Currently, I am working on my Digital Humanities research project by considering ways in which to use gathered resources, as well as newly encountered ones, in a video artifact. Because I am familiar with video-editing software such as iMovie, my plan is to use gathered articles, journals, research papers, websites, as well as visual data, and commentate to explain my findings. I also plan to use various documentary/news footage to show the significance of this project in reality. In doing so, I am able to provide both further detail and elaboration on why exactly internet access and digital divide are two closely related subjects.

A new source of statistics I have encountered is provided by InternetLiveStats, an organization famous for tracking internet figures in real-time. Examples of such figures are numbers of: uploads to the internet, numbers of social media users, YouTube video viewings, Google searches conducted, as well as total Internet users worldwide. This source is of interest for my project because it contains a chart on the national percentages of South Korean internet users from 2000 to 2016. It is able to capture the trend of growing internet penetration, or increased rate of usage for prevalence in daily life.

Speaking of prevalence, a (2010) ABC newscast discusses the rising success that both the Internet and associated technologies are experiencing in South Korea. Six years ago, there was 95% broadband access in Seoul, capital of South Korea. This percentage is still growing today, as the government of South Korea is considering internet connectivity to be a priority for all of its people, starting with its urban areas, then rural regions (NYT, 2011). The newscast also covers the rise of technologies associated with internet usage including but not limited to: smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, large LEDs in streets, and much more. With over 85% national penetration, the rate of internet usage is truly becoming much more prevalent in bridging the South Korean digital divide.

References

Seoul: The World’s Most Wired City (2010) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvM1fxhjWw0

South Korea Internet Users (2000-16) - http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/south-korea/

McDonald, Mark (2011). “Home Internet may get even faster in South Korea.” New York Times Company. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/technology/22iht-broadband22.html?_r=0