The purpose of this study was to examine the state of Korean traditional dancecontents on YouTube, which is regarded as the driving force of the new Koreanwave led by K-pop, in an effort to determine what media strategies were used onYouTube to step up the advance of Korean traditional dance onto the global stage.
359 video clips were selected from YouTube by inputting the keyword “Koreantraditional dance.” The selected video clips were analyzed in terms of year, numberof hits, poster, content and form. The findings of the study were as follows:First, the Korean traditional dance contents were analyzed by year. As a result,there was a tendency that the number of the video clips started to be on the rise inand after 2010. But the number of the video clips posted in 2013 was lower thanthat of the previous year, which implied that YouTube wasn’t utilized a lot toaccelerate the expansion of the Korean wave led by K-pop into Korean traditionalculture.
Second, the number of hits for the Korean traditional dance contents wasanalyzed, and the most common number of hits ranged from 1,000 to less than10,000. Six video clips had more than 100,000 hits. So it could be said that thenumber of hits for the Korean traditional dance contents was low. As a result ofanalyzing the video clips with 10,000 hits or more by year, the number of hitsincreased year after year, but it seemed to be a natural phenomenon that wasattributed to the lapse of time. Overall, the number of hits for the Korean traditionaldance contents was low in comparison with that for K-pop contents.
Third, who posted up the Korean traditional dance contents was analyzed tosee whether there was any formal route for that. And it’s found that a privateAbstractKorean dance group which was based in Toronto, Canada, posted up the largestnumber of contents, followed by individuals who continued to post up the videoclips as a sort of donation. In other words, the Korean traditional dance contentswere released by quite a small number of individuals and private groups throughYouTube.
Fourth, a content analysis was made to check the content of the Koreantraditional dance contents. As a result, the Korean traditional dance contents wereclassified into 31 categories of content and others. Among various kinds of Koreandance, Korean fan dance was most dominant in the contents, which 80 video clipsdealt with. Out of the 359 video clips, the video clips that showed Korean fan dancehad the largest number of hits as well. Thus, the posting frequency was identifiedas one of factors to affect the number of hits.
Fifth, in order to grasp the form of the Korean traditional dance contents, theirformat of content, length of playback, number of participants and picture qualitywere analyzed. As a result, the greatest number(306) of the 359 video clips were inthe form of performance and presentation, and the length of playback was mostlyless than seven minutes. 78 percent of the video clips were group dance, and theirpicture quality was good. In fact, however, the high-definition K-pop contentsreleased by entertainment management companies for strategic purposes usuallyexcel video clips posted up by people in general in terms of picture quality. Giventhis fact, the picture quality of the Korean traditional dance contents could be saidto be lower.