earticle

영어

Mukbang(internet based food eating shows) is an international cultural phenomenon being produced by 20s youths in Korea and China in a transformed media environment. While there are social concerns about the negative impact of watching mukbang shows can have on young users, such concerns may overlook the users' ability to manipulate media use in their daily lives. Therefore, the researchers studied 208 Korean and Chinese university students who watch mukbang shows and analyzed the variables that affect their perception, with research questions: (1) what are their motives for watching mukbang shows and watching pattern of mukbang shows, and (2) how negatively does mukbang shows affect their daily lives; studies, relationships with people around them, and living habits. According to the analysis for (1) above, the Korean university students expressed six motivational variables; replacement of offline communication, vicarious satisfaction, pursuit of online communication, information, habits, and entertainment as motivations accounting for watching of mukbang shows. While for Chinese university students, four motivational variables; utilization for online communication, informative vicarious satisfaction, entertainment and habit accounts for their watching of mukbang shows. For both Korean and Chinese university students, the extent of watching is small, and the use binge-watching and interaction was normal, however, the Chinese university students were more active in this than the Korean students. For (2) above, both Korean and Chinese university students thought that eating shows have a small negative effect on their daily lives. However, whereas for the Korean students if replacement of offline communication increases, they consider this a substantial negative effect of watching mukbang shows on their daily lives, while for the Chinese student if utilization for online communication increases, they consider this a substantial negative effect of watching mukbang shows on their daily lives. This suggests that the more college students consider mukbang shows as a substitute for real communication, the more negative effect it has on their capacity to deal with the challenges in daily life.