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The shape of Korean Wave, which refers to the phenomenon of Korean pop culture being all the rage abroad, has noticeably changed in recent years. In the early 2000s, it was symbolized by scenes of middle-aged housewives from East Asian countries chasing after their beloved Korean actors whom they found from television and VCDs. Now, Korean pop music (K-pop) has become the centerpiece of the Korean Wave, and it is largely enjoyed by teenagers around the world--not just in Asia. This change is an outcome of socio-technological turns. The rise of new technology such as file-sharing and VOD almost outdated compact disk-based media usage in the last decade. The technology-savvy young generation plugs into fan networks in virtual space to connect. These prosumers (producer and consumer of information) post, distribute and exchange video-recorded information on online sites (Toffler, 1980). As such, the Internet and video-sharing websites such as YouTube have instigated the global spread of K-pop fandom.
In this paper we draw from recent theoretical discussions of fan culture and the new media technologies to explore how online communities contribute to new forms of K-pop fandom. We suggest that these online sites play an important role in setting the new stage of dissemination and dialogue of K-pop knowledge, through which particular forms and spaces of online fan culture are being created and sustained. Moreover, these web-based communities challenge the existing concepts that have embraced interrelations between culture, consumption and technology. Based on an empirical study of YouTube, carried out using netnographic methods, this study tackles the following questions: how fans construct themselves as Korean pop fans through the online activities; how they exchange information and opinions of Korean stars; and, what meaning they extract from online file-sharing activities.