著者

永井 純一

出版者

社会学研究会

雑誌

ソシオロジ (ISSN:05841380)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.46, no.3, pp.109-125,220, 2002-02-28 (Released:2016-11-02)

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This article is an ethnographical study of amateur comic writers. It is also a reconsideration of "otaku" as an audience of media from the perspective of Cultural Studies. "Otaku" is the name given to those who are self-absorbed in media-culture, such as animation, comics, video games, etc. They first appeared Japan in the late 1970's, increasing notably since the 1980's. This corresponds with the beginning of the information-oriented society. "Otaku" are frequently considered to be a pathological person who inhabits virtual reality. However, I treat "otaku" here as an active audience. The activity of an audience has been discussed in "Encoding and Decoding in Television Discourse" by Stuart Hall. We can encode a message in media and this can be read by an audience through the process of decoding. The message read can be diverse as a message encoded may be interpreted in a different way at the time of decoding. Hall suggests that the meaning of the message is decided at the point of decoding. "Otaku" is an audience of media-communication that receives a media message by alternative readings. For instance, amateur comic writers of home-grown publications write stories by appropriating a character and story from mainstream media and then, for example, reproduce this as a homosexual story. If they had read the original text in the way intended by the author then it would impossible for them to produce such an alternative story. This argument leads us to the next issue. Such readings are communicated and shared by others through the media of the widely read home-produced comics exchanged at over 1000 events held annually. The readers treat this media-communication as one experience. Considering the large number of "otaku" in Japan (estimated at some 100's of 1000's) , an understanding of their communication style is not only important but also necessary.