Snack Culture’s Dream of Big-Screen Culture - Korean Webtoons’ Transmedia Storytelling - Article Overview

Aug 27, 2026

Explores the sociocultural drivers behind the rise of Korean webtoons as “snack culture” and how this quick, phone-mediated consumption shapes big-screen cultural production. Using media convergence grounded in transmedia storytelling, it historicizes the emergence of snack culture and divides the shift from webtoon culture to big-screen culture into three periods within a new-media ecology. It further analyzes webtoons as a resource for transmedia storytelling and explains how small snack culture became big-screen culture through Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Snack culture and digital technology

Webtoons as a platform for transmedia storytelling

Three-period evolution toward big-screen culture

Case study: Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds

Snack Culture’s Dream of Big-Screen Culture: Korean Webtoons’ Transmedia Storytelling DAL YONG JIN 1 Simon Fraser University, Canada The sociocultural reasons for the growth of webtoons as snack culture and snack culture’s influence in big-screen culture have received little scholarly attention . By employing media convergence supported by transmedia storytelling as a theoretical framework alongside historical and textual analyses, this article historicizes the emergence of snack culture . It divides the evolution of snack culture—in particular, webtoon culture—to big-screen culture into three periods according to the surrounding new media ecology. Then it examines the ways in which webtoons have become a resource for transmedia storytelling. Finally, it addresses the reasons why small snack culture becomes big-screen culture with the case of Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds, which has transformed from a popular webtoon to a successful big-screen movie . Keywords: snack culture, webtoon, transmedia storytelling, big-screen culture, media convergence Snack culture—the habit of consuming information and cultural resources quickly rather than engaging at a deeper level—is becoming representative of the Korean cultural scene . It is easy to find Koreans reading news articles or watching films or dramas on their smartphones on a subway. To cater to this increasing number of mobile users whose tastes are changing, web-based cultural content is churning out diverse subgenres from conventional formats of movies, dramas, cartoons, and novels (Chung, 2014, para . 1) . The term snack culture was coined by Wired in 2007 to explain a modern tendency to look for convenient culture that is indulged in within a short duration of time, similar to how people eat snacks such as cookies within a few minutes . Snack culture describes a change in one’s habit of cultural consumption . Instead of watching a film for two hours, individuals consume popular culture—music, television programs, games, and movies—in short periods, sometimes less than 10 minutes . This phenomenon is made possible by the emergence of digital technologies, particularly smartphones (Miller, 2007) . Dal Yong Jin: [djin@sfu.ca](djin@sfu.ca) [Date submitted: 2018](Date submitted: 2018)–[0707](0707) 1 This article was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies Grant (AKS-2018-C01) . Copyright © 2019 ( Dal Yong Jin) . Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at [http://ijoc.org](http://ijoc.org). International Journal of Communication 13(2019) Snack Culture’s Dream 2095 Snack culture has become a new trend in global cultural industries . Korea has embraced this new culture, including webtoons, web dramas, and web entertainment, in the convergence of an emerging cultural genre (webtoons) and smartphones .2 As one of the most wired countries in the world—the nation is among the highest in terms of penetration—Korea has advanced several cutting-edge technologies, including broadband and smartphone, and these digital technologies have significantly changed not only people’s daily lives but their habits in consuming popular culture . Therefore, snack culture, originally referring to the quick habit of consuming information and cultural resources, should be considered through the interaction between culture and technology, because the meanings of time and space in contemporary societies and the commodification of leisure time in late capitalist societies have greatly shifted in Korea . Many Koreans started to enjoy webtoons on the two largest web portals—Naver and Daum—with their notebook computers at home and work in the early 2000s . Now, on a subway, one witnesses people of all ages looking at their smartphones and scrolling down the screen quickly with their thumbs. If a smile is spotted on the smartphone user’s face, it would not be far-fetched to say the person might be reading his or her favo

FAQs

What theoretical framework supports the article’s analysis?

Media convergence supported by transmedia storytelling is used alongside historical and textual analyses to frame the study.

How does the article explain the emergence of snack culture?

It argues snack culture is enabled by digital technologies, especially smartphones, and reflects shifts in how time, space, and leisure consumption are commodified in late capitalist societies.

How do webtoons connect to big-screen culture?

Webtoons become a resource for transmedia storytelling as they are adapted into films, dramas, and digital games, expanding their cultural influence beyond mobile reading.

Aug 27, 2026

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