Are K-Dramas Low-Brow?

Today I came across an article published on July 23rd on DramaFever's blog which asserts that the Wall Street Journal blasts k-drama viewers as "uneducated people with low incomes in search of lowbrow entertainment."

Here's a link to the WSJ article, titled South Korean Soap Operas: Just Lowbrow Fun?. That article includes a link to a longer WSJ journal article in its KoreaRealTime section.

Apparently, DramaFever didn't read the article but reacted to it, because it reported that the WSJ cites a *poll* of 400 viewers in China, rather than a study published by a professor at one of South Korea's top universities: Prof. Kang Myung-Koo in the Department of Communication at Seoul National University. I wasn't able to find this study online, but I was able to read some of his other published articles and they were very typical of what a university professor would publish in their quality and analysis. The little I did find highlighted that Prof. Kang said his study wasn't generalizable. Presumably, too, it wasn't statistically significant either due to it's small sample size. (Before I studied quantitative analysis, I would have no idea that those last two sentences mean that the study is saying that it's not representative of what a population probably does. It just reporting what their study's population (group of people) did.)

The most I could find regarding this study, since they didn't have it on the SNU website, were articles based on China's reporting of what the study found. (Those weren't very many - maybe 6?) That Chinese report wasn't really so interested in accuracy (It didn't correctly identify the professor's credentials or all of what the study said). It also left off the fact that the study pointed out that the self-reporting done by the higher-educated participants could be misrepresenting their actual viewership of k-dramas. Kind of like in the U.S. where highly educated people refuse to admit that they watch things like the Real Housewives or nighttime soaps or soap operas in general. My mother looks down on any type of soap watching but predominantly reads romance novels.

The fact that China's reporting on this and not Korea says two things to me: one, there's an agenda behind how the study was reported and two, the pressure to conform publicly influenced the study participants' answers. The second WSJ article even mentions that "the report also offers a caveat: highly-educated and high-income viewers may conceal their fondness of lowbrow entertainment."

It's interesting to read the comments for these two WSJ articles. A vast majority (245 last time I looked) were articulate and educated viewers who enjoy the magic that is the k-drama. Some were really upset because they felt that the article was calling them lowbrow. Most poo-poo'd America television. And a lot slammed the Big Bang Theory, a show that I really like and one appreciated by both the educated and less-educated in my family.

Here's my comments:

I laughed when I read that k-dramas appeal to the low-brow. So did Shakespeare. As someone who has graduate degrees, I personally love k-dramas. Yes, some of the events are far-fetched or cliched. How many rich young heirs are out there and how often would their paths cross with poor females who aren’t impressed? And when is time travel possible? Those things are far outweighed, however, by the myriad of other things that I appreciate: that abstinence and modesty are the norm rather than the exception in a relationship and a kiss *means* something, that respectful behavior is the expectation for everyone and elders are treated with honor, that for the most part characters are 3-dimensional and their relationships are complex. While Professor Kang’s poll may or may not have had statistical significance, it did offer a caveat to its findings: highly-educated viewers may be concealing their viewership. I would say that much like in America, they aren’t admitting to watching things like ‘Real Housewives’ but still do so behind closed doors.

I also want to point out to everyone commenting on here that the WSJ is merely REPORTING WHAT THE STUDY SAID. Its tagline is poorly written, but the article (both of them) simply reports the conclusions of what Prof. Kang’s study found. I agree that it could have been much more balanced and especially should have pointed out how much of the glut of American television consists of the low brow, too.

It is great to know, however, that there are plenty of WSJ readers who love k-dramas and are willing to defend them :)

So what do you think, k-drama lovers? Are k-dramas mindless fluff that only appeal to the low-educated poor?

Links:

ChinaSmack.com's article titled Some related posts on the site were: Koreans Seek More Chinese Character Education, Reactions, Disgusting Male Fans of Korean Pop Group Girls' Generation, and Sine-Japanese War TV Dramas Becoming Increasingly Ridiculous. It's a completely un-biased site, people. Comments to those articles included: "This is just the bangzi preparing a rally to steal Chinese characters, and soon will say Chinese characters were also created by them, that they first used them. A shameless country is capable of anything." and "This many girls standing in a line, it feels a bit like choosing a prostitute at the sauna."

South China Morning Post: Korean TV dramas attract less educated Chinese fans using a promo picture from My Name is Kim Sam Soon. Apparently one of their commenters had read the study because egalian added that "The findings from the survey research are not generalizable as Prof. Kang mentioned. The survey was responded by mere 393 people in Beijing."
The post on eastbound88.com was merely a reprint of the article posted on ChinaSmack.com.