A Study on Cultural Fusion and New Korean Wave in the Glocal Perspective-Digital, Cultural Fusion and ‘Glocalization of Korean Culture

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Objectives: The most important factor to design overseas glocalization strategy is to identify the cultural consumption behaviors and patterns of the consumer group in order to accomplish simultaneous production and consumption in accordance with individual’s desire for cultural consumption as well as understanding of newly defined supranational media environment developing with media technology. The meaning of so called ‘killer contents’ to lead the cultural consumption of the world market must be found from the perspective of “What do they consume?” or “How do they consume?” Methods/Statistical Analysis: Especially the new demands arising from relationship with people in the other cultures must be found, the media environment and cultural consumption structure of the foreign country must be identified in the glocalization perspective, and efforts must be made to include such findings into the media environment. Improving the understanding of new media environment and media technology is important in this context and we must contemplate for means to accept and activate the concept of cultural dissolution and fusion, found in the digital concept, in content perspective. Findings: Some claims that the point of view on Korean Wave must be changed. The Korean Wave must be understood as the process of establishing cultural homogeneity with the consuming country rather than simple propagation of Korean culture, and expand and summarize the concept of Korean Wave expansion stages into the following: “Contents enter new market (spreading new cultural trend)’ -> ‘Consumption of contents (checking the possibility of grafting into the local culture)’ -> ‘Forming new consumption culture (cultural sympathy)’ -> ‘Glocalization or generalization of culture (forming sense of unity of culture)’ -> ‘Creating conditions for contents to continuously enter the market (cultural exchange)’. Improvements/Applications: It is time to recognize the necessity to treat the concept of glocalization in the aspects of ‘cultural exchange’ rather than ‘cultural expansion’.