Abstract
The impacts of new media and participatory consumption on the cultural sector have so far been explored mainly from the perspectives of commercial cultural businesses. Yet we are now observing that public cultural organisations for example public service broadcasters, museums and theatres, which are publicly subsidised and endowed with educational missions, are transforming themselves into new media by warmly embracing digital and online platforms to reach out wider audience. Such a move raises serious questions: how the organisations can balance their existing and online services; how their public service remits can be extended to online services; what kind of relationship they can establish with online audience; and how their authoritative voice derived from expert knowledge can co-exist with user generated content. This chapter addresses some of the questions via a case study of South Korean public service broadcaster (Korean Broadcasting System or KBS)’s development of online services. In particular, it focuses on the online services’ commercialism and consumer-orientation and explains that broader discussion on their public roles has been discouraged amid the Korean society’s continuing suspicion of the broadcaster’s susceptibility to governmental pressure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Chapter | 30 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781138026001, 9781317684978 |
| Publication status | Published - 23 Nov 2015 |
Keywords
- broadcasting
- KBS
- new media
- online services
- public service broadcasting
- PSB
- commercialism