Webtoon Romance Reading and New Ways to Look at Genre Reading
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Keywords
romance, genre fiction, webtoon, Readers' Advisory, born-digital material provision
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2025.a970681
Abstract
Romance, historically a popular fiction genre, has been recently introduced to its contemporary platform, Webtoon. As a born-digital, online visual narrative that enables accessible and convenient romance reading for younger generations, webtoon romance has been appreciated by many romance readers worldwide. Using semistructured interviews with sixteen romance genre readers who enjoyed both webtoon romance and traditional romance novels, the current study explores the appeals of webtoon romance that differentiate its reading experience from traditional romance reading. The findings highlight the immersive reading engagement enabled by multimedia devices, the accessibility of the platform, and the inclusion of diversity in romance narratives as significant appeal factors for webtoon romance. In addition, the article discusses the future of Readers' Advisory services that embrace more diversified formats and narratives of genres outside of libraries' physical collections.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Library Trends, v. 74, issue 1, p. 148-169
Scholar Commons Citation
Cho, Hyerim; Adkins, Denice; Long, Alicia K.; and Santos, Diogenes Da, "Webtoon Romance Reading and New Ways to Look at Genre Reading" (2025). School of Information Faculty Publications. 641.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/si_facpub/641
