KJCKorea
Journal Central

Due to the digital revolution, we are living in the world of “new new media.” Looking at this in the history of orality, the 3rd era of orality has arrived. While the 1st oral era was an era of face-to-face communication where speakers and listeners sat around and even breathed together, the 2nd oral era was an era of one-sided and mass communication formed by the spread of typography. The 3rd oral era, which has just arrived, is an era of machinemediated communication based on new new media. “New new media” seems to provide a sense of integrated communication, but the perspective tends to lead to an enlarged sensory imbalance. As the audiovisual content of “new new media” becomes increasingly short, our senses are more dependent on the visual, and this imbalance limits our imagination. The development of imagination given by the auditory sense when listening to stories and the limited visual sense of description and narrative when reading novels is weakened in “new new media.” In this way, our thinking is simplified and unilateralized, and critical thinking disappears. The disappearance of thinking and the weakening of imagination make the possibility of life shrink. The digital environment is weakening letter-centeredness and providing technical conditions for restoring speech initiative. It can be said that an ecosystem suitable for oral literacy has been created. However, there is a possibility that this ecosystem will be erased again by visualism according to the main mobility digital images that expand to infinity. Research on the production and text of oral literature in a digital society will need to find a path that has not been taken while considering the tensions created by such an unstable ecosystem.

This paper explores the ways in which the term “gujeonseolhwa” (oral folktale) is used in online spaces to refer to discourse about objects of interest, or even the objects themselves. It also considers the implications of this for our understanding of orality, history, and so on in the digital age. In order to gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, I selected “THEQOO,” an internet community site where fan activities have been performed, as a case study. It would seem that since the 2010s, the expression “gujeonseolhwa” has been used in fan community sites in a new way, in addition to traditional folklore or folktales. This expression has a wide range of meanings, including online textized information about a subject such as a celebrity they are interested in, visual information such as photos and videos of the subject, or a situation in which their own experience is absent, or the subject itself in such a situation. It could be said that, unlike traditional folktales, the new “gujeonseolhwa” expression is becoming a symbol that indicates the existence of information that is not at the level desired by the speaker rather than indicating a fictional story or narrative. It would seem that the prevalence of “gujeonseolhwa” indicates that oral textized communication via digital media is being considered a primary means of communication for contemporary digital natives, just as primary orality was originally. It is also evident that there is a desire for such information that are not “gujeonseolhwa” including photos, videos. In examining these users’ orientations, I have observed that the existing structure of “orality and literacy” can be transformed into a structure of “oral-textuality mediated by digital technology and image-record with documentality.” Furthermore, it was discussed that the experience of visual confirmation is important in determining whether a certain information is gujeonseolhwa or not. The degree of visual confirmation may vary from individual to individual and personal and subjective preferences for the subject matter can influence the perception of gujeonseolhwa.

This paper introduces a case in which the urban legend “Red Mask” was newly enjoyed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and reveals the meaning of this case. For discussion, “[Jal-Tun Original] Red Mask” and the short film “Red Mask KF94,” enjoyed on YouTube, were analyzed. “Red Mask” was perceived as a ghost story, causing anxiety and fear in elementary school students through a tale of a woman wearing a red mask and harming children alone on the street at night. On the other hand, “[Jal-Tun Original] Red Mask” and “Red Mask KF94” show that a woman who reappeared in the COVID-19 pandemic failed to communicate with people, was unaware of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the changing function of the mask, and her power as a ghost was weakened. As a result, the woman fails to harm the children, and this failure is repeated. In this process, laughter is triggered. This laughter provides a sense of freedom, indicating that the woman who was the object of fear in “Red Mask” is no longer a scary object. At the same time, it provides a temporary emotional release from the frustration and tension caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes show that the ghost story “Red Mask,” which was formed based on Japanese monster culture, was absorbed into the influence of traditional Korean stories, transforming the character, narrative structure, and the enjoyment of the story. It is also timely in that it reveals how urban legends change in conjunction with the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the era of new media.