There has been an explosion in the number of cultural events at a high speed since the middle and late 1990s when they first introduced the local government system. Despite the quantitative increase, however, cultural events were mostly one-time events based on consumption and exhibition. It was during the foreign currency crisis in Korea when more local cultural events were held by local broadcasting stations, which were suffering from the challenging management environment. Holding local cultural events directly or vicariously was a favorable asset to their management. In the process, however, cultural events became more commercial and formal. Their ignorance of public good and pursuit of commercial profits can lead to other losses since all the activities that local broadcasting stations do contribute to their overall images.
Local broadcasting stations are obliged to find and promote the unique traditional culture and history of the local community and to make efforts to activate local cultural events for the sake of the growth of local culture. Today's broadcasting environment is changing at rapid rates. This study aimed to investigate what types of cultural events that made a huge contribution to the diversification of profit sources for broadcasting stations should approach the local people.
The following research questions were set to examine and test the impacts of local people's participation in and satisfaction with cultural events held by the Ulsan Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation Co., Ltd. on its images as a broadcasting station:
Research Question 1. Are there any relationships between local people's participation in cultural events held by a broadcasting station and its images?
Research Question 2. Are there any relationships between local people's satisfaction with cultural events held by a broadcasting station and its images
Research Question 3. Are there any relationships between the kinds of and satisfaction with cultural events that local people participate in?
In tackling those research questions, six cultural events held by the Ulsan Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation were sampled. After examining the number of local people's participation in those cultural events, their satisfaction with them was measured on a five-point scale. The images of the broadcasting station were measured on another five-point scale which contained ten items about cognitive and emotional images. The cultural events were classified into entertaining and non-entertaining, weekly and monthly(small-sized) and yearly(large-sized), and viewing and experiencing. Total 220 questionnaires were distributed to those who visited the department stores in Ulsan, participated in the cultural events held at the atrium of the Hyundai Department Store, and visited the Samsan branch of Kookmin Bank. Among them 206 were collected and analyzed.
According to the analysis result, the more they participated in the cultural events held by the broadcasting station, the more positive attitudes they had towards its images. There were correlations between their satisfaction with the cultural events they participated in and their images of the broadcasting station. They were more satisfied with small-sized weekly and monthly events than large-sized yearly events. But there was no difference in their satisfaction between the entertaining and non-entertaining events and between the events designed for viewing and those for experiencing.
The results indicate that it's essential for the local broadcasting station to reinforce the competitive of its programs to minimize its negative images, maximize its positive and progressive images, and ultimately increase the competitivity of its channels. It's important for the broadcasting station to induce more participation from the citizens and increase the quality of its cultural events so that its cultural events with strong PR elements can result in positive attitudes towards its images. And small-sized cultural events will promise a higher level of satisfaction when they are held regularly every week or every month.