We, Martin Hennig and Christopher Zysik, had the pleasure to present our research and the JVMG project at the Annual Conference of the German Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft) at Paderborn University from September 16th to 19th. The Society for Media Studies brings together scholars from different disciplines involved with research around theories, practices, and structures of mass media and other forms of mediatization, such as communication, data, or transportation. This year, the hosts invited researchers to present and discuss the topic “Macht” (in engl.: “power”). We contributed with a presentation on “Macht in fankuratierten Datenbanken” (“Power in fan-curated databases”) and how the JVMG project enables a new perspective and method to approach this topic.
Continue reading “The JVMG-Project at the Annual Conference of the German Society for Media Studies”Tiny Use Case – Kaiju Genre Part III.1 – Transmediality and Trope Cluster Analysis
In our previous blog post, we concluded that the TV Tropes data about live-action films alone is not sufficient to understand what constitutes the kaiju genre, a tokusatsu (jap. 特撮, “special effects”) subgenre in Japan, on this fan-curated database. This observation is based on the list of supposedly genre-defining tropes of kaiju works on TV Tropes. In comparison to the list of core tropes extracted from the dataset of live-action kaiju films, we observed significant differences with the list of tropes provided by TV Tropes. Additionally, we concluded that individual tropes provided in the dataset are not sufficient to develop a core understanding of the kaiju genre in the fan community. Thus, we will first examine the transmediality of the kaiju genre on TV Tropes by examining tropes attributed to other media works, such as TV series, games, anime, and manga. In the next step, we will explore and compare potential clusters of kaiju tropes between different media to examine similarities and differences between them.
Continue reading “Tiny Use Case – Kaiju Genre Part III.1 – Transmediality and Trope Cluster Analysis”Tiny Use Case – Kaiju Genre Part II – Defining the Kaiju Genre through Tropes
In a previous blog post, we introduced the research questions of our sixth tiny use case, presenting the kaiju genre as an interesting subject for examining kaiju-related tropes. In part II, we explore the consistency of the tropes attributed to live-action kaiju films via data-analytical methods.
For our analysis, we draw data from the fan-curated database TV Tropes. Our approach brings together two perspectives that have played only minor roles in film genre theory so far: The inclusion of the fan perspective, here based on the fan-curated database TV Tropes, and the focus on narratological tropes rather than the traditionally favored visual and sociocultural frameworks.
Continue reading “Tiny Use Case – Kaiju Genre Part II – Defining the Kaiju Genre through Tropes”TUC Kaiju-Genre
To tackle the problem of genre consolidation and the potential role of media tropes for merging several, varying databases about Japanese visual media, the following Tiny Use Case is narrowed down to the Kaiju genre. Due to its diverse nature, the Kaiju genre provides a special challenge to evaluate its genre-defining core tropes from a data-analytical perspective. Thus, gained insights can provide a solid base for further studies on other genres. Additionally, because contemporary genre research focuses on tropes as a transmedia concept to understand the notion “genre”, the question whether this method is still viable in times of digital databases has to be raised.
Continue reading “TUC Kaiju-Genre”Exploring and integrating genres in the second phase of the JVMG project
In the second project phase Dr. Martin Hennig (PI) and Christopher Zysik from the University of Tübingen joined the project for the implementation and data-ethical reflection of genres and associated categories, that is to say, to be sensitive of the cultural origins of the categories and terms. The main goal is the integration of comprehensive genre categories, the development of appropriate theoretical models as well as corresponding research questions, that can be answered using the database.
Continue reading “Exploring and integrating genres in the second phase of the JVMG project”