多地域間オルタナティブ・メディアの実践研究 : メディアにおける表象の問題をめぐって

概要

論文の詳細を見る
We are unconsciously exposed to a multitude of cultural and local media representations that have enormously affected our cognition or image of other cultures, other ethnicities, or merely our perception of the "other." Although such representations are inevitable in the current information society, it is true that distorted or stereotypical representations have often resulted in misunderstandings that sometimes lead to disputes among different cultures and ethnic groups. In the context of the Japanese media culture, we face complex issues that arise from the problematic relationship between Japan and other Asian countries as well as that between the capital city of Tokyo and the other regions of Japan. The Japanese mass media has often represented "Asia" as the "other" and presented Japanese with distorted images of "Asia." Similarly, the Tokyo-oriented media has always determined what constitutes "local." Here, we should be aware that these respective international and national relationships involve an analogous problem. There rarely exists a communication flow from the local media to Tokyo or from Asia to Japan, that is, there rarely is a "flat" communication. Consequently, the Japanese media culture tends to become more monotonous or more "national." "Mysteries in Asia" is a video-exchange project for educational purposes. It questions the media's representation of different local cultures in terms of media literacy and cross-cultural understanding. The project also aims to create a grassroots communication network among young people who belong to different local and global cultures. This network will help them convey their messages directly to their friends in Asia in-stead of relying on the mass media involving the above problems. "Mysteries in Asia" follows a certain procedure. Firstly, the students create "image maps" of their partner as well as themselves and exchange these with each other. Through this process, they are prompted to think about the type of images they have of their partners as well as of themselves and examine the source of those images. On the basis of these image maps, they consider and choose the cultural information that they actually want to and can communicate to their friends and that mass media generally does not or cannot convey. Then, they select their own topic and produce a short video quiz on it. These video clips are exchanged and then the participants try to answer their partners' questions and discuss them via the Internet or by other means. Through these activities, they are expected to learn about important issues that relate to cultural media representation, its limitation as well as alternative possibilities. "Mysteries in Asia" has already been organized thrice, locally and internationally, among high schools and universities. The objectives and methods followed at each of these sessions differed slightly from one another. However, we found certain common tendencies in each session, which provided a few hints regarding the issues of cultural representation in the media and the possibilities of alternative communication. For example, although they attempt to seek alternative media expressions, the video clips prepared by the students often resemble a TV program and their chosen topic tends to be an already popular issue. Consequently, there might be a risk that they would reconstruct the stereotypes popularized by the mass media. However, we can still find considerable potential in their works, irrespective of whether they try to deconstruct or endorse the stereotypes constructed by the mass media. Thus, their works provide us several recommendations with regard to certain aspects. In the presentation, we would like to discuss these points in a more concrete manner.
北海道東海大学の論文
2005-03-25

著者

崔銀姫
国際文化学部コミュニケーション学科

多地域間オルタナティブ・メディアの実践研究 : メディアにおける表象の問題をめぐって

スポンサーリンク

概要

著者

関連論文

スポンサーリンク