• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.68-75
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• 2012

The terrestrial television broadcasting has increased the number of the specialized job drama in the programming in 2000's, for overcoming the limit of the materials and reflecting the new sociocultural phenomenon valuing the specialized job. This drama benefits from good audience and huge fans, while the low average rate of audience shows the limit of competitiveness of this new genre. The text analysis clarifies three traits of the specialized job drama. At first, this genre is characterized by the variety of materials and the attempt of realistic description. Then, its narrative structure is organized so as to develop a story based rather on the success of career than on the relation of love. Finally, its last trait lives in the character of the heroes which is a creation based on the narrative structure.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.226-235
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• 2017

Reflecting times, Korean TV dramas have gone through massive changes. So have their main characters. This study is about their jobs, which have become more professional as well as diverse. It is observed that the male characters" jobs and job-related episodes take the center stage in the stories of dramas, rather than love stories of those characters. While main characters' jobs used to be part of the overall backdrop in the past, it has been the latest trend for a drama to begin building conflicts around and in the meticulously described work settings. This is opening up the possibility for new categories of genre dramas, as opposed to the typical Koran melodramas. For further success of this newly burgeoning trend, the sense of reality matters the most. Then, it requires elaborately built narratives, based upon a high level of expertise of playwrights in the relevant fields, and realistic proper image processing techniques.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.32
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• pp.335-361
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• 2013

This study examines the ethnoscape of TV dramas on three Korean nationwide television channels from 2005 to 2012 by breaking down how many non-Koreans appear and how they are represented. Among all TV dramas, 6.4% show non-Korean characters of which are generally supportive or small roles. These characters are categorized into four groups: adoration, sympathy, proximity, and other. The adoration group consists mostly of white males from USA or Europe that have professional careers such as medical doctors or lawyers and are positively represented with attractive appearance and nice character. On the other hand, the sympathy group is made up of Southeast, Central Asians and blacks. They are mainly represented as an underprivileged group: females and low-paid workers. In the proximity group are the Japanese and Chinese characters. The Japanese are often represented as rich people that are highly competent or are able to easily cooperate with Koreans. This result shows that Korean TV dramas provide racial and ethnic stereotypes. Though rarely, some dramas represent various lives of foreigners and racial others in Korea. This study contributes to the establishment of sound multiculturalism by analyzing representation of racial others in TV dramas and internalized stereotypes of foreigners in the diverse and multicultural Korean society.