**4. National creative industries and policies in the digital era**

Despite the importance of various areas of policy and development, it is crucial to comprehend that Hallyu is not the end-product of any particular framework or singular set of policies, either at governmental or corporate level. It is impossible to identify a singular strategy that set out to create Hallyu or something resembling it, and the success of Hallyu as it exists today has surpassed the expectations of even the most optimistic Koreans. Besides the digital foundation discussed in this chapter, Kim [50] identifies four other factors that made Hallyu possible: the competitiveness of Korea's culture industries, the persistent ambition of Korean show business entrepreneurs, economic development and political liberalization in East Asian countries, and 'fragmentary' governmental support. It is within the scope of this chapter to focus on the latter of these factors.

#### **4.1 Ministry of culture & Hallyu's humble beginnings**

In the mid-1990s, the Korean government established a culture industry bureau and began supporting the Korean record industry's expansion into international markets. They collected information on major music fairs worldwide and encouraged Korean companies to participate, while a public booth exclusively for Korean record companies was set up at overseas music fairs. The Ministry of Culture invested 42 million won in producing promotional CDs and pamphlets to introduce Korean pop musicians to foreign buyers [50].

In 1999, the Ministry made a more significant effort to help the Korean music industry enter the global market by funding a project to create sample K-pop CDs for distribution abroad. Three compilation CDs were produced, featuring popular Korean songs performed by original K-pop singers with translations in Chinese, Japanese, and English, which were then sent to entertainment-related organizations in China and neighboring countries. Additionally, the Korean government sponsored pop band H.O.T's concert in China in 2000, overcoming travel restrictions for young Korean men who had not completed military service [50].

The Ministry of Culture took further measures to support the introduction of Korean pop music in several Asian countries. They sponsored music programs like "Seoul Vibration", which was widely broadcast across Asia, and "Listening to Korea," a joint production between Korean and Chinese companies aired in Southeast Asian countries and China. The government also published booklets in Chinese, Japanese, and English in order to promote Korean pop music and the record industry to international markets [50].

Korea's Ministry of Culture has been instrumental in guiding the Korean government's approach to the cultural industries, fulfilling both its traditional role of overseeing the sector from a public welfare perspective and an additional responsibility of acting as an industrial developer since the 1990s [51]. This dual role has shaped the cultural industry policy during this period, and with the cultural industry becoming a significant contributor to the economy, the Ministry's role as an industrial developer has only increased in prominence over time. Recognizing the cultural industries' pivotal position in the new economic development framework, the Ministry has also taken on the central role of coordinating support for various government agencies involved in the growth of electronics, information and communication technology (ICT), and cultural sectors. The Korean government acknowledges that a diverse range of cultural industries, including film, television dramas, gaming, animation, and music, can have far-reaching impacts on other sectors, mainly due to their reliance on advancements in electronics and ICT [51]. As discussed in previous sections, this demand from cultural industry businesses has spurred innovation and the development of new products in Korea's electronics and ICT industries.

#### **4.2 Hallyu content as commodity**

The Hallyu phenomenon provides arguably the most insightful case study on the increasing significance of cultural exports and the creative arts in the global economy, particularly in the digital age. While industrial policies have traditionally prioritized sectors such as manufacturing, the creative industries have emerged as integral and potentially vast drivers of economic growth, job creation, and cultural influence.

Building upon the digital groundwork covered in the preceding analysis of this chapter, Korea has cemented the sustainability of its cultural media through the

### *Creative Industry Strategies in a Globalized and Digitized Media Landscape: The South Korean… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112902*

successful implementation of a national creative industries strategy. The country's approach can be traced back to the 1990s when policymakers were first beginning to recognize the potential of exporting cultural content alongside more traditional goods, transforming its perception of cultural industries as something to be controlled to something that is central to its export-based national economy [51].

The country's industrial policies, which had propelled it to become a global leader in areas such as electronics and automobiles, were extended to nurture the growth of its creative sectors. Strategic subsidies and investments were made to foster innovation, talent development, and the marketing of Korean cultural products. In terms of policy implementation, Korea struck a balance between providing an enabling environment for creative industries to thrive and avoiding excessive micromanagement of the marketplace [4]. This point is particularly crucial if it is to be acknowledged that public policy has as much capacity to stifle the growth of creative industries as it does to boost them. Freedom of expression is also a key component of cultural development, as exemplified by the early success of K-pop, which was seen as non-threatening by Korea's military regime and thus allowed to express and develop organically [51].

During Park Geun-hye's inaugural address in 2013, the newly elected President defined the creative economy as the "convergence of science and technology with industry, the fusion of culture with industry, and the blossoming of creativity in the very borders that were once permeated by barriers [52]". Referring back to the opening remarks of this section which made the case that Hallyu cannot be traced back to any singular policy or corporate framework, the significance of this definition of the creative economy is the recognition of a much wider ecosystem, in which business, technology, policy, and industry must support the entire ecosystem, as opposed to favoring one part of the ecosystem over another.

Shain Shapiro, founder and executive Director of the Center for Music Ecosystems, reflects this sentiment by making the case that K-pop is the result of "an intentional, top-down and bottom-up strategy that aligned a number of collective interests—fostering investment, promoting tourism, educational advancement and soft power. Over time, it infiltrated more than the music economy, becoming what it is now and that combined, structured approach is what supported that to happen, through patience, direct investment and content [4]".

The approach taken by Korea in nurturing its creative industries has not gone unnoticed. Other countries, such as Thailand, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Belize, and the Philippines, have been inspired to develop their own national strategies for fostering creative sectors while harnessing emerging technologies. UNESCO has also recognized the importance of national creative industries strategies and has provided a template that focuses on areas such as human capital, business models, and financing [4]. It is crucial to note however, that Korea's cumulative approach took decades of persistence and gradual growth to bear fruit, and thus the challenges faced by these countries is likely related to the viability of sustaining the necessary human, political, and financial investment in these endeavors over the long-term, particularly given the fickle nature of political and economic agendas.

## **4.3 Prioritizing people-first policies**

Despite the multifaceted success of Korea's digital revolution in joining forces with its cultural rejuvenation strategy, the outcomes of this transformation as a whole should not be mistaken for some kind of digital utopia. Invasions of privacy, digital

addiction, online bullying, social isolation, and public divisiveness are just some of the negative/unintended consequences of digitalization that countries across the world are increasingly grappling with. These issues have inevitably become particularly prominent in Korea [20]. However, what the digital-cultural convergence analyzed throughout this chapter does suggest is that the potentials of emerging technologies are most positively harnessed when intentional, forward-thinking, and bold strategies are in place that are centered around user experience and collaboration—particularly in ways that integrate and enhance core aspects of social life, rather than neglecting them to be left behind in the technological march forward. These lessons are significant not just for countries seeking to replicate Korea's success, but for Korea itself as it confronts the growing sociopolitical and sociocultural challenges of inequality, underemployment, falling birth rates, and an increasingly fragile geopolitical environment.
