Can digital signage in subway stations serve as a valid communication platform for citizens?

Abstract

As digital signage has spread throughout cities, researchers and artists have come up with various projects to use interactivity and networks for civil communication. In doing so, they have encountered problems, including difficulties in controlling content posted by citizen, and a lack of public participation. This study conducted a survey to find out what contents and forms of interactivity members of the public would prefer when using the digital signage installed in Seoul subway stations as an aid to communication. Our results showed that citizens wanted to post content and to read recommendations relating to Seoul and healing messages. The personal information they were most willing to expose was their own age, and the desired exposure time for their own content varied. For interactions to express empathy, they preferred touching the screens in the public space to using their smartphones. The data collected from online and offline will be classified and analyzed by area, age, and category; it will be used by citizens and the government to monitor and understand the thoughts of members of the public.