Overview

Examining Netflix’s global influence through its complex global-local dynamics in Korean media. Korea is a global entertainment powerhouse, thanks in no small part to Netflix. Analyzing the artistry and industry behind Netflix-produced Korean hits like Squid Game, The Glory, and Narco-Saints, Benjamin Han argues that Korea is ground zero for an emerging “Netflix Paradigm.” The US-based streaming platform generates massive profits by erasing boundaries of foreign and domestic production, even as it underscores the resilience of the national media within global popular culture. Beyond Squid Game breaks down the intricate and often ambivalent relationship between Netflix and the Korean media business, drawing on interviews with creative workers navigating the streaming giant’s ever-increasing economic and cultural power. Challenging narratives that present Netflix as a revolutionary disruptor, Han shows how the company has replicated abroad the precarious labor conditions and tensions over intellectual property from which US studios have long benefited. At the same time, Beyond Squid Game underscores the complex dynamics of a globalized media industry in which cultural imperialism thrives on localization and perceived authenticity.

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9781477333938

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Reviews

""Han dexterously combines structural approaches, textual analysis, and in-depth interviews in interpreting digital platforms. By utilizing critical media industry studies alongside four core concepts—creativity, diversity, infrastructure, and seriality—Beyond Squid Game advances new paradigms that represent non-Western cultural industries in the digital platform era. This book is one of the most innovative I've seen in its structure, subject matter, and analysis, and is a must-read for researchers, students, and general readers."" - Dal Yong Jin, author of Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era: Industry Perspectives ""Benjamin Han's absorbing book forges new ground as a deep study of Netflix's impact in a national market. If you want to understand how streamers are reconfiguring—and being reconfigured by—South Korean screen culture, this is essential reading."" - Ramon Lobato, author of Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution

Benjamin Han's absorbing book forges new ground as a deep study of Netflix's impact in a national market. If you want to understand how streamers are reconfiguring--and being reconfigured by--South Korean screen culture, this is essential reading. --Ramon Lobato, author of Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution Han dexterously combines structural approaches, textual analysis, and in-depth interviews in interpreting digital platforms. By utilizing critical media industry studies alongside four core concepts--creativity, diversity, infrastructure, and seriality--Beyond Squid Game advances new paradigms that represent non-Western cultural industries in the digital platform era. This book is one of the most innovative I've seen in its structure, subject matter, and analysis, and is a must-read for researchers, students, and general readers. --Dal Yong Jin, author of Cultural Production of Hallyu in the Digital Platform Era: Industry Perspectives

Author Information

Benjamin M. Han is an associate professor of entertainment and media studies at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Beyond the Black and White TV: Asian and Latin American Spectacle in Cold War America and Reckoning with the World: South Korean Television and the Latin American Imaginary.

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