Foreign Markets and Professionals: The Gatekeepers

Abstract

This chapter explores foreign markets and media professionals as the cultural intermediaries and the gatekeepers in importing countries. The embrace of television series—a soft power medium—by media practitioners is conditioned not only by the market structures of the potential importing countries, but also by the practitioners’ and buyers’ actions. Their actions in South Korean and Japanese media markets also reflect their evaluations of the impact of Chinese television series on potential values for audience ratings, economic capital, and consumption by local audiences in the importing countries. These actors are rarely the focus of empirical investigation, as previous research on soft power often implicitly considers the importing countries and domestic institutions. Addressing this gap in the body of literature can generate a clearer understanding of the conditions under which soft power policies either facilitate or discourage foreign television programs’ successful importation into the receiving countries.