A Frame Analysis of Media Piracy in the Korean Diaspora

This study explores the issue of media piracy from the perspectives of audience, which is a topic that has not been examined sufficiently. In doing so, this study narrows the population of the study to a diaspora since diasporic audience has attracted little scholarly attention in media piracy literature. To understand the diasporic audience’s perspective on media piracy, the study utilizes the Korean diaspora and a petition started by the Korean file-sharing website. A file-sharing website used and managed by Korean diasporic audiences, Dabdate, started a petition to stop Korean broadcasting stations from shutting down the website for copyright violation. This study conducts a frame analysis to understand the perspectives of the Korean diasporic audience from news articles, online community posts, and Dabdate’s petition endorsements collected over about a month. The findings revealed that the diasporic audience’ perspective did not align with that of the industry. The media industry’s claim that media piracy has caused enormous damage did not appear anywhere but the Korean diasporic news articles. When Korean diasporic users shared the sentiment, they were facing a sanction due to media piracy. The Korean diasporic audiences considered the Korean media as a public good, which they were entitled as free access by law. Thus, in their eyes, media piracy was not as problematic as the industry claimed. Korean media consumption was also a way to maintain the Korean identity for the Korean diasporic audiences, especially so for those in areas with small Korean immigrant communities. Some Korean diasporic audiences found copyright reinforcement efforts offensive and as a disenfranchisement of their identity as Korean citizens and Koreans.