The Way We Enjoy Entertainment: Transmedia Storytelling
According to Korea Tourism Organization in 2016 there are 295.000 Indonesian tourist who went to Korea. This number is 50% higher than the year before. As cited from Visit Korea website for Indonesia, there are three reasons of this increasing (1) less MERS cases, (2) People tend to perceive that Asian country are much more saver due to the terrorism attack in Paris lately, and (3) is the influence from Hallyu wave that once again swept the world in 2016 by the huge success of Descendants of The Sun. Here is the video of Enjoy Your Creative Korea Ads for 2016 Visit Korea. This ads is tarted by Song Joong Ki as 2016 korean Tourism Ambassador (whom also started in Decendants of The Sun).
Hallyu wave is proven effective as the strategy that lead to the increasing tourist coming to Korea. Korea’s Tourism campaign this year is Imagine Your Korea, Creative Korea whose ambassador is no other than Song Joong Ki (lead actor of Decendant of The Sun). Some of Korean famous tourism destination are Namsan Tower, Nami Island (the island where Winater Sonata drama taken place), Jeju Island, The Palace. This site is often found as shooting places for many dramas and movies. Beside places, Korea also sell their music tourism, where they have K-Pop Hollogram Concert, and many other things.
Hallyu Wave, has shown how people maximize their experience of consuming story from drama, film, or music by going to the places that pictured in there. This phenomenon of maximazing entertainment experience through various media including places is what Jenkins said as transmedia storytelling which he explained as “represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.” Korea sure does using its entertainment industry to drive its tourism.
Korea Cultural Industry is not merely about music and drama which goal is to shift the trend from western and Japanese to the them. Instead Korea surely realize that music and drama have been universal language that is easily accepted and consumed. Through these understanding Korea put their cultural industry into their international politics strategy. When people may just think that Boyband and Girlband only dancing around the stage, they forget the fashion, new music genre, shooting sites that grown accordingly and the whole new world which set as a holistic story of how Korea is. In this part Korea succeed in familiarizing its name in the world.
Korea telling the stories of their people, and nations through the dance movement, through the drama series, and through the married of korean and western music. Drama has been a tool that being used not only to introduce Korean film industry but also its cultural richness. Korean cuisines for example always being a part that is shown in korean drama and movie. In result audience who watch it become more and more familiar with Kimchi, Korean Fried Chicken, Ramyoen, Toppoki and many more. This hallyu wave, resulted the growing number of Korean reastaurant in many countries.
Not only that these days, Korea is campaigning for Muslim Friendly Korea. As they realize the anthusiasm of Muslims to Korea. Here is one of the campaign video
Reijnders et al (2015) said that this phenomenon of people travelling places because of media that they consume; music, film, literature and more is called as Media Tourism. The study of media tourism is increased since the growing number of this kind tourism. The hallyu wave is one of the proof, and many others like New Zealand as the shooting place of The Lord of The Rings. Then, Hollywood as the movies industry center, or Disney World, or Potterland.This are all the tourism sites that grown from story that we watch, read or listen to. The result of this is that more people are willing to experience the media that they consume through various media channel. The story of Winter Sonata isn’t only enjoyed through its drama episodes, but dispersed into the placed of its scence taken which become tourism destination. Reijnders et al (2015) explain that people act this way because they have imagination and this imagination is used when they access others media, inclue places. This is exactly what Kore Tourism Organization said in their brand identity as captured in the screen shoot here :
This explain why a story could be extended into games, films, theme park even something that doesn’t related to the story anymore could still be another experience for us as consumer. For example as K-Pop Lovers a person might travel all the way to Korea, to visit Namsan Tower to experience the vibes of Korea. This Korea is something that they imagine and enjoy while consuming Korean Entertainment.
This entertainment is a form of transmedia that we as consumers access through various media, eventhough the content may not directly told through the media we access. I my self, experience it as I follow many accounts in social media about Korean Drama. I use soompi Forum for following the information about the Korean Actor I am interested in. I also read www.dramabeans.com for the recaps of the drama I’ve watched. This all is my way to extend and fullfill my imagination of the story that I enjoy. I also write this in full article here.
It was also the same like all the Harry Potter fans arround the world. They read the books, watch the movie, went to the Hogwarts Theme Park, but the wond and the cloth. Visit potterland webs, and even decorate their birthday or wedding that way. As we now see that we use various plarforms in order to satisfy our need of information and experience on certain things.
Source :
Reijnders, Stijn., Bolderman, Leonieke., Es, Nicky Van., dan Waysdorf, Abby. (2015). Locating Imagination: An Interdiciplinary Perspective on Literary, Film, and Music Tourism. Tourism Analysis, Vol.20 pp. 333-339. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/108354215X14356694891979
http://www.visitkorea.or.id/bbs/board.php?bo_table=news_release&wr_id=85&page=3
http://www.visitkorea.or.id/bbs/board.php?bo_table=video&wr_id=38













