The Evolution of Citizenship: Tracking the Shift from Collective Duty to Individual Rights in KOBACO Campaigns (1981–2025)

Abstract

This study examines the longitudinal transformation of citizenship in South Korea by analyzing state-sponsored public service advertisements (PSAs) produced by the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO) from 1981 to 2025. Situated at the intersection of media studies and political sociology, the research utilizes a longitudinal mixed-methods approach combining quantitative thematic coding of 445 campaigns with critical discourse analysis to track how the "Good Korean Citizen" has been discursively reconstructed across different political and economic eras. Findings reveal a significant shift from the developmental-authoritarian period (1980s), which emphasized collectivist national duties such as economic productivity and family planning, toward a neoliberal model (1990s-2000s) focused on individualized ethical consumption and personal responsibility. Notably, the contemporary "Smart Society" phase (2020s) marks a new evolution toward digital citizenship. At this time, civic virtue is increasingly characterized by compliance with digitized public health standards and active participation in state-led digital ecosystems. Despite these transitions, the analysis suggests that Korean civic identity maintains a unique synthesis of Confucian relational ethics and modern surveillance norms, where individualism often functions as a form of social obligation rather than radical autonomy.