This study analyzes the configurations of communication relationships in Korea through face-to-face, email, instant messaging, mobile phone, and short message service media. Through a web survey, we asked respondents to identify (1) for each of the five media (2) up to five of their most frequent communication partners, (3) the partner's social role (including colleagues, family, friends), and (4) their own employment category. Individual-level and network-level analyses were used to compare variations in communication relationships and configurations of relationships among social roles overall, within each medium, and for different employment categories, and to identify configurations of relationships across media. IM, SMS, and mobile phone are distinctive media for students, mobile phone for homeworkers, and email for organizational workers. Moreover, mobile phones tend to be used in reinforcing strong social ties, and textbased CMC media tend to be used in expanding relationships with weak ties. Finally, face-to-face (FtF) seems to be a universal medium without significant differences across respondents' employment categories.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine South Korea’s digital divide policy and investigate how it Korea is one of the most networked countries in the world that has been addressing the digital divide issue since the inception of broadband. Design/methodology/approach – A secondary data analysis of the National Information Society Agency’s Digital Divide Index was conducted between 2003 and 2012. Findings – The differences in the changes in the access, skills and utilisation dimensions of the digital divide indicate that a second-level digital divide emerges as penetration increases. The gap in access has been minimised concurrently with the rapid adoption of broadband. Reduction of gaps in skills and effective uses has not followed accordingly. Social implications – Countries adopting broadband policies to achieve high connectivity can learn from this case and devise preventive policies that can overcome inequalities in skills and utilisation among digitally disadvantaged groups. Originality/value – By analysing longitudinal data, this study identified an emerging second-level digital divide in a country with high broadband penetration. This has significant implications for policies aiming to narrow the digital divide and that access, skills and utilisation issues should be addressed separately.

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