European Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 1450-2267 Vol. 59 No 2 April, 2020, pp. 193-208 http://www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.com/ Transnationalization of TV Serials: A Comparative Study of the Exportation of Korean and Turkish TV Serials Musa Khan Department of Radio, TV, and Cinema Faculty of Communication, Istanbul University, Turkey E-mail:
[email protected] Yong-jin Won Professor, School of Communication Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Television plays an effective role in transnationalism, cross-cultural communication, gaining soft power, contributing to social revolution, and tying together nations of different backgrounds and cultures. Over the last two decades, Korea and Turkey have adopted a strategy of multidimensional public diplomacy whereby television serials exports and capitalization have emerged as a public and commercial cultural diplomacy tool. Following the narrative review method of the previous research, this paper focuses on the comparison of Turkish and Korean TV serials in terms of transnationalism of television serials in the age of streaming TV, cultural exportation through TV serials, cultural- encounters, and capitalization i.e. content sale, indirect advertisement, and media-induced tourism. It takes a look at the encountering of hegemonic nature and the unidirectional flow of media content from the dominant countries to the rest of the world i.e. the flow of media content from Hollywood to the rest of the world. Moreover, this paper discusses the similarities and dissimilarities between Turkish and Korean TV serials exportation in terms of reception, reaction, and barriers in the targeted consumer countries. The findings reveal that Korean and Turkish TV serials are remarkable emerging industries encountering the unidirectional flow of TV productions from the United States to the rest of the world.