이용자의 손안에 들어온 웹툰은 어느덧 20여 년의 역사를 갖게 되었다. OTT 경쟁이 치열해지면서 주목받고 있는 콘텐츠 역시 웹툰이다. 웹툰이라는 하나의 원천 소재는 다양한 콘텐츠 상품으로 확장되며 주목받고 있다. 본 연구에서는 보다 거시적 차원에서 웹툰 관련 논의의 흐름을 이해하고자 기사 내용분석과 키워드 네트워크 분석을 실시해 언론사별, 시기별 주요 주제의 변화 양상을 살펴보고자 하였다. 빅카인즈에서 수집한 총 1,125건의 데이터를 토대로 기사에서 주요하게 다뤄진 주제들을 분석하였다. 웹툰의 대표 서비스인 네이버웹툰 관련 기사를 중심으로 분석을 진행했으며, 주요 주제는 1) 작가 및 작품 2) 경영 및 성과 3) 시장 경쟁 및 확장 4) 법적 이슈로, 세부 주제는 작품, 작가, 아마추어지원/공모전, 기술, 경영전반, 실적, 광고, 생태계, 글로벌, 시장경쟁, M&A/투자, OSMU, 표현의 자유, 불법유통으로 분류하였다. 가장 많이 다뤄진 기사의 주제는 ‘시장 경쟁 및 확장’이었으며, 세부 주제는 ‘OSMU(One Source Multi Use)’로 나타났다. 이어서 키워드 출현 빈도와 키워드 네트워크 분석을 실시한 결과, 웹툰의 ‘글로벌 시장 진출과 성과’, 그리고 ‘OSMU’와 관련된 키워드를 중심으로 보도가 이루어지고 있었다.
Webtoons that came into the hands of users have already had a history of more than 20 years. Content that is drawing attention as OTT competition intensifies is also webtoon. Webtoon, is expanded to various content products and is paying attention to its value. In order to understand the flow of webtoon-related discussions at a more macro level, this study attempted to examine the changes in major topics by media company and period by analyzing the content of articles and keyword networks. Based on a total of 1,125 data collected by Big Kinds, the topics covered in the article were analyzed. The analysis was conducted focusing on articles related to Naver Webtoon, a representative service of webtoons, and the main topics were classified into 1) creators and works 2) management and performance 3) market competition and expansion 4) legal issues. As detailed topics, ‘contents’, ‘webtoonist’, ‘amateur support/contest’, ‘technology’ were sorted to 1) creators and works, ‘managements’, ‘performance’, ‘advertisement’, ‘eco system’ were sorted to 2) management and performance, ‘global’, ‘market competition’, ‘M&A/investments’, ‘OSMU(One Source Multi Use)’ were sorted to 3) market competition and expansion, ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘illegal distribution’ were sorted to 4) legal issues. As a result of analyzing the articles by media, the economic magazines reported the most articles related to webtoon with 625 cases(70.4%) while national magazines, technical magazines, and broadcasts reported 304 cases(18.0%), 182 cases(10.8%), and 12 cases(0.8%) as in order. In detailed topics, S.Korea media company seems to report articles related on ‘OSMU(260 cases)’ the most and ‘global(185 cases)’, ‘works (111 cases)’, ‘amateur support/contest(108 cases)’, ‘management(89 cases)’ in order. By re-analyzing the result above by period, the most articles reported by the media were 310 cases in 2020, more than the sum of articles from 2019(180 cases)and 2018(129 cases). Also the result shows that the number of articles related to ‘Naver Weboon’ have increasingly reported as time period passes. In early 2010s, with the launch of ‘Naver Webtoon’ service, the media seems to be only interested at the ‘creators and works’. But as tangible results of global advancement have emerged, and the production of secondary contents shows up from the webtoons, the media have extended topics to ‘management and performance’ and ‘market competition and expansion’, As a result of keyword frequency analysis, the keyword ‘webtoon’, ‘naver webtoon’, ‘global’, ‘kakao’, ‘webtoonist’, ‘popular’, ‘web novel’ had appeard most frequently, and to find out specific relationships between the keywords, we have conducted keyword network analysis. As a result, the keyword network formed a total of four clusters with the main keywords ‘naver webtoon’ and ‘webtoon’. These keywords were highly related to the words ‘US’, ‘Disnep’, ‘North America’, ‘Google’, ‘Shoutheast Asia’ and ‘mobile game’, ‘drama’, ‘shopping’, ‘original’, ‘animation’, ‘movie’, ‘advertisement’, ‘produce’ which shows topics from Naver Webtoon’s market competition and expansion. In particular, Naver Webtoon had a high connection with keywords related to global market targeting and collaboration, and showed various OSMUs were being attempted. The keyword network also shows that Naver Webtoon and Kakao Webtoon are now competing on global market, with the keywords ‘webtoon’, ‘kakao’, ‘global’, ‘market’.