Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era
Industry Perspectives
Exploring the platformization of the Korean Wave and its connection to cultural industries
Description
Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era explores how histories, industry structures, and politics interact in the platformization of the Korean Wave. Dal Yong Jin argues that while much research centers on the Korean culture takeover and the dominance of Korean products on premier global media platforms, Korean cultural industries also experience reshaping and changing depending on the platforms, often on the global stage.
Addressing the increasing significance of digital platforms, this work examines the transformative roles of over-the-top streaming services—Netflix, Viki, and V Live—video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, and social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, and the power relations between content producers, information technology sectors, the government, creative laborers, and audiences in the globalization of Korean culture and media. By developing critical cultural industries studies as a new theoretical framework, Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era explores the ever-growing Korean Wave phenomenon with the advent of global digital platforms.
Dal Yong Jin is Distinguished Professor at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of Smartland Korea: Mobile Communication, Culture, and Society (2017) and is the co-editor of The South Korean Film Industry (2024).
Reviews
“Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era offers an adept critical analysis of both major and nuanced disruptions within the Korean media industry by a leading political economist of Korean media. This book will be among the first to offer a comprehensive overview and critical analysis of the cultural production of the Korean Wave in the digital platform era.”
- Benjamin M. Han, University of Georgia
“This book refreshingly deepens and expands Dal Yong Jin’s outstanding scholarship on cultural industries and Hallyu by offering an evidence-based, solid, and holistic analysis of Hallyu from a new industry approach. It will be a cornerstone resource for scholars and students who want to engage in discussions about cultural industries’ transformation in the age of digital platforms.”
- Kyong Yoon, University of British Columbia Okanagan
“In Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era, Professor Dal Yong Jin undertakes an ambitious synthesis of media industry studies and platform studies to understand the changing dynamics of Korean media and cultural production and distribution. This book updates studies of the ‘Korean wave’ (hallyu) in important ways, particularly in terms of how it now connects with global streaming giants such as Netflix, and the resulting cultural policy challenges.”
- Terry Flew, The University of Sydney
“This book offers an excellent introduction to the evolving dynamics of the Korean Wave in the age of platformization. Korean cultural industries are at the front of this new phase of media globalisation, rapidly adapting their modes of cultural production and trying to better negotiate with global content platforms. As such, the Korean experience provides valuable lessons for cultural industries and policymakers around the world. Readers will find the book’s analysis very accessible and its insights thoughtfully nuanced.”
- Hye-Kyung Lee, King's College London
“This book deepens our understanding of the Korean Wave within its rich sociocultural and political contexts and advances an analytical approach to Hallyu in the digital platformization era. It functions as both an empirical and conceptual resource, offering a comprehensive account of the Korean media landscape through the integration of historical analysis and detailed examinations of cultural forms.”
- Miri Moon, International Journal of Communication