Qual Quant

DOI 10.1007/s11135-014-0047-2

Globalization of cultural products: a webometric analysis

of Kpop in Spanish-speaking countries

Xanat Vargas Meza · Han Woo Park

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract This study examines the Twitter network of Kpop diffusion in Spanish-speaking
countries by addressing its communication patterns and main hubs, illustrating Kpop fans
activities and relationships on Twitter. Based on NodeXL, Tweets with the hashtag “Kpop”
were collected from March to August 2012 and the structural and informational patterns of
social media communication were analyzed through a set of webometric methods. The results
indicate that Kpop won a small but growing portion of the music preferences in Hispanic
countries as a result of combined efforts of public broadcast firms and fans. The study is the
first to focus on countries sharing a common language to provide a better understanding of
the diffusion of cultural products through Twitter.

Keywords Social Media · Twitter · Webometrics · Data mining · Kpop ·

Spanish-speaking countries

1 Introduction

1.1 The Korean wave (Hallyu)

The term “hallyu” was first introduced by the Chinese media to describe the Korean enter-
tainment boom in China since the late 1990s (Kim and Ryoo 2007). Originally centering
on TV dramas, pop music and their stars, the meaning of the term has broadened to include
the popularity of anything from Korean origin (Kim and Ryoo 2007). Between 2001 and
2010, Korea’s aggregate annual revenue from content exports rose from $12 million to $172
million (Chang 2012). According to Google Trends, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” video was
widely searched from a diverse range of countries, including Turkey, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and

X. Vargas Meza · H. W. Park (B)

Department of Media & Communication, Yeungnam University, 214-1 Dae-dong,
Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 712-749, South Korea
e-mail: hanpark@ynu.ac.kr
URL: http://www.hanpark.net

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

Honduras. Korean pop music has become an important part of “contra media flows” (Thussu
2010), which refer to networks of content emanating from regional centers of creativity that
are not of American or British origin. This brings a unique opportunity to see Korean cultural
products from the perspective of other countries due to globalization. In this context, the
Korean Wave phenomenon is one of the latest examples that refute globalization with an
undisrupted advance of American popular culture (Joo 2011).

1.2 Mapping Kpop in Spanish-speaking countries

Several studies have examined the general diffusion of Korean pop music in various regions
(Kim and Ryoo 2007; Leung 2012; Tuk 2012), including in North America (Shin 2009;
Kim, J. 2012). In addition, some have considered Latin American countries, but no study
has focused on countries sharing a common language. Further, the question of whether
this reliance on English-based cyberspace can limit a more detailed understanding of the
Internet remains largely unanswered (Goggin and McLelland 2009). Spanish is the second
most widely used language in the world, with some 495 million speakers (Instituto Cervantes
2012). In addition, some traditional media outlets such as newspapers have paid close attention
to Kpop in Spanish speaking countries, covering concerts and special events.

1.3 Social and scientific value

Previous studies (Yoon 2010) have provided a general overview of the consumption of Kpop
in Spanish-speaking countries, but more specific actors have yet to be described. This study
provides a better understanding of the Twitter network and offers both qualitative and quan-
titative analyses of the important role that dance and social activities have played in the
diffusion of Kpop in the Spanish-speaking countries.

2 Literature review

2.1 Origin and consumption of Kpop: from television to social networking sites

Kpop can be defined as a Korean music genre incorporating a variety of styles, including
pop, hip-hop, rap, rock, R&B, and electronic music (Leung 2012). Kpop music is usually
produced by large entertainment companies, the preparation of its idols begins from their
teens, includes dance and is performed by groups.
Before the 1990s, Korean music was dependent mainly on television for the produc-
tion of music and its circulation and sales (Lee 2006, p. 131), but the music industry has
expanded sharply because of the country’s rapid economic growth. SM Entertainment, YG
Entertainment and JYP Entertainment record labels were established in the end of the 1990s.
In addition, with the arrival of American hip-hop culture and rap music, Korean pop music
has become youth oriented (Jung 2009). Based on Leung (2012), it can be inferred that
Kpop has become an important cultural asset in Korea because of its strong relationship
with television-based music programs and dramas. It is also an important part of the Korean
government’s strategy to strengthen the country’s export-based market economy. Therefore,
such cultural products tend to have transnational, hybrid, multi-layered, and multidirectional
characteristics (Jung 2009). Kpop first went overseas to China, Vietnam and Taiwan in 1999,
but Korean firms’ interest in the U.S. and Japan has been relevant because of their status as
the largest and second largest music markets in the world (Tuk 2012). BoA and TVXQ made

123
Globalization of cultural products

their debuts in Japan in the mid-2000s, and Rain, Wonder Girls, and JYJ, among others, tried
to conquer the American market. In addition, the interaction between musicians and listeners
has strengthened as a result of the Internet as an increasingly fundamental platform for the
production, consumption, and circulation of content facilitating the flow of more fluid music
soundscapes (combination of sounds) previously limited by regulators and industries (Liew
and Chan 2013). By 2011, Kpop was being consumed through Youtube worldwide, particu-
larly in America, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand (Tuk 2012). This highlights the role
of the Internet in the diffusion of music. For example, Seo (2012) pointed out the relevant
role of social networking sites (SNSs). In particular, Kim, D. (2012) addressed the role of
Youtube’s official channels and cover contests in controlling the diffusion of Kpop music by
production firms. Pirated content, audiences’ increased technological capability, audience-
produced content, and the general increase in connectivity among individuals worldwide
have also contributed to the Korean Wave.

2.2 Kpop overseas

Hubinette (2012) analyzed the Korean Wave in Sweden, highlighting the embryonic state of
the Kpop phenomenon in the country and focusing on females in their teens to forties. Sung
(2012) examined how Korean immigrants in Vienna constructed their independent identities
across national borders, finding that advanced technologies enabled them to choose cultural
content evoking Asian values and sentiments. Kim, J. (2012) analyzed Kpop in the E.U.
through webometric methods and found that Twitter users across the E.U. used Twitter in
various ways and formed distinct communication networks around Kpop, suggesting that
cultural discount can have considerable influence on the contraflow of new media. In the
case of Latin America, Yoon (2010) analyzed the Korean Wave in Chile and Argentina.
Comparing these countries to Mexico and Peru, he qualified the phenomenon as embryonic
and limited to a small segment of female fans in their teens. In general, Kpop was considered
the most popular Korean cultural product and fans tended to like Asian cultures.
Nevertheless, the former studies found more general awareness of Kpop starting in these
countries. For example, the JYJ band performed in both Chile and Peru in 2012, and a band’s
spokesperson stated that ”Since then we started to get more fan letters from Latin America
and to see more Spanish-language sites (dedicated to JYJ). Now they are the most active and
passionate ones in the band’s global fan base” (Jung 2012, p.1). Choi et al. (2014) found
that Kpop was better recognized and disseminated in Mexico, mainly through the Internet
and network TV and that the public broadcaster TV Azteca was particularly active in both
television and SNSs since 2011, promoting Kpop. Fans created Twitter accounts and blogs to
support their favorite groups and artists, and sent Tweets while watching broadcast programs.
In addition, the Korean embassy played an important role in promoting Kpop through dance
contests.

2.3 Globalization and hibridity in musical cultural products

Although there is a cultural discount in modern music, as suggested in Longhurst (2007),

the purity of musical expressions is not possible. Olsen and Sheehy (2008) pointed out that
history, geography, ecology, demography, economics, and politics have all played important
roles in the development, migration, and social classification of music. That is, geography
influences ecology, which in turn influences economics, which in turn determines musical
events, instruments, types of dances, and so on. This can be referred to as cultural hybridity.

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

Bhabha (1994) was the first to use this biological term in the realm of culture and politics.
In this regard, cultural hybridity can be defined as the construction of circuitous power
dynamics in which globality is contested and negotiated by locality through semiotic or
symbolic detours (Ryoo 2009).
This takes us to Globalization, which is a process that encompasses the causes, course,
and consequences of transnational and transcultural integration of human and non-human
activities (Khondker 2011; Nayed and Stoudmann 2006). While globalization involves the
use of various factors in order to achieve a certain level of homogenization, hibridity is a
characteristic communication practice of this process (Choi and Park 2014). Globalization
has been implied to be a discourse of Colonialism and/or Imperialism, with a referential
image of the world becoming one single place containing virtually everything (Jiang 2014).
Nevertheless, to believe we can interact with other cultures without being transformed by them
is naïve. In the case of Kpop, intensified global flows of American popular culture have come
to unsettle its own hegemony by inadvertently invigorating Korean popular culture industries
(Joo 2011). Therefore, in the current global state, producing local cultural products is a true
challenge. According to Appadurai (1996) the reasons are the efforts of nations to define
all neighborhoods under the sign of its forms of allegiance and affiliation, the disjuncture
between territory, subjectivity and collective social movement, and the steady erosion of the
relationship between spatial (geographical) and virtual neighborhoods. On the other hand,
this creates new markets for cultural products. Moon (1995) emphasizes that globalization
requires rationalization, liberalization and deregulation in order to reform all the structures of
society. In the case of music, the world wide web is covering those requirements, prompting
a more culturally complex scenario. We are going to take a closer look to the historical and
cultural circumstances of music in Spanish speaking countries in order to understand how
globalization and hibridity are operating there.

2.4 Spanish-speaking countries as music crucibles

Spain was particularly tolerant of religion and therefore, Christian and Jewish music flour-
ished there, mixing with the rest of Europe’s musical influence as well as with Muslim
influence (Kasha 1968). Colonial Spanish–American music was very diverse, mixing the
European music of the Renaissance and baroque periods with autochthonous music from
the pre-conquest period and African music from the sub-Saharan Atlantic coastal regions
(Bethell, 1984). Independence movements in Latin America prompted songs with topical,
nationalistic and nostalgic content, which were transmitted in the oral tradition (Olsen and
Sheehy 2008). This manifestation of the vox populi remains widely used, obtaining inspira-
tion from the often oppressive political climate.
Today Latin America can be viewed as a multicultural or even transcultural heritage.
People representing so many world cultures have immigrated to South American countries,
particularly to Mexico, and globalization has brought many types of music to all regions
(Olsen and Sheehy 2008). Spanish is now considered a maternal language in 21 countries in
America, Africa, and Europe, and is also widely used in 24 other countries (Instituto Cervantes
2012). This historical background suggests the relatively easy acceptance of different types
of music in Spanish-speaking countries.

2.5 Music as a social factor

In human culture, music is an unfailing companion of ceremonies and festivities. It is an

integral part of life. However, what motivates its use? Bogt et al. (2010) constructed a typology

123
Globalization of cultural products

of music listeners aged between 12 and 29 based on four types of music use: enhancing the
mood, coping with problems, defining personal identity, and marking social identity. They
found that highly involved listeners (19.7 %) were most likely to listen to music for all
aforementioned reasons, liked a broad range of genres, and experienced the most intense
positive affect when listening. Even the low-involvement group (6.1 %) listened frequently
to music and used it to enhance the mood and cope with problems. Enhancing the mood was
the most frequently mentioned reason for music use, followed by coping with problems and
defining personal identity, in that order. Most respondents did not identify music as a tool
for social identity construction. In addition, high-involvement listeners strongly appreciated
dance and urban music, which is known to have strong mood-enhancing effects because of
its rhythm and energizing sound.
This raises the question of what can be expected from Kpop listeners and what their
characteristics and personality traits are. North and Hargreaves (2007a,b,c) examined the
relationships between musical preferences and a diverse range of lifestyle choices, verifying
that these preferences are meaningful in terms of the process of group dynamics. Some of their
findings in the context of Kpop-related musical genres include preferences for non-domestic,
intellectually undemanding, and indoor entertainment, and good access through the Internet
and mobile phones. A clear pattern emerging from the data was the apparent clustering of
responses from fans of hip-hop/rap, dance/house, R&B, and DJ-based music. This involved a
clear preference for “low-culture” media; an unusually “masculine” approach to interpersonal
relationships; and a desire for more friends (perhaps indicative of loneliness). In short, fans
of “problem pop” had lifestyles similar to those portrayed in American rap music’s depiction
of urban street culture (North and Hargreaves 2007c), which is one of the musical and visual
components exploited in Kpop.
In terms of personality, what can we expect from Kpop listeners? Dunn et al. (2012)
investigated the relationships between personality traits and music preferences by using the
Big Five measures in Costa and McRae (1992) and found positive correlations between
extraversion and pop, dance, and rap genres, also providing support for previous research
(Rentfrow and Gosling 2003; Delsing et al. 2008; Luck et al. 2010).
Another key factor in Kpop is dance. Previous studies have acknowledged the importance
of dance in Hispanic culture (Fraser and Muñoz 1997; Olsen and Sheehy 2008). In addition,
Luck et al. (2010) associated each of the Big Five personality measures with different patterns
of movements performed with various types of music and named them “local movement”,
“global movement”, “hand flux”, “head speed” and “hand distance”. They found that Latin
music was related to openness, extraversion and agreeable personality, which in turn were
related to global movement. In addition, open personality was related to local movement.
By contrast, techno music was related to openness, consciousness, extraversion, and agree-
able personality, which in turn were related to local movement. Extraversion and agreeable
personality were related to head speed. Pop music was related to extraversion, which in
turn was related to head speed and an agreeable personality, which in turn were related to
global movement. These results are generally consistent with behaviors typically exhibited
by individuals scoring high on extraversion, that is, those who tend to be energetic, expressive
of positive emotions, and look for stimulation. Latin music made people move around the
room the most while keeping their head relatively still (Luck et al. 2010). Given the above
discussion, previous studies can be summarized as follows:

• Kpop is compounded by musical genres correlated with low social status and culture.
• At the same time, these musical genres are correlated with a wide range of positive
personality traits, which in turn may prompt open communication.

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

• Latin dance movements are correlated with certain personality traits, suggesting openness
to new experiences.
In sum, Kpop is tailored to appeal to the largest number of listeners, and listeners in
Hispanic countries are culturally predisposed to accept it because of the special emphasis on
the dance feature. This is relevant in that no study has considered the relationship between
Kpop and the listener’s psychological reasons for their behavior in the context of Twitter.
In addition, many studies have found that music preferences are a very stable characteristic
of listeners (Delsing et al. 2008; Bogt et al. 2010) and that music preferences during their
formative years are carried throughout their lives (Delsing et al. 2008; Janssen et al. 2007;
Mulder et al. 2010). Further, Bogt et al. (2010) found that the importance and personal profile
of music listenership may transcend educational strata.

3 Research questions

1. Which is the Twitter network structure of Kpop diffusion in Spanish-speaking countries?

a. Which are its communication patterns?
b. Who serves as the major hubs? To what extent are they active and do they form
relationships on Twitter?
c. How does the network evolve over time?

4 Method

4.1 Data collection and analysis techniques

4.1.1 Webometric method

Webometrics is an analysis technique that extends informetric methods and concepts to

information transactions taking place on the Internet (De Bellis 2009). It is broadly defined
as “the study of web-based content with primarily quantitative methods for social sci-
ence research goals and using techniques that are not specific to one field of study.”
(Thelwall 2009, p.6). Webometrics focuses on measuring web sites, web pages, parts of
web pages, words on web pages, hyperlinks, and web search engine results (Thelwall 2009).
This method has been used to trace communication patterns on Twitter related to natural
disasters (Cho et al. 2013), politics (Yoon and Park 2014), and entertainment (Yoon and Park
2013), among other topics.

4.1.2 Semantic analysis method

The semantic analysis method focuses on semantic relationships, i.e. relationships between
keywords (Park and Leydesdorff 2004). To cope with semantic ambiguities, field-specific
dictionaries, thesauruses, and coding notes can be used to visualize interrelationships between
words in a network.

4.1.3 Operational definitions

The diffusion and consumption of Kpop were defined as how frequently, through which
agents and under which circumstances the term “Kpop” was used on Twitter over the nine-

123
Globalization of cultural products

month analysis period, and an influencer was defined as a Twitter account with high indegree
and betwenness centrality, and/or a Twitter account frequently mentioned in the Tweets.

4.1.4 SNS related to Kpop: Twitter

Because Twitter is one of the most widely used SNSs in the world (Alexa 2013), it was
considered as the internet space in this analysis. Launched in July 2006, Twitter quickly
gained worldwide popularity and attracted more than 500 million active users as of 2012
(Wikipedia project 2013). It generates more than 340 million Tweets daily and processes
more than 1.6 billion search queries daily (Wikipedia project 2013).
Twitter consists of a stream of messages with a 140-character limit referred to as “Tweets”
and encourages the following three major types of relationships:
• The user can choose to view messages from other users in his or her Twitter public
timeline (“follow”).
• The user’s messages can be viewed in other users’ public timelines (“follower”).
• The user can reply directly to a “follower” by using the “@” symbol (“reply”).

4.1.5 Data collection procedure

The data were collected from March to October 2012 and the explored space was the Twitter
sphere in countries with Spanish as the official language. One of the characteristics of Twitter
as an SNS is the possibility of the geolocation of users (geographic location of the account
holder) through available information on the profile page. Based on Graham et al. (2013),
the geolocation of Tweets was performed by human coding. Approximately 2.7 % of the
3,070 Tweeter accounts had fictitious locations and 4 % provided no location information.
Therefore, a combination of locations, time zones and descriptions was considered. There
were no localized Tweets in Cuba, the Eastern Islands, Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara.
In addition, because the Canary Islands are part of Spain, Tweets from a total of 19 countries
were considered. The elements in the analysis included the “kpop” hashtag.
The process to analyze the structure and content of network communication to determine
the path of diffusion in the online environment included:
• Collection of global data.
• Classification of data by country.
• Analysis of network centrality.
• Analysis of hashtags.

4.1.6 Tools

There exist various software packages for collecting and processing Twitter data. First,
NodeXl was used to retrieve hashtag-related networks. NodeXl is an open-source software
package designed to visualize social networks and works as an extension of Microsoft Excel
(Hansen et al. 2011). After the data were organized, Tweet content was analyzed to gener-
ate a semantic network representing semantic relationships between concepts (Sowa 1987).
This analysis started with Frqlist, an open-source software tool that builds a list of words
based on their frequency (FullText.exe for Full Text Analysis. Leydesdorff 2012). It processes
a plain text file in the .txt format and creates a new txt file listing words in order of their
frequency. Then, the text file can be analyzed with Fulltext, an open-source software tool

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

Table 1 Network centrality

Network centrality measure Value
measures
Vertices 1,510
Total edges 2,322
Connected Components 52
Average geodesic distance 4.11
Maximum indegree centrality 467
Average indegree centrality 1.53
Maximum outdegree centrality 17
Average outdegree centrality 1.53
Average betweenness centrality 3,838.23
Average eigenvector centrality 0.0006

for generating a word occurrence matrix, a word co-occurrence matrix, and a normalized
co-occurrence matrix from a set of lines (e.g., titles) and a word list for analyzing and visual-
izing data (Leydesdorff 2012). Finally, to visualize the semantic network, Ucinet 6, a software
package for analyzing social network data, was employed (Borgatti et al.2002). This package
includes a visualization tool called NetDraw.

4.2 Analysis techniques

4.2.1 Network centrality

The basic elements that can be visualized through a graph of a network drawn by software
tools include
• Vertex: A communication point (also called the node), representing (in this case) a Twitter
account.
• Edge: A line tying nodes to represent their relationship.
The weight, color and position of these two elements can be related to any other data
(as in the case of the following centrality measures). With the data visualization software,
the data were measured based on network analysis metrics, which can be explained based on
Hansen et al. (2011) as follows:
• Connected component: A subgraph in which any two vertices are connected to each other.
• Geodesic distance: A measure based on the shortest path between two nodes in a network.
• Indegree centrality: A measure based on the number of links to a node.
• Out-degree centrality: A measure based on the number of links from a node to other
nodes.
• Betweenness centrality: A measure based on the number of times a node lies in the
shortest path between two other nodes, which implies that the node acts as a bridge and
that the measure can be seen to assess the extent to which the removal of the node disrupts
links within the network.
• Eigenvector centrality: A measure in which if a node has links to other nodes that are
well connected, then, the first node has a high value.
• Self-loop: An edge connecting a vertex to itself.

123
Globalization of cultural products

Fig. 1 K-pop network clustering by country

5 Results

5.1 Graph metrics

This table can be used to address RQ1a. The 3,070 vertices decreased to 1,510 after self-
loops were eliminated. This indicates a large number of connected components, given that
the analysis included 19 countries. In addition, there was a high betweenness centrality, and
a short average geodesic distance, suggesting a well-connected network, although the result
for eigenvector centrality implies the isolation of nodes. These results may be explained by
the vast distance between the countries (Table 1).
For RQ1b, the main hub countries based on the number of their nodes and sustained
presence over the analysis period were Mexico (the purple sphere), Colombia (the dark
green triangle), and Peru (the green sphere). Figure 1 shows the clustering of the network by
country:
The main influencers were considered based on their indegree and betweenness centrality.
Table 2 shows the numbers of their Tweets, followings and followers, as well as their self-
reported country of origin:
These Twitter accounts can be classified based on the type of user as follows:

• Celebrity: fer_gay (Mexico).

• Mass media: tvtelehit and elmundoalreves7 (Mexico); lodealla13, kpopcol, lodeallatr3ce
and canal13colombia (Colombia); and universo1071 (Venezuela).
• Alternative media: koreamx (Mexico).

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

Table 2 Main influencers based on indegree centrality and betweenness centrality

ID Indegree centrality Following Follower Tweet Country

fer_gay 467 585 40886 8258 Mexico

koreamx 206 1961 1941 2054 Mexico
tvtelehit 125 332 176458 12089 Mexico
elmundoalreves7 87 178 13671 1700 Mexico
lodealla13 76 4 401 247 Colombia
kpopcol 62 193 2456 1956 Colombia
lodeallatr3ce 53 2 1328 6341 Colombia
universo1071 45 497 1173 3201 Venezuela
latiachuchi 44 765 114162 17984 Peru
canal13colombia 43 1147 35299 19335 Colombia
ID Betweenness centrality Following Follower Tweet Country

fer_gay 1075020.86 585 40886 8258 Mexico

koreamx 475493.98 1961 1941 2054 Mexico
tvtelehit 215910.55 332 176458 12089 Mexico
lodealla13 198266.86 4 401 247 Colombia
_momoghei 148770 377 546 75463 Peru
latiachuchi 146649 765 114162 17984 Peru
kpopcol 146260.91 193 2456 1956 Colombia
universo1071 131801.16 497 1173 3201 Venezuela
elmundoalreves7 129844.08 178 13671 1700 Mexico
tsuubaakii20293 121526.32 559 305 39227 Mexico

• Personal accounts: tsuubaakii20293 (Mexico); and _momoghei and latiachuchi (Peru).

Here fer_gay was a show host and reporter from Mexico’s TV Azteca multimedia con-
glomerate, the second largest mass media outlet in the country. The accounts tvtelehit and el
mundoalreves7 also belonged to TV Azteca. In terms of Twitter accounts in Colombia, most
belonged to Canal 13, a regional channel operated by the National Television Commision
focusing on young audiences. The account kpopcol belonged to Caracol Television, a private
national television network. In terms of Venezuela, Universo 1071 was a radio and internet
channel. In sum, the results suggest that most of the major hubs belonged to the mass media,
covering both public and private broadcast television and radio programs. Most of these
Tweeter accounts had over a thousand followers and Tweets. In addition, Mexico, Colombia,
and Peru were again the major hubs.
For RQ1c, Fig. 2 shows the Kpop network over the analysis period. The networks were
drawn using the Fruchterman-Reingold algorithm ( Fruchterman and Reingold 1991), which
considers how strong the relationship is between two nodes. The sum of the force vectors
determines the direction of a node. Geolocalized nodes accounted for 99.3 % of all nodes,
indicating that Twitter users in Hispanic countries tended to clearly geolocalize their accounts
(e.g. “Living in Mexico but my Soul is in Korea”).
There were discussions about Junsu giving a concert in September since July (the hashtag
#Junsuenmexico) and a special program about Kpop transmitted by Telehit in August. These
events covered the three months with more nodes in the network.

123
Globalization of cultural products

Fig. 2 Kpop networks from March to October 2012

5.2 A quantitative analysis of comments

A total of 3,398 comments were collected, but seven were discarded because they were in
different languages (English, Japanese and Korean) or were spam. Therefore, a total of 3,391
comments were included in the final analysis of word frequency. Figure 3 shows the ego
network and Fig. 4, the complete network grouped in clusters.
Korean songs and artists are shown in yellow diamonds; Twitter users, in red triangles;
hashtags, in green squares; and other terms in blue circles. Node size reflects the frequency of a
particular keyword occurring in comments, and the line, tie strength. The group of comments
with the strongest ties was related to fer_gay and Junsu, followed by all the promotional
efforts of Twitter accounts related to TV Azteca. In addition, there were Twitter accounts
in Colombia, Venezuela (Universo1071) and Panama (Los40panama). For the hashtags, the
most frequent ones were Kpop, topten13, KpopenTopTen, and Telehit. All except Kpop were
always related to TV Azteca accounts.

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

Fig. 3 Kpop ego network in Hispanic countries

Fig. 4 Kpop semantic network in Hispanic countries (clusters)

Lumezanu et al. (2012) examined Tweets of users who consistently expressed the same
opinions or ideologies to identify extreme patterns of Tweets characterizing propaganda
diffusion and found the following: (1) sending large numbers of Tweets over short periods of
time, (2) retweeting while publishing little original content, (3) quickly retweeting, and (4)
colluding with other, seemingly unrelated, users to send duplicate or near-duplicate messages
on the same topic simultaneously. The results of the present study indicate that broadcast
media in Hispanic countries adopted the fourth type of strategy. For example, according to
the comment analysis and the Tweet dates retrieved using Nodexl, Fer_gay and Elhub sent

123
Globalization of cultural products

Tweets about Junsu nearly simultaneously. Fer_gay, Tvtelehit and Elmundoalreves7 also did
the same when the special programs about Kpop were broadcasted.

6 Discussion

The results suggest that Kpop is winning a small but growing portion of music preferences
in Hispanic countries as a result of combined efforts of public broadcast firms and fans.
This section explores the reasons. The results imply that Kpop is attractive because of its
visuals, but all pop music targeting teens rely on this factor. In addition, only about .1 %
of the comments mentioned some romantic interest or attraction to appearances, suggesting
that the appearance of Kpop band members is not such an important factor in Hispanic
countries. According to the literature review, music listeners in Hispanic countries tend to be
culturally predisposed to accept foreign musical genres. Regardless of language differences,
the main focus appears to be on collective activities. Noteworthy is that Kpop fans watched
TV programs or listened to music while sending Tweets. Maruyama et al. (2014) argued
that active tweeting can increase the level of engagement, although it may also make people
more susceptible to social influence. In addition, many of the fandom-related links found
in the qualitative analysis consisted of conventions related to Asian cultures, mashups, and
dance contests. This is relevant in terms of Oh’s (2013) concern about the right level of
the East-West cultural mix that can facilitate the promotion of Korean cultural products. The
results provide support for the findings of Kim, J. (2012), who traced the parallel relationship
between Tango and Kpop. Based on Savigliano (1995), Kim stated that “In the presentation of
the Tango as a valuable commodity, ambiguities are left to create the structures of perpetuating
an erotic perception of the Tango’s identity. It is the exotic that remains integral in the
reappropriated form of Tango that provides it its value and power to remain a political and
economic apparatus. It is the exotic that becomes desirable for the specter, because it cannot
be wholly reproduced and fulfilled by the specters themselves” (Kim, D. 2012, p. 40).
This may provide a clue for the effective diffusion of Kpop in Spanish-speaking countries.
That is, what is exotic, different and has rhythm is likely to become popular, regardless of its
origin. The literature review also provides evidence of an open and social characteristic of
Kpop related genres listeners.

7 Limitations and future research

These results do not take into account pirated downloads and other forms of illicit consump-
tion common in today’s music market. In addition, there may be an internet gap. In the terms
of the number of nodes, the top eight countries in the network were: Mexico, Colombia,
Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Panama, Spain and Argentina. According to the Internet World Stats
(2013) for Spanish-speaking countries, countries with a strong presence and a large number
of nodes in the network tended to have a large number of internet users except for Chile and
Panama. Moon et al. (2010) found that the flow of international music can be predicted in part
by internet usage, but not by the population. In this regard, future research should provide a
more in-depth analysis of Kpop diffusion in Chile and Panama.

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

References

Alexa Internet Inc.: Analytics for any website. Viewed on 15 Nov 2013. (2013). www.alexa.com
Appadurai, A.: Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. University of Minnesotta Press,
Minneapolis, London (1996)
Bhabha, H.K.: The location of culture. Routledge Classics. New York, New York (1994)
Borgatti, S.P., Everett, M.G., Freeman, L.C.: Ucinet for windows: Software for social network analysis.
Analytic Technologies, Harvard, MA (2002)
Chang, S.: Study of the Cultural Map of the World Today Through the Lens of Korean Television Pro-
gram Exports and Their Determinants. Retrieved from 2012. http://economics.stanford.edu/files/2012%
20Economics%20Honors%20Thesis%20-Siyeona%20Chang%20COMPLETE.pdf
Choi, S.C., Meza, X.V., Park, H.W.: South Korean culture goes Latin America: social network analysis of
kpop tweets in Mexico. Int. J. Contents 10(1), 36–42 (2014)
Choi, S., Park, H.W.: Flow of online content from production to consumption in the context of globalization
theory. Globalizations 11(2), 171–187 (2014)
Cho, S.E., Jung, K., Park, H.W.: Social media use during Japan’s 2011 earthquake: how twitter transforms the
locus of crisis communication. Media Int. Aust. 149, 28–40 (2013)
Costa, P. T. Jr., McRae, R. R.: Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory
(NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, Florida: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (1992)
Delsing, M.J.M.H., ter Bogt, T.F.M., Engels, R.C.M.E., Meeus, W.H.J.: Adolescents’ music preferences and
personality characteristics. Eur. J. Pers. 22, 109–130 (2008)
De Bellis, N.: Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis. From the Science Citation Index to Cybermetrics. The
Scarecrow Press, Inc US (2009)
Dunn, P.G., De Ruyter, B., Bouwhuis, D.G.: Toward a better understanding of the relation between music pref-
erence, listening behavior, and personality. Psychol. Music 1–18 (2012). doi:10.1177/0305735610388897
Fraser, C., Muñoz, J.E.: Everynight Life: Culture and Dance in Latin/o America. Duke University Press,
Durham and London (1997)
Fruchterman, T.M.J., Reingold, E.M.: Graph drawing by force-directed placement software: practice and
experience. 21(11) (1991). doi:10.1002/spe.4380211102
Graham, M., Hale, S.A., Gaffney, D.: (2013) Where in the world are you? Geolocation and language identifi-
cation in twitter. Retrieved from 2014. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2224233
Goggin, G., McLelland, M.J.: Internationalizing internet studies: Beyond anglophone paradigms. Routledge,
Taylor and Francis Group, New York, New York (2009)
Hansen, D., Shneiderman, B., Smith, M.A.: Analyzing Social Media Networks Through Nodexl - Insights
from a Connected World. Morgan Kaufmann, USA (2011)
Hubinette, T.: The reception and consumption of Hallyu in Sweden: preliminary findings and reflections.
Korea Obs. 43(3), 503–525 (2012). http://www.tobiashubinette.se/korean_popculture.pdf
Instituto Cervantes.: El español: una lengua viva. Informe 2012. Retrieved from 2012. http://cvc.cervantes.es/
lengua/anuario/anuario_12/i_cervantes/p01.htm
Janssen, S.M.J., Chessa, A.G., Murre, J.M.J.: Temporal distribution of favourite books, movies and records:
Differential encoding and resampling. Memory. 15, 755–767 (2007)
Jiang, K.: International student flows between Asia, Australia, and Russia: a network analysis. J. Contemp.
East. Asia 13(1), 83–98 (2014)
Joo, J.S.: Transnationalization of Korean popular culture and the rise of “Pop Nationalism” in Korea. J. Popul.
Cult. 44(3), 489–504 (2011)
Jung, E.: Transnational Korea: a critical assessment of the Korean wave in Asia and the United States. Southeast
Rev. Asian Stud. 31, 69–80 (2009)
Jung, H.: South Korea’s K-pop spreads to Latin America. Retrieved from 2012. http://www.google.com/
hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gxOWILlKeDQpqipMWx9fIFnKMVEA?docId=CNG.2675b7fded96e2
e3c9f9668042c6fbc4.551
Kasha, M.: A new look at the history of the classic guitar. Guitar Rev. 30, 3–12 (1968)
Khondker, H.H.: Role of the new media in the Arab spring. Globalizations 8(5), 675–679 (2011)
Kim, D.: Reappropriating desires in neoliberal societies through KPop. Retrieved from 2012. http://www.
escholarship.org/uc/item/6p04h9tf
Kim, E.M., Ryoo, J.: South Korean culture goes global: K-Pop and the Korean wave. Korean Soc. Sci. J.
XXXIV(1), 117–152 (2007). http://kossrec.org/board/imgfile/KSSJ%20Vol.34.no.1%28Eun%20Mee%
20Kim&Jiwon%20Ryoo%29%29.pdf
Kim, J.: Cultural analytics using webometrics: a case of Kpop. The Third Korea-China-Japan Graduate Stu-
dents’ Conference on the Next Generation Scholarship in Humanities (2012)

123
Globalization of cultural products

Lee, J.S.: Crossing and crossers in East Asian pop music: Korea and Japan. World Engl. 25(2), 235–250
(2006). doi:10.1111/j.0083-2919.2006.00462.x
Leung, S.: Catching the K-Pop wave: globality in the production, distribution, and consumption of South
Korean popular music. Senior Capstone Projects. Paper 149 (2012) http://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_
capstone/149
Leydesdorff, L.: Loet Leydesdorff homepage. Viewed 15 Nov 2012. (2012). http://www.leydesdorff.net/
software/fulltext/index.htm
Liew, K.K., Chan, B.: Guest editors: the internet and the engendering of transnational alternative soundscapes
in the Asia-Pacific–introduction to the symposium on popular music and the Internet in Asia. Asian J.
Commun. 23(4), 345–347 (2013). doi:10.1080/01292986.2013.807106
Longhurst, B.: Popular Music and Society. Polity Press, UK (2007)
Luck, G., Saarikallio, S., Burger, B., Thompson, M.R., Toiviainen, P.: Effects of the big five and musical genre
on music-induced movement. J. Res. Personal. 44, 714–720 (2010). doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2010.10.001
Lumezanu, C., Feamster, N., Klein, H.: Measuring the tweeting behavior of propagandists. AAAI Publications,
Sixth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (2012)
Maruyama, M., Robertson, S.P., Douglas, S., Semaan, B., Faucett, H.: Hybrid media consumption: how
tweeting during a televised political debate influences the vote decision. (2014). http://www2.hawaii.edu/
~bsemaan/maruyama_mediahybridity_cscw2014.pdf
Moon, C.I.: Globalization: challenges and strategies. Korean Focus 3(3), 62–77 (1995)
Moon, S.I., Barnett, G.A., Lim, Y.S.: The structure of international music flows using network analysis. New
Media Soc. 12(3), 379–399 (2010). doi:10.1177/1461444809346720
Mulder, J., Ter Bogt, T.F.M., Raaijmakers, Q.A.W., Gabhainn, S.N., Sikkema, P.: From death metal to R&B?
Consistency of music preferences among Dutch adolescents and young adults. Psychol. Music. 38(1),
67–83 (2010)
Nayed, R.F., Stoudmann, G.: Definitions of globalization: a comprehensive overview and a proposed defi-
nition. Geneva Center for Security Policy (2006). http://www.sustainablehistory.com/articles/definitions-
of-globalization.pdf
North, A.C., Hargreaves, D.J.: Lifestyle correlates of musical preference: 1. Relationships, living arrangements,
beliefs, and crime. Psychol. Music 35(1), 58–87 (2007a). doi:10.1177/0305735607068888
North, A.C., Hargreaves, D.J.: Lifestyle correlates of musical preference: 2. Media, leisure time and music.
Psychol. Music 35(2), 179–200 (2007b). doi:10.1177/0305735607070302
North, A.C., Hargreaves, D.J.: Lifestyle correlates of musical preference: 3. Travel, money, education, employ-
ment and health. Psychol. Music 35(3), 473–497 (2007c). doi:10.1177/0305735607072656
Oh, I.: Intuition and consilience: the creation of clinical and symptomatic knowledge in entertainment indus-
tries. Int. J. Technol. Manag. Sustain. Dev. 12(2), 137–153 (2013)
Olsen, D., Sheehy, D.: The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music. Routledge Taylor & Francis group
New York, New York (2008)
Park, H.W., Leydesdorff, L.: Understanding KrKwic: a computer program for the analysis of Korean text. J.
Korean Data Anal. Soc. 6(5), 1377–1387 (2004)
Rentfrow P.J, Gosling S.D. The do re mi’s of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music
preferences. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 84, 1236–1256 (2003)
Ryoo, W.: Globalization, or the logic of cultural hybridization: the case of the Korean wave. Asian J. Commun.
19(2), 137–151 (2009). doi:10.1080/01292980902826427
Savigliano, M.: Tango and the Political Economy of Passion. Westview Press, Boulder (1995)
Seo, M.: Lessons from K-pop’s global success. SERI Quarterly. Retrieved from 2012. http://www.
readperiodicals.com/201207/2727829141.html#ixzz2S7Wq5G00
Shin, H.: Have you ever seen the rain? And who’ll stop the rain? The globalizing project of Korean pop
(K-pop). Inter-Asia Cult. Stud. 10(4), 507–523 (2009). doi:10.1080/14649370903166150
Sowa, J.: Semantic networks. In: Stuart, C., Shapiro. Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., New York, (1987)
Sung, S.L.: The role of Hallyu in the construction of East Asian Regional Identity in Vienna. Europ. J. East
Asian Stud. 11(1), 55–171 (2012). doi:10.1163/15700615-20120010
Ter Bogt, T.F.M., Mulder, J., Raaijmakers, Q.A.W., Gabhainn, S.N.: Moved by music: a typology of music
listeners. Psychol. Music 39(2), 147–163 (2010). doi:10.1177/0305735610370223
Thelwall, M.: Introduction to Webometrics. Morgan & Claypool, New York (2009)
Thussu, D.K.: Mapping global media flow and contra-flow. In: Thussu, D.K.. (ed.) International Communi-
cation. A reader. Routledge. New York, New York (2010)
Tuk, W.: The Korean wave: who are behind the success of Korean popular culture? (2012). https://openaccess.
leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/20142/hallyu%20version%207.pdf?sequence=1
Wikipedia project.: Twitter. Viewed 15 Nov 2013. (2013). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

123
 X. Vargas Meza, H. W. Park

Yoon, H.Y., Park, H.W.: Strategies affecting Twitter-based networking pattern of South Korean politicians:
social network analysis and exponential random graph model. Qual. Quant. 48(1), 409–423 (2014). doi:10.
1007/s11135-012-9777-1
Yoon, H.Y., Park, H.W.: Celebrity’s network externality of Twitter: the “Our Relations Increase Your Followers”
relationship among South Korean Idols. In: Tkach-Kawasaki, L., Tsujinaka, Y. (eds.) Interconnections:
Exploring Relationships Through Networks and Hyperlinks. CAJS Monograph, No. 5. Tsukuba: Center
for International, Comparative, and Advanced Japanese Studies, University of Tsukuba, Japan. pp. 67–90
(2013)
Yoon, S.: La difusión del hallyu en Chile y Argentina. Asian Am. Stud. 10(1), 167–197 (2010)

123