Soap operas as a matchmaker: A cultivation analysis of the effects of South Korean TV dramas' on Vietnamese women's marital intention.

摘要

This study examined the effects of South Korean soap operas on Vietnamese female audiences. Its focus was twofold. First, the study validated the cultivation theory by testing it on a completely new soil: Vietnam. It also assessed the cultivation effects in combination with the uses and gratifications approach and theory of reasoned actions. Second, based on a survey of 439 young, single female viewers and in-depth interviews with 12 of them, it explicated the link between South Korean soap opera consumption and the emergent phenomenon of transnational marriages involving Vietnamese women and South Korean men. Results show that viewing South Korean soap operas directly influenced participants' favorability toward South Korea, the accuracy of their perceived reality of that country, their marital intention, and their willingness to contact illegal matchmaking services to find a Korean husband.