This blog is going to talk about how the government supports the creative industry, especially it is going to focus on South Korea and its soft power this time.Before going into the details, it is necessary to confirm what the definition of soft power is. According to Hwa, Andrew, & Daniel (2016), soft power is explained as ” even though the country does not have enough traditional armed forces or other methods of coercion, the country can persuade other countries if they have something that attracts others and good reputations”. From the next paragraph, it is going to focus on how the South Korean government thinks about K-pop culture and how the government makes the culture work for their own country.

K-pop and its benefits

South Korea is familiar with the South Korean wave and the wave is known as “it is best understood as occupying an important niche in this larger array of soft power policies” (Hwa, Andrew, & Daniel  2016). To demonstrate that explanation, they also mentioned that One press release in 2012 announced a concert “as part of diplomatic efforts to further spread Hallyu, the popularity of the K-pop culture”. This case is able to say that the South Korean government is involved in K-pop. This is only one example that the government mentions K-pop or South Korean culture where they talk about politics. However, Carin (2019) reported that South Korea is responsible for 2.8 % of the global cultural content market thanks to the global spread of South Korean drama and music. This report is able to see how much South Korean culture contributes to their own country in terms of economy. 

How does South Korean government treat K-pop?

As it was said that K-pop or South Korean culture has been popular and they have much responsibility for economic benefits, their cultural sources have an effective and powerful impact on their politics. While it is possible to say that South Korea’s success in establishing their entertainment in the world, they are still trying to make the culture grow. Ryoo & Jin (2018) reported that the South Korean government has decided to put much power into five entertainment genres which include K-pop. For example, they plan to construct a K-pop performance centre near Seoul. They also reported that the South Korean government planned to develop fashion and webtoon as new areas of the Korean Wave. For those kinds of revolutionary politics, Hwa, Andrew, & Daniel (2016) pointed out that the South Korean government has been trying to enrich its economical power by creating and supporting creative/cultural industries. 

Conclusion

As the term Korean Wave or K-pop has been famous all over the world, most people know what those cultures are and people enjoy their culture with each own life. This blog revealed how those cultures have influenced their government and how the government handles the culture for their own country. People might say those kinds of entertainment are not totally related to politics but if the culture has much power or impacts that can contribute to the country, the government tries to figure out how they can make their heritages useful to make their own country stand global relationships.

References:

Carin, H 2019, ‘Digital content promotion in Japan and South Korea: Government strategies for an emerging economic sector’, Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, vol. 6, viewed 20 August 2021, <https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/docview/2300003116?pq-origsite=primo&accountid=15112>

Hwa, K K, Andrew, E K, & Daniel, C 2016, ‘Catching up to Hallyu? The Japanese and Chinese Response to South Korean Soft Power ‘, Korea Observer, vol. 47, viewed 20 August 2021, <https://uow.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/61UOW_INST/otb3u8/cdi_nrf_kci_oai_kci_go_kr_ARTI_458876>

Ryoo, W, & Jin, DY, 2018, ‘Cultural politics in the South Korean cultural industries: confrontations between state-developmentalism and neoliberalism’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, vol. 26, viewed 20 August 2021, <https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2018.1429422>

This blog is going to tell about Eurovision that has a long history, and how Eurovision has spread ideologies across borders, which is the main theme. To mention that, it is also going to focus on their identity to see the effects of Eurovision in detail. This content has two different but also similar approaches to explore the answer for the theme. 

Eurovision and Identity

First, it is going to see how Eurovision is related to identity and how they make their audiences aware of that. Sandvoss (2008) described how their own identity started when they were young, and the fan of Eurovision is the one who made their own identity bigger. In addition, The fans of Eurovision are not only kids or adults, but their fans are also very wide, and they basically never gave up their fans once they became their fans. This point can be the strength of Eurovision and it works to make the audience recognise their own identity, which was also explained by Sandvoss. Regarding the contents of Eurovision, he also stated that Eurovision can make the audience feel fantasy and real life, and those two different rooms interact with each other. This featured characteristics because of making the audience fascinated and never bored them. For these reasons, it is possible to think that Eurovision can be the one where people can join with no hesitation no matter who they are. 

Eurovision and Ideology

Looking at Eurovision, on the other hand, at the aspects of ideologies, Baker (2016) introduced Eurovision as the events that encouraged LGBT people and Eurovision has welcomed people to express who they are. It may be possible to say those facts were the reasons for spreading the way of ideologies for the people who watch the show and also across borders through one TV program, Eurovision. To demonstrate that, Baker (2016) explained Eurovision is recognised as the nexus of international cultural politics, fans and other viewers, ideologies of national and ‘European’ belonging, and other things. So it can say Eurovision is not only for the fans to enjoy but also spreading awareness of ideologies both inside and outside of the country.  For the role of political ideologies, Baker mentioned how Eurovision worked the role of political ideologies. He noted Eurovision gave the place for the people who show, express and tell the cultural things of their background when they hold international events to spread the various cultural and political traditions. This fact can support why Eurovision succeeded to handle ideologies even though it has a potentially negative image by many people. Also, what one TV program involved in politics or international relationships is enough to say that Eurovision worked well in terms of its strategies  

Conclusion

What it has revealed by two points which are identified and ideologies is Eurovision has potential messages to make their audiences grow their own identity, which connects to the spread of ideologies across borders. As a result, their influences are not only for providing the place where people join but also affecting politics. 

References:

Baker, C 2016, ‘The ‘gay Olympics’? The Eurovision Song Contest and the politics of LGBT/European belonging’, European Journal of International Relations, vol. 23, viewed 12 August 2021, <https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/full/10.1177/1354066116633278>

Sandvoss, C 2008, ‘On the Couch with Europe: The Eurovision Song Contest, the European Broadcast Union and Belonging on the Old Continent’, Popular Communication,vol. 6, viewed 12 August 2021, <https://doi-org.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/10.1080/15405700802198238>

This blog is going to focus on the features of reality TV programs to find the answer to “How and why do reality television formats cross borders?”. Also, it is going to focus on the relationships between watching reality TV programs and the media environment. Before going to the content, it is necessary to know the definition of reality TV. It is defined as “programs that film real people as they live out events in their lives, contrived or otherwise, as they occur” (Chung, S & Cho H 2014). These types of TV programs have been watched by many people all over the world, and this blog is going to introduce the reasons with two opinions.

The first reason is the feature of reality TV programs. Unlike other types of TV programs, reality TV programs have no scripts and the targeted characters are ordinary people, which was pointed out by Chung & Cho in 2014. In addition to this point, Reiss & Wilts (2009) mentioned that people who watch the reality TV show can imagine if they also can spend the life that is similar to life in the TV show because the audience feels a sense of closeness easily. Furthermore, Nikunen (2015) explained that there are other reasons for the audience to watch reality TV programs in the aspect of education or other things. He used one TV show that focused on the university environment, and he said it was easy to send the message of the programs to the audience because the TV was not fiction and had more persuasiveness as the audience could learn educational things automatically. This blog would like to say these facts can demonstrate why people watch reality TV programs globally.

This paragraph is going to explain another reason which is the relationship with the use of SNS. While it is possible to say people live with media and they always use SNS in this digital society, it is said that reality TV programs particularly make the audience use SNS. According to Chung & Cho (2014), the people who watch reality TV feel the people who are on the TV closely, and they want to share their favorite characters or episodes on SNS. Then they try to connect with other SNS users who have similar opinions to them. Reiss & Wilts, on the other hand, pointed out what kind of people like to watch reality television. They explained that “they value and enjoy getting even with others and also tend to say they value and enjoy competition” ( Reiss & Wilts 2009). So it can be judged that those kinds of people make communication activities on SNS more active.

To summarise those two main reasons, as the reason that reality TV programs are watched globally, it is possible to say that there are people who are easy to feel sympathy for, and they have technological tools that make them share their own opinions on the Internet. However, the convenience of using SNS can cause any troubles so it is important to think of the use of media and SNS.

References:

Chung, S & Cho H 2014, ‘Parasocial relationship via reality TV and social media: its implications for celebrity endorsement’,  ACM Digital Library, viewed 7 August 2021, <https://dl-acm-org.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1145/2602299.2602306>

Nikunen, K 2015, ‘Media, passion and humanitarian reality television’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 19, viewed 7 August 2021, <https://doi-org.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/10.1177/1367549415609324>

Reiss, S & Wilts, J 2009, ‘Why People Watch Reality TV’, Media Psychology, no. 6, viewed 7 August 2021, <https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532785xmep0604_3>