Proceedings of the 18th International Academic Conference, London

CULTURAL CONSUMERS AS ‘NEW CULTURAL INTERMEDIARIES’: INDONESIAN FEMALE STUDENTS AND HALLYU IN INDONESIA

MAIMON HERAWATI

Abstract:

South Korean’s Hallyu came to Indonesia more than a decade ago and still dictating the popular culture in Indonesia. This research aims to understand the behavior of Indonesian female students in consuming the Hallyu products, notably Korean dramas. Qualitative research method was conducted using depth interview and focus group discussion technique. Snowball sampling was chosen in order to examine wider Hallyu’s pop culture lovers. The lovers were categorized using George Gerbner’s into heavy, moderate, and light viewer. It is found that light and moderate viewers do not purchased Korean-related product in order to express their interest. On the contrary, heavy viewers are keen to purchase goods related to Korea. They are also very active in discussion at netcafe such as Soompi. The heavy viewers also acted as cultural intermediaries of Korean pop culture, who collect pop culture contents and offer them to other Korean pop culture lovers. However, few heavy viewers changed their pattern into becoming moderate and light viewers due to the repetitive content of Korean dramas. Another reason for the change is the uncomfortable feeling of watching ‘public display affection’ scenes as in recent Korean drama trend. As the cultural waves come and go, it is important to understand the waning interest of some audiences. In order to explore more, wider and deeper research is needed.

Keywords: Hallyu, cultural intermediaries, cultural consumer, Indonesia

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.018.047

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