they are also wishes of people who long for the restoration of publicness of police in the market which is becoming increasingly privatized today. A significance of this essay is to examine Extreme Job in terms of the geography of film genres and the revival of comic mode sicne 2008 at the macro level, and is to read the film in the perspective of the problems of economic and daily lives which has been still unsolved since "Candlelight Protest" at the micro level.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.46
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• pp.108-147
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• 2009

This study explores the news frames on the U. S. beef imports and candlelight vigils covered by the two national dailies such as ChosunIlbo and the Hankyoreh Shinmun; the KwangwonIlbo, a local daily. The news frames extracted based on the models of Iyengar(1987), Semetko & Valkenburg(2000) and other researchers are attribution of responsibility, economic sequences, protest against the authorities, national health and governmental public relations and so on. The result shows that the news reports are consisted of the straight news(75.9%), feature stories(11.7%) and editorials(6.3%). More specifically, there is a comparatively hight ratio of editorials(11.0%) for the ChosunIlbo, feature stories(20.9%) for the Hankyoreh, and the straight news(89.7%) for the KwangwonIlbo. In terms of the news frames stressed by the three dailies, the ChosunIlbo focuses and stresses on the national health(17.8%) and the attribution of responsibilities(10.6%). However, the Hankyoreh have a tendency to stress on the protest against the authorities(31.3%) and attribution of responsibilities(38.4%); the KwangwonIlbo, focuses on the protest against the authorities(38.4%) and the economic sequences(17.9%). Finally, in the case of the main characteristics of the dailies, the governmental public relations frame is found only on the ChosunIlbo that has a comparatively high ratio; the Hankyoreh also has a high ratio of the feature stories on the U. S. beef imports. Even thought the KwangwonIlbo has a high ratio of the economic sequence frame, the ratio of opinion pages, such as editorial and columns, the local newspaper has not spoken up for the potential economic crisis of the local Kwangwon province beef industry, mainly caused by the U. S. import beef.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.48
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• pp.109-134
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• 2009

This study explores the political parody, which has become an active art form in order to express Korean Internet users' political practices, especially, during the politically turbulent periods from the presidential election of 2003 to the recent candlelight vigil protest of 2008. This study investigates the rise and fall of a parody culture by online users from the mid-2000s, and also examines aesthetical aspects of parodic artworks relying on amateurism culminated in 2004. Specifically, the current study questions an aesthetical lack shown in 'appropriation', by which most of the online users simply produce imitations of original image. This study rather notes 'photomontage' as an aesthetic prototype, the political aesthetics made by John Heartfield, through which this study intends to observe how his aesthetical legacy of political art could be realized in the contemporary form of political parodies produced by online users. The present paper concludes that online users' political participations in producing critical works of art could allow us to negate the dichotomy between the elite and the mass, professional artists and amateur parodists, and a radical politics and the politics of style.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.135-174
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• 2020

The article focuses on the student activism experience of the 1990s and 2010s and on the accumulation of everyday experiences created by the conditions of the 2010s against the backdrop of differences in how the composition of 'we' is portrayed in oral narrative. What stands out in the 90s oral narratives on student activism experiences, which were compiled in the 2010s, is the distancing of the culture of student activism at that time. In the words of speakers who experienced university life in the 1990s, the culture of student activism at the university was created through private relationships, and was, needless to say, considered 'natural'. At the same time, however, the 'natural' is said to be 'abnormal' or 'strange' in the context of the 2010s in which it is being talked about, and is meant to be an experience with a certain distance from the present speakers. This aspect is associated with the conditions under which the experience of the 90s is being described in the 2010s. The present, which explains past experiences to speakers, was explained after the 2016 candlelight protest and Gangnam Station femicide protest, and is described as a world that is qualitatively different from before, and is located as an opportunity to create a critical distance from past experiences. This qualitative change, which raises suspicions about the homogenous "we", is based on a newly acquired sense of gender sensitivity, living since the mid-2010s, when gentler issues were the biggest topic in Korean society, among others. In the 2010s, the composition of 'we' is no longer understood as a community of people who share any commonality, but as individuals who unite despite numerous differences. This reveals the experiences of those who have already embodied this in their everyday senses in the 2010s. The 'we' they formed should have nothing to do with private relationships, nor was homogeneity considered the most prominent group, so it was nothing that could explain the 'me' at the time of the demonstration and outside of the venue. It was in that context that the relevant experience was described in a cautious manner throughout. This, in turn, raises the need to ask and understand a new sense of student activism and, moreover, social movements and the sense of unity as 'we'. It should also be asked who is the main body of the movement and what is the use of asking it. Soon, the need and meaning of defining the fixed identity of 'we' in the movement should be questioned. Therefore, it should be asked what fixed positions or coordinates can really represent someone's position.