'미드'(미국 드라마)의 대중적 확산과 방송사 편성 담당자의 '문화 생산자' 그리고 '매개자'로서의 역할에 관한 연구

Abstract

Korean television audiences’ recent fascination with the American TV series (“Mid”) and the emergence of new media events such as ‘CSI Days’ epitomize the rapidly changing mediascape and consumption context of Korea. They also mark significant moments in television history as their implications reach well beyond the cultural and media landscapes of Korea. By closely looking into the local media’s programming and scheduling practices regarding American TV series such as CSI and Prison Break, this paper attempts to address why and how this sudden craze over American TV series is happening and what this implies for the emergent Korean media culture along the global/local nexus. It also seeks to find out -if this has to do with the formation of new cultural sensibilities and possibly new taste culture in Korea- who are these people who make these cultural changes happen. To this end, it starts with a brief overview of the cable industry in Korea. In a sense, an examination of the cross-fertilization between what Appadurai termed ‘technoscape’ and ‘mediascape’ may well be a precondition for further discussion on neoliberal forces that govern local media’s institutional practices in Korea now. In addition to the discussion on the local cable industry and the new media environs, this essay attempts to make sense of the social/cultural implications of the omnipresent American TV series through the in-depth interview data acquired from the local media programmers.