TV discussion

Chalfen chalfeka
Sat Aug 8 05:54:18 EDT 1998


Aaron has suggested a deep and important pool of inquiry to initiate a
discussion of Japanese TV, one that could be very interesting and
enlightening, and one I hope develops some good response.  In the search
for a sensible and productive approach to TV, I can only start by offering
a few thoughts on what might be avoided.

(1)  We must try not to essentialize TV -- while some common threads may
exist across genres, clearly there are very different kinds of televisual
programming in place in Japan as elsewhere, serving different sectors of
the population with alternative needs and expectations.

(2)  On another front is the center of interest on the production process,
on specific programs, on technological innovation, on issues of
distribution or on relationships of all of the above?

(3)  As Aaron suggests, the comparative perspective does have a lot to
offer -- much depends, of course, on how it is used, e.g. in as
anti-ethnocentric ways as possible.

(4)  There is nothing wrong with trying to understand certain TV offerings
as a product of contemporary world influences -- I will not go so far to
mention >> global culture<< a term not very meaningful to many, if not all,
anthropologists.  Themes of the local and the global come to mind,
including issues of cultural resistance.

I would also like to hear what people have to say about (1)  the
problematic relationships between people working in film and people in TV
production in Japan and (2) the choice of Japanese TV serials that find
their ways to the International cable channel in the U.S.

Dick Chalfen
Anthropology, Temple University

e-mail: rchalfen at nimbus.temple..edu
web page:  http://nimbus.temple.edu/~rchalfen
____________________________________________________



____________________________________________________

   * R  i  c  h  a  r  d   C  h  a  l  f  e  n
       *  Professor of Anthropology
           *  Temple University - Harbour Campus
     	*  300 Commercial Street, Suite 204
                    *  Boston, MA. USA  02109-1197
                        *  Tel: 617-227-1534
                            *  Fax: 617-495-9709

   * e-mail: rchalfen at nimbus.ocis.temple.edu

   * web page:  http://nimbus.temple.edu/~rchalfen
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