THE EFFECTS OF TELEVISION VIEWING, CULTURAL PROXIMITY, AND ETHNOCENTRISM ON COUNTRY IMAGE

Abstract

We explored the effect of viewing Korean drama miniseries television programs, along with cultural proximity and ethnocentrism, on Japanese and Chinese television watchers' perceptions of Korea. By conducting a survey in Beijing and China with 621 valid samples, we confirmed the effect of viewing Korean drama miniseries television programs in shaping a positive attitude toward Korea. Furthermore, this positive attitude yielded higher levels of behavioral intentions such as visiting Korea or buying Korean products. Cultural proximity was also found to be a significant variable in predicting positive attitudes toward Korea. However, contrary to the findings in previous studies, in this study the effect of ethnocentrism was not significant.