Regional tv: Affective Media Geographies

Abstract

The rise of what has been called ‘new television’ or ‘media regionalism’ in East Asia has occurred in a context in which the production of media networks ‒ both infrastructures (broadcast and relay stations, satellites, cable systems) and media devices or platforms ( tv sets, vcr , vcd , and mobile phones) ‒ outstrips the production of contents. The essay considers the question: what is coming into common through this emerging sense of media regionalism? Looking at the highly popular series Hana yori dango or ‘Boys over Flowers’, which has been formatted across media forms (such as manga, animated tv series, animated films, television dramas, and theatrical release cinema) and across nations (Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, and the Philippines), this essay finds that the feeling of media regionalism is related to both the gap between infrastructures (of distribution and production) and the gap within media distribution (between mobility and privatization).