Webtoon artists contracted through production companies are significantly more likely to experience depression compared to their counterparts who work directly with publishing platforms. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – A new study has revealed that webtoon artists contracted through production companies are significantly more likely to experience depression compared to their counterparts who work directly with publishing platforms.
The research, titled “Work Environment and Depressive Symptoms of Webtoon Writers,” was recently published in the international journal SH@W by the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.
It examines the correlation between webtoon artists’ contract types and the prevalence of depression.
The research team, which included Lee Jinwoo, an occupational and environmental medicine specialist at Hanil Hospital, compared depression rates among various groups of webtoon creators.
Using directly contracted story writers as a baseline, they analyzed the prevalence of depression among indirectly contracted story writers and illustrators working through production companies.
The findings are striking: story writers working through production companies were 9.51 times more likely to suffer from depression than those directly contracted with platforms.
Illustrators under production company contracts also showed a higher risk, being 6.47 times more likely to experience depression compared to directly contracted story writers.
These results were derived from a logistic regression analysis of survey data collected from 312 webtoon artists, a method commonly used to estimate causal relationships.
Webtoon artists typically fall into three categories: those who write stories, those who illustrate, and those who do both. They can either contract directly with publishing platforms or work indirectly through production studios.
Interestingly, the study found that the contract type had a more significant impact on depression rates than the specific role of the artist. This trend held true regardless of whether the artist was a writer, illustrator, or both.
The absolute workload did not seem to have a direct correlation with depression rates. Directly contracted artists reported working an average of 59.7 hours per week, about 5 hours more than those contracted through production companies (54.7 hours). They also produced slightly more content, averaging 67.2 panels per webtoon episode compared to 64.8 panels for production company artists.
However, artists working through production companies reported having less discretion over their work, including less control over rest periods and the number of panels per episode.
The researchers cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions about overall working conditions. “We cannot conclude that the labor conditions for webtoon artists contracted with production companies are universally worse,” they stated.
“However, illustrators under production company contracts reported significantly less work autonomy compared to directly contracted artists. This factor could potentially contribute to higher depression rates.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
