The 2nd Gangwon PD Awards ceremony was held on December 3, 2025, at the Sejong Hotel in Chuncheon (a city in Gangwon Province).
Television and radio entries that combined a strong local focus with public-service value were chosen as winners.
The ceremony became a moment to measure the capacity and identity of broadcasters across Gangwon province.
The winning works treated community problems with care, prompting both empathy and further questions.
Taking local voices to the world: the meaning of the 2nd Gangwon PD Awards
Overview
The event took place in Chuncheon.
The awards are organized by the Gangwon PD Association (a professional group of regional program directors).
The ceremony is designed as a meeting place where makers and audiences connect in the local field.
This year, the competition divided entries into a regular TV category and a radio category, and selected outstanding works in each.
The Gangwon PD Association emphasized the importance of regional broadcasting.
Hwang Byung-hoon, the association chair, noted that Gangwon programs have won national and international recognition in recent years (including broadcasting awards and PD prizes).
He said directors will continue to think deeply and cooperate for the people of their communities.
This remark reminded attendees of the responsibilities and role of local media.
What did the programs show, and what questions did they leave?
Analysis of the winners
The awardees resonated.
In the TV regular category, Chuncheon MBC's "인생굿샷" ("Insaeng Good Shot," loosely "Life's Good Shot") and KBS Chuncheon's "말하고 십대 시즌4" ("Teens Want to Speak, Season 4") were selected. Chuncheon MBC and KBS Chuncheon are regional branches of national networks, focused on local stories.
In radio, TBN Gangwon Traffic Radio's "삽니다, 희매에서" ("For Sale, in Heemae") and Gangwon CBS's "AI, 사투리를 말하다" ("AI Speaks Dialects") drew attention.
Each program used the affordances of its medium to tell local stories.
Notably, "삽니다, 희매에서" brought alleyways and people’s voices into focus, reflecting daily life and local commerce.
The program carefully documented the voices of merchants and everyday workers.
Meanwhile, "AI, 사투리를 말하다" raised the issue of preserving local speech and culture in an age of rapid digital change (AI technologies can standardize language unless actively countered).
Together, these works show public value through different media strengths.
The photo conveys the ceremony's atmosphere.
It captures the moment awardees meet the audience.
The image’s composition and staging act as a secondary language for the regional event.
The awards are both a celebration and a platform for renewing local conversation.
Pro: a victory for locality and public service
The value of the local
Local is identity.
Supporters argue the awards restore and strengthen regional broadcasting identity.
Local-focused content highlights everyday problems that centralized media often overlook and helps bind communities together.
Therefore, publicly recognizing regional directors is a way to institutionally respect community voices.
For example, "삽니다, 희매에서" uses radio’s intimacy to deliver merchants’ and residents’ voices directly.
This approach raises awareness of local economies and everyday hardships, bringing those issues into public discussion.
At the same time, "AI, 사투리를 말하다" can be read as an effort to protect regional speech in a time when new technologies tend to standardize language.
It demonstrates the practical questions communities must ask to preserve identity amid technological change.
From an educational angle, regional media play an important role.
Local outlets pass on regional history and culture continuously and can be combined with online platforms to create learning resources.
Thus, investing attention and funds in regional broadcasting accumulates cultural capital.
Additionally, stronger regional media can create local jobs and greater job stability in media professions.
In sum, proponents see the awards as strengthening media’s public purpose through locally rooted work.
The ceremony becomes more than competition; it fosters reflection and cooperation within the community.
In this respect, the Gangwon PD Awards play a meaningful role.
Con: limits and critical questions — is this enough?
Critical perspectives
Problems remain.
Critics say the awards provide symbolic recognition but do not change structural limits in regional broadcasting.
Symbolic wins are valuable. However, sustainable production conditions and steady funding remain unresolved.
Regional broadcasters’ financial and staffing structures can limit long-term content competitiveness.
For instance, creative plans from regional directors often collide with tight budgets and scheduling constraints.
Those barriers directly affect work quality and continuity.
Even if a program wins attention, that success may not change the media ecosystem across the region.
Thus, one-off recognition and absent institutional support can coexist as a persistent problem.
Another critique targets transparency in judging.
If criteria and procedures are not sufficiently open, fairness can be questioned.
To include a wider range of local voices, judging needs greater plurality and procedural legitimacy.
Alongside that, systemic mechanisms should ensure sustained representation for local minorities and weaker groups.
Finally, a strategy for the digital transition is necessary.
Connecting with online platforms, repurposing material as learning resources, and building long-term investment models must go hand in hand with awards.
The ceremony can act as a catalyst. Yet practical improvement requires policy and funding support.
Policy suggestions drawn from the field
Practical recommendations
Policy foundations are needed.
First, secure long-term funding to strengthen local production capacity.
Second, build links between regional producers and educational institutions to expand hands-on training and learning opportunities.
Third, create collaboration systems with online platforms to support distribution and wider reach.
These proposals are practical steps toward media sustainability, not abstract ideas.
Partnerships with schools and training programs produce skilled practitioners and raise content quality.
Securing online distribution helps reuse material for learning and spreads regional culture beyond local borders.
All of these require long-term investment and policy attention.
Conclusion: what remains and what we should ask?
Key takeaways
The Gangwon PD Awards matter.
This ceremony made visible works that prioritized locality and public service, and it revealed the value of regional media.
However, without institutional fixes and financial backing, the same limits will recur.
In short, symbolic achievements and structural reform must advance together for regional media to be sustainable.
The Gangwon PD Awards are worth celebrating, and at the same time they should be seen as a starting point for deeper change.
We ask the reader: what should be prioritized to make local media sustainable where you live? (For example: funding, training, platform partnerships, or policy changes.)
This question is a small invitation to join a larger conversation about the future of local media.
