Abstract
This article examined a transnational viewing process, in which Chinese audience watch American and Korean TV dramas. Cultural proximity and genre proximity were adopted to predict media involvement and enjoyment. A quantitative content analysis was conducted with a probability sample of 16,440 comments from 411 TV dramas. It was found that cultural proximity failed to predict enjoyment but succeeded in explaining involvement. It also revealed two different routes to enjoyment—to enjoy Korean dramas through involvement with characters and American dramas through involvement with the narrative. Genre proximity was found in action/crime but not in fantasy/adventure. The level of involvement varied in different genres, such as romance, horror/crux, and comedy.
Highlights
Keywords American TV dramas, Korean TV dramas, involvement, enjoyment, cultural proximity, genre proximity In China, watching foreign television dramas is an important means to know about the outside world and a trendy lifestyle
Research Question 2 (RQ2) asked about the main effects of culture and genre on involvement
The results showed that involvement with characters was more likely to lead to enjoyment in Korean dramas, and involvement with the narrative was more likely to lead to enjoyment in American dramas
Summary
In China, watching foreign television dramas is an important means to know about the outside world and a trendy lifestyle. To study local reception of foreign media products, prior research usually adopted a number of characteristics of media content and audience to predict local viewers’ choices. They rarely came down to the actual viewing process in which viewers obtain enjoyment through their involvement with media content. Murphy et al (2011) pointed out a list of definitions of identification, including perceived similarity of a character, liking a character, wishing to be a character, relating to a character, and taking the perspective of a character. Another group of definitions attempted to combine some of the components above and excluded the others (Eyal & Rubin, 2003; Hoffner & Buchanan, 2005; Slater & Rouner, 2002)
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