From concrete walls to digital walls: transmedia construction of place myth in Ihwa Mural Village, South Korea

Abstract

Media representation is not a neutral site for reflection of reality, but a process through which discourses are constructed and circulated. When presented in media, urban space is re-mediated and its meanings are newly configured. Discursive currents do not simply remain in the media sphere, but reshape the cultural economy of certain places by attracting tourists and inducing property value increases. This article examines the process in which Ihwa Mural Village, a disenfranchised residential neighborhood in South Korea, has become one of the ‘best photo spots’ for tourists through representation via three distinct types of media – murals, popular culture, and Instagram. The analyses focus on the double functions of each medium: branding function to create particular place meanings, on the one hand, and power to create distance between representation and community realities on the other. This dual tendency is reinforced by transmedia dynamics. When featured in diverse media, images of Ihwa Village proliferate, attracting more participants and enabling further transmedia interactions. Yet, transmedia image flows accentuate only visual and aesthetic qualities of place. The expansive and subtractive transmedia construction consolidates the place myth, while the same process advances its detachment from the reality of the place.