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Better than television: The rise of Korean web dramas

The web dramas produced and consumed in South Korea are a short, serialized form of content produced specifically for mobile viewing platforms. Through discursive analysis, this article examines the positioning of web dramas as a step in the evolution of television and finds that they have been legitimized as a higher-quality form than television drama because of their economic potential. To begin with, web dramas have the potential to generate synergistic economic effects impacting other areas of culture, such as tourism, television, and webtoons. Second, web dramas have been represented as the best strategy for tapping into the vast Chinese market, especially during periods in which strained political relations between Korea and China prevented the export of television dramas. Moreover, web dramas have been optimized for mobile platforms through experimentation with aesthetics and topics in ways that have not been possible for television dramas. Thus, web dramas offer a window into the relationship between perceptions of quality and commercial profitability.