Attending the JoongAng Ilbo 60th Anniversary Global Media Conference 🌐🎬

With the invitation from Professor Junghwan Kim, members of our lab had the opportunity to attend the JoongAng Ilbo 60th Anniversary Global Media Conference, held on September 18, 2025 (Thu) at the Crystal Ballroom of Lotte Hotel Seoul. Under the overarching theme “Hybridization Beyond Boundaries in an Age of Chaos,” the conference brought together leading figures from journalism, film, K-pop, webtoons, and short-form video to reflect on how media industries are being reconfigured across platforms, formats, and narratives.

The conference opened with a powerful dialogue on the future of journalism. In “Reconstructing Truth: Journalism in the Hybrid Era,” Hong Jeong-do and Mark Thompson, CEO of CNN, discussed how news organizations are adapting to an increasingly platformized environment. This was followed by an inspiring cross-industry conversation, “From Creator to Architect: Designing Worlds Beyond Boundaries,” featuring filmmaker Bong Joon-ho and Mark Thompson. Their discussion highlighted how contemporary creators move beyond storytelling to world-building.

Several sessions focused on the global evolution of K-pop and Korean content. In “The Birth of a Cultural Operating System: K-pop and the Design of the Next Civilization,” Lee Soo-man (A2O Entertainment) framed K-pop as an integrated system that combines music, technology, fandom, and narrative. This was complemented by Maggie Kang’s talk on the success of K-Pop Demon Hunters, which demonstrated how K-pop can evolve into a transmedia narrative universe rather than remaining a single cultural product. The transformation of IP across media formats was another key theme. In “IP Alchemy: Webtoons as Guides for K-content,” Kwon Mi-kyung, CEO of Studio N, shared insights into how webtoons function as foundational IPs that can be systematically adapted into films, dramas, and other visual media. The program concluded with Chen Reiqing, CEO of Dramabox, who explored “The Future of Video: Growth Potential of Korean Short-form Dramas,” emphasizing the global opportunities emerging from short-form storytelling.

Across journalism, film, K-pop, webtoons, and short-form video, each session illustrated how media industries are increasingly shaped by hybridity—between platforms, genres, technologies, and audiences. For students and researchers studying the media and content industries, the conference offered not only timely insights into industry transformation, but also rich inspiration for thinking about how media ecosystems continue to evolve in an era defined by convergence and experimentation.

Thank ou Junghwan Kim for providing us amazing opportunity!