Exploring the social mediatization of action sports communities in South Korea

Abstract

There has been a growing emphasis on examining action sports in diverse local contexts because of their Olympic inclusion. This study explores the social mediatization of the action sports communities in South Korea, with a specific focus on surfing and skateboarding. Data for this qualitative research included archival materials, media data, and semi-structured interviews with key individuals (n = 18) in the action sports communities. The findings highlight the social media logics of programmability, popularity, and connectivity that influence the social media use of actors in the Korean action sports communities. Additionally, key contextual factors associated with the social mediatization are identified. This research demonstrates the generality and uniqueness of the action sports’ social mediatization, which has theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords:

• Mediatization
• social media
• surfing
• skateboarding
• the Olympics

Acknowledgements

We express our appreciation to the research participants for generously sharing their invaluable insights. Additionally, we would like to extend our gratitude to the editors and reviewers for their insightful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Although skateboarding and longboarding are usually considered different by skateboarders, Korean public has limited understanding of distinction between the two due to the short history of skateboarding in Korea.

2 Different terms have been utilized in previous literature, such as ‘extreme’, ‘lifestyle’, ‘action’ sports. Since this research considers the inclusion of action sports into the Olympics as one of the key research contexts, we utilize the term ‘action sports’ that represents the competitive nature of the sports (Wheaton, 2004).

4 Direct translation. The term ‘Somefing’ is coined by combing ‘Something’ and ‘Surfing’.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Yonsei Signature Research Cluster Program (2023-22-0017) and the Yonsei University Research Fund of 2024-22-0092.