From Labor to Asset

Capital, Technology, and the Reconfiguration of Acting in Korean Drama Production

Bibliographic Data

ID19225317
AuthorsWoochul Kim (0000-0003-1180-2028, Simon Fraser University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-05-21
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTelevision & New Media (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1527-4764 • E-ISSN: 1552-8316
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/15274764261451715
OpenAlexW7161992866
LanguageEN
References cited15

This study examines how the digital restructuring of drama production and distribution has reconfigured actors’ position in the Korean television industry within global digital capitalism. Drawing on in-depth interviews with actors and industry professionals, supplemented by document analysis, it demonstrates that global streaming platforms and advanced production technologies are transforming capital–labor relations in the Korean drama acting ecosystem by reorganizing distribution and production. The findings suggest that global streaming platforms amplify the value of globally marketable actors while shifting control over them to global capital through IP monopolization. Digital production technologies, including generative AI, further extend actors’ marketability by transforming stars into sites of intensified value extraction, converting embodied performances into data, and reorganizing performance labor under more direct technological control

Capital (architecture) · Control reconfiguration · Distribution (mathematics) · Drama · Production (economics) · Prosumer · Restructuring · Value (mathematics) · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender, Feminism, and Media

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Open DOIOpen Access