Thanks to everyone who participated in my survey a while ago. I have uploaded it to google docs and have the link below, it should be available to anyone who has this link. As a fast review of what I looked at:
Some Japanese language and culture teachers have expressed frustration over students mostly being interested in anime rather than some of the other aspects of Japanese language and culture. However, some have also explored anime as a way for people to connect with other aspects of Japan or Japanese culture. In thinking about this, I decided to focus on how anime affects perceptions of Japan or what viewers of anime learn about Japan. To do this, I interviewed 6 people around my school and ran an anonymous survey which I then posted a link to on both fanime's forum and crunchyroll's forum. I chose to go to people I knew watched or had an interest in anime as most of the reading I did for my lit review involved theories about intercultural or transnational communication or theories about popular culture, but I didn't find much that actually included talking to fans to see what they came away with. Though my survey showed some stereotypical tendencies in anime viewers (especially when viewing the answers in categories) the answers ranged widely. The interviews (though I had technical issues with one of them) allowed me to go more in-depth with people who watched anime, bringing more nuance than I think a survey alone would have (bringing up genre, gaming, technicalities, what counts as anime etc) and most interviewees had been to Japan and were able to talk about how anime helped or hindered their abilities to assimilate and if anything in particular made anime unique. In a nutshell, viewers had some stereotypical images but anime may also motivate viewers to learn more.
It's not my best work in communications, so I would be happy to hear your comments or suggestions. I felt terrible that I had to limit my work so much but perhaps I can go back to this project someday now that I'm not juggling two senior projects and regular coursework. Again, thank you so much for helping me and if you feel I missed something or misrepresented something, please feel free to tell me.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1waSQlrea0BKcMxZOvAyBVLfK2VeQF2CoAiD7vsnF8lc/edit?usp=sharing
Some Japanese language and culture teachers have expressed frustration over students mostly being interested in anime rather than some of the other aspects of Japanese language and culture. However, some have also explored anime as a way for people to connect with other aspects of Japan or Japanese culture. In thinking about this, I decided to focus on how anime affects perceptions of Japan or what viewers of anime learn about Japan. To do this, I interviewed 6 people around my school and ran an anonymous survey which I then posted a link to on both fanime's forum and crunchyroll's forum. I chose to go to people I knew watched or had an interest in anime as most of the reading I did for my lit review involved theories about intercultural or transnational communication or theories about popular culture, but I didn't find much that actually included talking to fans to see what they came away with. Though my survey showed some stereotypical tendencies in anime viewers (especially when viewing the answers in categories) the answers ranged widely. The interviews (though I had technical issues with one of them) allowed me to go more in-depth with people who watched anime, bringing more nuance than I think a survey alone would have (bringing up genre, gaming, technicalities, what counts as anime etc) and most interviewees had been to Japan and were able to talk about how anime helped or hindered their abilities to assimilate and if anything in particular made anime unique. In a nutshell, viewers had some stereotypical images but anime may also motivate viewers to learn more.
It's not my best work in communications, so I would be happy to hear your comments or suggestions. I felt terrible that I had to limit my work so much but perhaps I can go back to this project someday now that I'm not juggling two senior projects and regular coursework. Again, thank you so much for helping me and if you feel I missed something or misrepresented something, please feel free to tell me.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1waSQlrea0BKcMxZOvAyBVLfK2VeQF2CoAiD7vsnF8lc/edit?usp=sharing