Transnationalization of TV Serials: a Comparative Study of the Exportation of Korean and Turkish TV Serials
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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. TV serials of both countries, Turkey and Korea, similarly got popularity and face issues from rivals in their respective regional orders and international markets. However, in terms of importing foreign TV content, Korea seems inactive as compare to the Turkish television industry. Keywords: Transnationalism, TV Serials, Korean Serials, Turkish Serials, Cultural Exportation, Capitalization of TV Serials. Introduction This paper is a general review of the transnationalization of the television and its role in cross-cultural communication. Precisely this research, however, seeks to address and analyze the internationalization of Turkish and Korean television serials. It is a study about the multi-way cultural flow in contrast to the model of one-way cultural flow and popular cultural imperialism of the Hollywood which dominated the world until the 80s, 90s. See, for example, the study of Hamelink (1988), about the 193 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 59, Issue 2 April (2020) cultural autonomy in global communications, one-way flow, and dependency 'synchronization' (Hamelink, 1988). In previous research, Tunstall, has described in his books ‘ The Media are American’ (1977), that the US media dominates worldwide; however, after three decades in 2007, he denied the domination of US media in his another book ‘The Media were American’ denotes the ongoing evolution, transformation and renovation of media landscape worldwide (Tunstall, 1977, 2007). The aim of this research is to examine the expansion and exportation of Turkish and Korean television serials. Furthermore, an attempt has been made to evaluate its role in cross-cultural communication in terms of ‘Nation branding,’ ‘Source of gaining soft power,’ ‘Public diplomacy’’ Capitalization—i.e., content sale, indirect advertisement of Turkish and Korean products 1, source of ‘Media-induced tourism’ and ‘Culture industry promotion.’ Moreover, this study sheds new light on the motives behind the widespread expansion of the Turkish and Korean TV serials. Additionally, this review call into questions the internal and external challenges to the Korean and Turkish television industries in terms of ideological, political, and cultural realms. Before the emergence and development of the internet, social networking service (SNS) and wireless communication, the expansion of television products to regional and international market were limited to cable, satellite, and terrestrial channels. However, with the emergence of internet and streaming television 2, the expansion of TV products has extended to the four corners of the world at a higher speed. This study, in this regard, analyzes the role and function of streaming TV, which is the crucial element playing a vital role in the transnationalism of the television serials. Turkish and Korean television productions denote the Turkish and Korean TV serials and its exportation to the rest of the world. Literature Review A brief History of Turkish Korean Relationship Korea and Turkey have historical ties; however, in the modern era, the relationship between Korea and Turkey could be traced form 13 August 1949 when Turkey recognized the Republic of Korea as an independent country. Later on, during the Korean liberation war between 1950 and 1953, 15000 Turkish troops, the fourth-largest troop after the U.S., British and Canadian military forces, fought alongside Koreans against Chinese troops and consequently around 2,500 Turkish soldiers sacrificed their lives. For this reason, both countries call each other as “blood brotherhood country” (Choi, 2014). Turkey and Korea established diplomatic ties in April 1958, and in 1974, the Korean and Turkish Parliamentarians Friendship Association was founded. In 1977 the Trade Promotion and Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement, and in 1979 the Aeronautical Agreement, were signed and operated between Turkey and Korea. The relationship between the two states carried on with different activities and official visits of the leaders of both countries from time to time. In May 2013, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) came into being between Ankara and Seoul. In 2017, the Turkish education ministry started teaching Korean language as a second foreign language in primary and secondary schools in Turkey (Jackson, 2017). Having resemblance in many other fields, both countries remarkably renowned in the exportation of popular cultural products, including forms such as music (K-pop), art, television (TV serials), as well as the implicit cultural attributes and soft power that come with them. Korean and Turkey use these popular cultural products for public and commercial cultural diplomacy, gaining soft power and economic acquisitions. 1 Advertisement of products such as furniture, medical and surgery service, fabrics, jewelries and makeup accessories. 2 Streaming television or online TV is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming video delivered over the Internet unlike terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems. 194 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 59, Issue 2 April (2020) Demographic Information of Korea and Turkey According to the 2019 statistics of the World Population Review, the current population of Turkey is approximately 83 million. The languages spoken by the majority are Turkish and Kurdish. The main religion, followed by 99% of the population, is Islam. The literacy rate is about 96% overall as of 2018 (World Population Review, 2019). Despite having 99% of the Muslim population, Turkey is a welfare secular, and democratic state retaining gender equality, monogamy, and free-market economic system. For these reasons, the public of less developed and undemocratic countries in the region and the Muslim world consider it a model state. Some scholars call it a western projection by a Muslim source (Cevik, 2014; Gürzel, 2014). The socio-economic status of Turkey is growing for the last three decades, and the majority of the population is living a standard life having access to the basic needs. According to economists and political scientists, Turkey is a developed state having an emerging economy market and is one of the world’s newly industrialized countries (International Monetary Fund, 2016). Taking a look at the general mediascape in Turkey, it is clear that the majority of the people are active in media consumption. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TurkStat) and Information and Communication Technology Usage Survey (2018), households’ internet access in the country is 83.8 percent, and eight out of 10 households have access to the Internet (Ergocun, 2018). According to a survey conducted by Gallup in 2017, almost 98% of households in Turkey have a working TV set, 73% have a computer, and 83.8% have access to the internet via computer or mobile phone (Gallup, 2017). The previous research reveals that there is widespread consumption of social media among Turkish users (Kurtulus, Özkan, & Öztürk, 2015). On the other hand, according to Worldometers.info, the population of Korea is 51.2 million (2020). South Korea is a relatively homogeneous society, and 96% of the total population is ethnically Korean. However, with its economic growth, the influx of foreign immigrants increased to find opportunities. In 2007 the number of foreign citizens in Korea was a million while it reached 2 million in 2016. The majority of foreign citizens are Chinese following by Vietnamese and citizens of the United States 3 (Schroeder, 2012). The native language of the majority of the population is