Purpose: As more and more North Korean refugees settle in South Korea, they are compelled to adap... more Purpose: As more and more North Korean refugees settle in South Korea, they are compelled to adapt to a "digitalized" society. This study examines whether there are differences in digital capital between North Korean refugees and South Korean citizens, and examines the sociodemographic factors associated with the distribution of digital capital. Methodology: This study used data from the 2019 Digital Divide Survey conducted by the Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea and conducted OLS regression analysis. Findings: The results show how the three forms of traditional capital - economic, social, and cultural - are differently associated with the distribution of digital capital in each group. All forms of traditional capital are fully associated with the distribution of digital capital across South Korean citizens, whereas traditional capital is partially associated with the distribution of digital capital across North Korean refugees. Practical implications: The results imply that new forms of capital, called digital capital, are also distributed across North Korean refugees and various policies are needed to prevent inequality among North Korean refugees due to uneven distribution of digital capital.
Individuals have been under more stress since the COVID-19 pandemic began than they were before t... more Individuals have been under more stress since the COVID-19 pandemic began than they were before the pandemic. While social support is a known stress buffer among the general population, its impact on stress among vulnerable populations, such as immigrants and those living in rural areas, has received little attention in the context of South Korea. Accordingly, we examined the relationship between different types of social support and COVID-19 stress among young adult immigrants based on where they live (rural vs. urban). We conducted a survey of 300 young adult immigrants aged 25-34 years and analyzed the results. The dependent variable was COVID-19 stress, and the independent variables were four types of social support: emotional, appraisal, instrumental, and informational. We discovered that young adult immigrants in rural areas perceived higher-level social support in all aspects compared with those in urban areas. Furthermore, social support was not related to COVID-19 stress in urban areas, while appraisal support was positively and informational support was negatively related to COVID-19 stress in rural areas. Our findings suggest that a contextualized understanding of social support is critical to understanding COVID-related stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in non-democratic ... more This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in non-democratic societies. The existing literature suggests that public confidence in democratic societies is understood as citizens' support for democratic values, while in a non-democratic context citizens' confidence is often equated to an assessment of government competence. However, heavy use of social media weakens the link between government competence and public confidence in non-democracies. Using World Values Survey data for Kazakhstan, we find that performance-based confidence no longer holds in a non-democratic state when social media become the main source of information. These findings suggest that social media promote the diffusion of global standards among citizens of authoritarian societies. P ublic confidence is a crucial topic in governance and statecraft because it is directly connected to the public's evaluation of a political system. Public confidence in a government indicates that the political system is
This paper examines the e↵ects of South Koreas public diplomacy on its soft power. Using Nye's (2... more This paper examines the e↵ects of South Koreas public diplomacy on its soft power. Using Nye's (2008) conceptualization of the relationship between soft power and public diplomacy, I hypothesize that a country's public diplomacy, if properly implemented, should produce soft power and make South Korea more attractive destination of visit. However, this simple input-output relationship has not been systematically scrutinized in the public diplomacy literature. The present study attempts to fill such inadequacies by directly testing the e↵ect of South Korea's public diplomacy practices on soft power. For this, I use a gravity model to gauge the impact of overseas Korean studies programs on the attraction of South Korea, measured in several quantities of inbound flows of foreigners to South Korea. The data shows that there is a strong association between the installment of Korean Studies programs in a target country and the size of inbound tourism and foreign students to South Korea from that country.
This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in nondemocratic s... more This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in nondemocratic societies. The existing literature finds that public confidence in democratic societies is understood as citizens' support for democratic values, while citizens' confidence in a non-democratic government is often equated to an assessment of government competency. However, heavy use of social media disassociates the link between government competency and public confidence in non-democracies. Using the World Value Survey data of Kazakhstan, we find that performance-based confidence no longer holds in a non-democratic state when social media becomes the main source of information. These findings suggest that social media promotes the diffusion of global standards among citizens of authoritarian societies.
Purpose: As more and more North Korean refugees settle in South Korea, they are compelled to adap... more Purpose: As more and more North Korean refugees settle in South Korea, they are compelled to adapt to a "digitalized" society. This study examines whether there are differences in digital capital between North Korean refugees and South Korean citizens, and examines the sociodemographic factors associated with the distribution of digital capital. Methodology: This study used data from the 2019 Digital Divide Survey conducted by the Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea and conducted OLS regression analysis. Findings: The results show how the three forms of traditional capital - economic, social, and cultural - are differently associated with the distribution of digital capital in each group. All forms of traditional capital are fully associated with the distribution of digital capital across South Korean citizens, whereas traditional capital is partially associated with the distribution of digital capital across North Korean refugees. Practical implications: The results imply that new forms of capital, called digital capital, are also distributed across North Korean refugees and various policies are needed to prevent inequality among North Korean refugees due to uneven distribution of digital capital.
Individuals have been under more stress since the COVID-19 pandemic began than they were before t... more Individuals have been under more stress since the COVID-19 pandemic began than they were before the pandemic. While social support is a known stress buffer among the general population, its impact on stress among vulnerable populations, such as immigrants and those living in rural areas, has received little attention in the context of South Korea. Accordingly, we examined the relationship between different types of social support and COVID-19 stress among young adult immigrants based on where they live (rural vs. urban). We conducted a survey of 300 young adult immigrants aged 25-34 years and analyzed the results. The dependent variable was COVID-19 stress, and the independent variables were four types of social support: emotional, appraisal, instrumental, and informational. We discovered that young adult immigrants in rural areas perceived higher-level social support in all aspects compared with those in urban areas. Furthermore, social support was not related to COVID-19 stress in urban areas, while appraisal support was positively and informational support was negatively related to COVID-19 stress in rural areas. Our findings suggest that a contextualized understanding of social support is critical to understanding COVID-related stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in non-democratic ... more This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in non-democratic societies. The existing literature suggests that public confidence in democratic societies is understood as citizens' support for democratic values, while in a non-democratic context citizens' confidence is often equated to an assessment of government competence. However, heavy use of social media weakens the link between government competence and public confidence in non-democracies. Using World Values Survey data for Kazakhstan, we find that performance-based confidence no longer holds in a non-democratic state when social media become the main source of information. These findings suggest that social media promote the diffusion of global standards among citizens of authoritarian societies. P ublic confidence is a crucial topic in governance and statecraft because it is directly connected to the public's evaluation of a political system. Public confidence in a government indicates that the political system is
This paper examines the e↵ects of South Koreas public diplomacy on its soft power. Using Nye's (2... more This paper examines the e↵ects of South Koreas public diplomacy on its soft power. Using Nye's (2008) conceptualization of the relationship between soft power and public diplomacy, I hypothesize that a country's public diplomacy, if properly implemented, should produce soft power and make South Korea more attractive destination of visit. However, this simple input-output relationship has not been systematically scrutinized in the public diplomacy literature. The present study attempts to fill such inadequacies by directly testing the e↵ect of South Korea's public diplomacy practices on soft power. For this, I use a gravity model to gauge the impact of overseas Korean studies programs on the attraction of South Korea, measured in several quantities of inbound flows of foreigners to South Korea. The data shows that there is a strong association between the installment of Korean Studies programs in a target country and the size of inbound tourism and foreign students to South Korea from that country.
This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in nondemocratic s... more This study explores the changing nature of public confidence and its formation in nondemocratic societies. The existing literature finds that public confidence in democratic societies is understood as citizens' support for democratic values, while citizens' confidence in a non-democratic government is often equated to an assessment of government competency. However, heavy use of social media disassociates the link between government competency and public confidence in non-democracies. Using the World Value Survey data of Kazakhstan, we find that performance-based confidence no longer holds in a non-democratic state when social media becomes the main source of information. These findings suggest that social media promotes the diffusion of global standards among citizens of authoritarian societies.
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