새로운 기록매체와 한국근현대사료 -기억을 통하지 않은 기록의 등장, 그리고 디지털 역사- = A Study of New Recording Medium and Historical Resources on Modern and Contemporary Korea : The Rise of Non-Mnemonic Recording and Digital History

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The advancement of technology has exerted a profound influence on the formation of historical resources. In the pre-modern era, the gradual evolution of paper-making and printing techniques established paper as the dominant medium for historical resources. However, the emergence of photography, film, and audio recording—products of modern technological progress—challenged the monopoly of paper by enabling the immediate recording of events without relying solely on human memory. Furthermore, the advent of the digital age has transformed electronic information into a new and universal medium for documentation. Existing historical resources have been digitized, and today, “born-digital” records constitute the vast majority of data. Digital records, generated as by products of various public and private activities, are now produced first, while paper documents have become secondary outputs or mere printouts of the digital originals.
Consequently, in the study of 21st-century Korean history, digital media will take precedence as historical resources. Even for periods before the 20th century, digitized historical resources are being utilized more actively than their physical counterparts.
This paper examines the recording media that have newly emerged in the modern and contemporary eras alongside these technological advancements.
It specifically distinguishes between digitized and born-digital historical resources. Since the 2000s, as digital historical resources became accessible for daily use via networks, it has been hailed as a “digital data revolution” based on its accessibility and reliability. It is undeniable that the academic community has improved both the quantity and quality of research outcomes by utilizing such data. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of attention toward the fundamental changes in the nature of historical resources that go beyond mere utility. Therefore, this study examines new recording media as historical resources and discusses the evolving concepts of evidence and research methodologies in the digital age. Rather than merely prognosticating the future of historiography in the digital age or the trajectory of digital history itself, this paper aims to pose a fundamental inquiry into the means and methods through which current academia should seek to explore and define the field of digital history