Media 2.0 can be defined as the sharing of information by various digital media, as opposed to the traditional media. This researcher assumed phenomena such as one-person media and street journalism that appeared in the candlelight meeting protests ag...
Media 2.0 can be defined as the sharing of information by various digital media, as opposed to the traditional media. This researcher assumed phenomena such as one-person media and street journalism that appeared in the candlelight meeting protests against U.S. beef imports in Korea over mad cow disease to be an expression of the media 2.0 phenomenon.
From this perspective, this study formulated a research question, "How is the media 2.0 phenomenon expressed in the 2008 Korean Candlelight Protests over mad cow disease?" and two detailed research questions: "How is the online media phenomenon expressed in the candlelight protests over mad cow disease?" and "What characterizes media use by participants in the protest?"
In-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis were conducted to collect data for these research questions. The data were analyzed for three months from May 2 to July 31, 2008. The participant observations took place 14 times, in which a total of 14 participants were interviewed. The collected data was analyzed and synthesized through grounded theory, open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Based on the results of the analysis, a conclusion of this study was made on the Media 2.0 phenomenon, a paradigm, and a core category which appeared in the candlelight meeting protests over mad cow disease. In more detail, the open coding identified 81 concepts, 28 subcategories, and 9 categories. In axial coding, similarity and relations among the expressed concepts, subcategories and categories were identified and clarified, which deduced a paradigm model consisting of 6 steps. In selective coding, "making participation in politics entertainment through digital media" was proposed as the core category. This concept was observed in that compared to people over the age of 30, people in their teens and 20s, who are affected by the media 2.0 paradigm, tend to actively solve problems in daily life using enjoyment rather than pursuing a goal of solving political and economic problems.
This study concluded that the media 2.0 phenomenon which appeared in the candlelight protests over mad cow disease appealed strongly to people in their teens and 20s who mainly use digital media. This conclusion identified the assumption that the new way of participating in the political meetings shown in the protests would be caused by characteristics of the media. By theorizing direct experiences of participants in the protest as the paradigm and the core category, this study made up for limitations in empirical studies on the Internet media focused on phenomena and results and extended the range of discussion, which is the meaning held by this study.