Ecological Restructuring and Sustainable Development Paths of the Drama Industry in the Era of Traffic

Abstract

The deep penetration of digital media and the traffic-driven communication paradigm have driven China’s traditional drama industry to break away from its inherent theater-centric and audience-stratified patterns, bringing about a structural restructuring of the industrial ecology. Adopting a dual perspective of media convergence and cultural industry studies, this paper systematically examines the ecological transformation of the drama industry in the traffic era, the breakout mechanisms of niche dramas, and emerging commercial models. It also addresses the minor impacts of youth traffic culture, identifies contradictions in industrial transformation, and explores sustainable development strategies suited to the digital context. The prevalence of short-video platforms, social media, and live-streaming has removed temporal and spatial barriers to drama dissemination, reshaping the production logic, audience structure, and commercial models of stage art. It has also created a new pathway for niche original and experimental dramas to achieve mainstream visibility. Traffic empowerment has decentralized artistic communication, expanded the public reach of drama, and enabled diversified commercial monetization. Meanwhile, traffic-driven communication and a light community support culture are emerging among youth groups, injecting vitality into the drama market; however, they have also led to superficial aesthetics and inflated popularity. The fast-paced nature of traffic dissemination, profit-driven capital orientation, and formulaic creation logic inherently conflict with drama’s core values—narrative depth, critical reflection, and humanistic connotation. This tension has resulted in challenges such as superficial content, homogenized production, inefficient traffic conversion, and an immature industrial system.