KJCKorea
Journal Central

We go through portals to access the plethora of data on the Internet. A portal is where members of the data society enjoy and use various services of the portal in line with the trends. Focusing on the fact that the narrative background of <Enter a Search Term WWW> is a portal (company), this study examines the meaning of the portal space, the most popular and universal social product of the data society. In <Enter a Search Term WWW>, Unicorn and Baro, the two largest Korean portal companies, compete fiercely to attract more users to their services. Bae Ta-mi, who moved to Baro, tries strategies such as advertising, recruiting webtoon writers, and reorganizing the main screen to win the market share competition. Focusing on the background to the spectacular portal image, we can understand the hidden operating principle of the portal. In other words, the portal is permeated with neoliberal realities as it is rapidly incorporated into the new economic system. Also, the most important of portals' many services is the ‘search’. Portals provide a search engine to satisfy users through a system based on their own algorithm. In “Enter a Search Term WWW,” the starting point of conflict is when a leading presidential candidate removes a real-time search word. This shows that the mathematical principle of algorithms is not objective and transparent and that it was constantly being deceived by politics and capital. <Enter a Search Term WWW> shows us the influence of portals as a social construct. It is impossible to live today without accessing the Internet. Therefore, members of society should try to gain the wisdom to see the hidden operating principles behind the portals (companies) connecting the internet and our world.

data society, portal, space, algorithm, Enter a Search Term WWW