Editors Lee and Oh collected 16 chapters examining how the use of and access to digital media support democratic activism in South Korea. They acknowledge that autocrats can manipulate the reception of digital media as easily as democrats can. Each chapter, whether a newly or previously published journal article, follows the same format: hypothesis with literature review, a data analysis based on surveys or a deep dive into online resources, and discussion. The best chapters are 4 and 5 (examining political blogs), 10 (the dynamics of relationships by internet use), and 15 (comparative study of East Asian youth engagement) because of the strength of their analysis and discussion. The authors are active academics in communication and political science, so readers should have a basic understanding of Korean history and social development in South Korea and a thorough knowledge of the pedagogy and methodology of these disciplines to follow arguments and data analysis…. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Choice Reviews

Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea provides innovative and refreshing perspectives and insights on a wide range of instances of online activism in South Korea since the early 2000s. This collection offers scholars and students of Korean politics and society an excellent reader which will enable them to understand and learn about how netizens used digital media to gain information, express themselves, and actively participate in social movements to bring about change in their daily lives and society at large.
The contributions engage with a booming literature on media and communication and also provide readers with a helpful overview of how different methodologies can be deployed to study these diverse sets of phenomena.
Scholars interested in the way in which contemporary social movements have used advances in information and communication technologies will find this book extremely valuable as a tool to understand the key drivers, actors, and debates surrounding the rapidly evolving environment of online activism in South Korea, through single case studies and comparatively.

Youngmi Kim, University of Edinburgh

The relationship between new/digital media and democracy has been an important topic for many fields, including communication, media studies, sociology, and political science. As a frontier of digital technology, culture, and activism, Korea provides a rich site of scholarly engagement to understand the intersection of digital media and democracy—the task that Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea, edited by Hojeong Lee and Joong-Hwan Oh, successfully delivers. The anthology provides a timely contribution, like K-Pop and Hallyu today, to accessing intimate and ‘organic’ scholarly discussions on the evolution, impacts, and synergy of digital technology, culture, and politics in Korea.

JongHwa Lee, Angelo State University