AI-Mediated Localization in Platformized Asian Digital Content Production: Governance, Coordination, and the Case of Korean Webtoons

As Asian digital content industries expand across platformized markets, localization is increasingly embedded in high-volume production workflows rather than treated as a downstream linguistic service. This article examines how AI-mediated localization may reorganize governance and coordination through the case of Korean webtoons. Drawing on discursive institutionalism, it develops the concept of coordination by default to describe a condition in which AI-generated drafts can begin to function as practical reference points when mechanisms for stabilizing culturally adaptive standards are limited. Based on 200 Korean webtoon panels translated by GPT-4 and independently reviewed by two professional translators, the study finds that disagreement emerges less around literal accuracy than around tone, relationality, and culturally embedded implication. These patterns suggest that the key issue is not simply whether AI outputs are usable, but how platformized production environments redistribute judgment while constraining the institutional processes through which cultural nuance is negotiated. The article argues that AI-mediated localization is best understood as a governance problem within Asian digital media production.