Of the Year
Overview
“Of the Year” is an adnominal modifier attached to the subject (person, work, product, word, etc.) that achieved the most outstanding performance or drew the greatest attention during a given year, and it is a core format of year-end retrospective culture in which such subjects are officially selected and announced. It corresponds to the English expression “of the Year” and has been institutionalized in the form of awards and lists in almost every field, including sports, games, film, music, media, academia, and industry. It is used broadly, from short one-line headlines to annual announcements by authoritative institutions, and has become a representative cultural practice combining the media’s credibility capital with public interest.
Key Content
Concept and Structure
It is an expression combining the time scope “this year” with the adnominal particle “ui” (의), and essentially uses time-boxing as its core device. Because eligibility is limited to one year, newly comparable criteria are set each year, making cyclical renewal possible. This structure allows “last year’s winner” and “this year’s winner” to be juxtaposed, providing a basis for media to repeatedly produce narratives. English expressions such as “Athlete of the Year,” “Game of the Year,” and “Person of the Year” are typical grammatical prototypes, and in Korean the object of combination expands flexibly, as in “Player of the Year,” “Game of the Year,” and “Person of the Year.”
Social Functions
- Conferring authority: The credibility capital of the selecting body (media outlet, association, academic journal) is transferred to the winner, and at the same time the winner’s achievement reaffirms the authority of the selecting body.
- Producing topicality: As a regular event satisfying repeated content demand at year-end and the beginning of the year, the timing of the announcement itself has news value.
- Marketing and branding: In corporate and work promotion, the phrase “selected as ○○ of the Year” is used as an immediately usable mark of trust.
- Compression of memory: It summarizes the flow of a year into a few keywords and names, constructing the public’s collective memory.
Representative Examples
- Sports: FIFA Player of the Year, MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in each league, the Ballon d’Or, etc.
- Games: The Game Awards’ “Game of the Year (GOTY),” Steam Awards, and year-end Game of the Year roundups by various outlets.
- Film and Drama: Academy and critics association “Film of the Year” Top 10 lists, year-end retrospective lists.
- Music: Grammy Awards, Melon Music Awards, Billboard year-end charts.
- Media: Time’s “Person of the Year.”
- Language: Dictionary publishers such as Oxford and Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Year.”
- Academia and Science: Nature’s “10 People of the Year,” Science’s “Breakthrough of the Year.”
- Industry: Car of the Year, CEO of the Year, App of the Year, etc.
Selection Methods and Controversies
Selection methods are largely divided into judge voting, public and fan voting, quantitative indicators (sales, search volume, streaming counts), and hybrid forms combining these. As the proportion of fan voting increases, controversies tend to grow together over organized voting mobilization by fandoms, duplicate voting and macro abuse, and sample bias. In addition, the one-year time constraint may underestimate long-term contributions, and recency bias—where issues that become topical at the end of the year gain a relative advantage—is pointed out as a structural limitation.
Latest Trends
The most distinct change in 2024–2025 is the creation and expansion of AI categories. Various award ceremonies and retrospective media created new categories such as “AI Model of the Year” and “AI Company of the Year,” and Oxford Dictionaries selected “brain rot” as its Word of the Year for 2024, reflecting discourse on digital overconsumption. Time selected Donald Trump as its 2024 Person of the Year, once again intertwining political controversy with retrospective culture, and The Game Awards 2024’s Game of the Year went to Astro Bot. In 2025, notable trends include ① integration with short-form and voting-based content, ② mass production of retrospective articles and videos using generative AI, ③ introduction of fairness verification procedures for fandom voting, and ④ incorporation of climate and social values into evaluation criteria. At the same time, award inflation and weakening authority caused by the overuse of “of the Year” are also discussed.
Related Topics
- [[올해의 게임]]
- [[올해의 인물]]
- [[올해의 단어]]
- [[연말 결산]]
- [[시상식]]