BCM320 Autoethnographic Project: A Contextual Essay

Matilda

For the individual autoethnographic research project, I looked at the world of Japanese Pop (J-Pop), in particular Japanese girl idol group such as Momoiro Clover Z. To further understand my autoethnographic approach to this field site, it is necessary to discuss the methodology that assisted in my research.

I presented my findings in the form of media-rich blog posts. Ellis et al (2011) describe how when writing autoethnography, it is much more engaging to use techniques of “showing” rather than merely “telling”, as it offers a way to bring readers onto the scene in order to “experience an experience”. Through embedding links, YouTube videos and even my own Spotify playlist, my digital artifact allowed me to make my research engaging and emotionally rich.

Anderson (2006) provides an interesting counterbalance to the work of Ellis et al (2011) by putting forward a more analytic approach. When discussing the importance of being…

View original post 395 more words

An Autoethnographic Project: The World of J-POPジェイポップ

Matilda

Following on from my previous blog posts about the initial stages of planning for my digital artifact exploring the phenomenon of J-Pop, here I will present the findings of my research and final conclusions. As I have mentioned in my last blogs, the reason that I chose this topic is that it is something completely new to me. Therefore I was interested to see how I would interpret this field site given my own cultural framework and understanding, how I make sense of the world. I also chose to look at J-Pop as it seems to be less popular as K-Pop, its Korean counterpart. Intrigued as to why this may be, I endeavoured to find out more.

Before I go into my personal experience with researching this aspect of digital Asia, it is necessary to first explain what it is by understanding its history and evolution.

What is J-Pop?

J-Pop…

View original post 1,537 more words

Autoethnography and Narrated Experience

Matilda

In my last blog post, I began to determine the topic for my independent autoethnography research project. I decided to research the topic J-Pop, more specifically J-Pop idol groups.

I discussed how for my data collection, I am going to live tweet my initial reactions of watching the music videos of pop idol group, Momoira Clover Z, and other idol groups that I decide to explore. The ability of my live tweets will enable me to identify the “epiphanies” of my research, the most remembered moments that have a significant impact of my understanding of the cultural text (Ellis et al, 2011). These epiphanies come from my own cultural background, things that stand out to me and that I can immediately draw relation or comparison to with my own experiences and cultural identity. Ellis et al (2011) outline how accomplishing this epiphany may require “comparing and contrasting personal experience against…

View original post 393 more words

Research Project: J-Pop

Matilda

The time has come to think about a topic for my independent research project for BCM320. With the goal in mind to choose a topic relevant to the theme of ‘Digital Asia’ that I know little to nothing about, a few ideas came to mind. However, there was one that stood out and made me want to investigate further. The topic I have decided to focus on for my research is J-Pop, or Japanese Pop.

This topic stood out to me for the main reason that all I knew about it was mostly in the name: Japanese Pop. I know it is a form of pop music, originating from Japan, and I have heard little bits and pieces that make me think it is somewhat wacky and out there. My understanding so far of this genre is that the ‘J’  in J-Pop means more or less a sense of…

View original post 618 more words

Autoethnography and ‘Akira’

Matilda

Autoethnography… A term I had heard of but until a few weeks ago, had given little to no thought. Since joining the #BCM320 cohort, I feel that I have grasped a fairly good understanding of what this concept is, and how to apply it to my research for this subject.

So, what is it?

Ellis et al (2011) define it as “an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience in order to understand cultural experience.” (p. 1).

In my understanding, it means applying your own cultural framework and the way in which you see the world to understanding and researching other texts, stories and cultures. How do I – as a young, female student brought up in a caucasian, nuclear family, in the year 2018, understand cultures different from my own?

Autoethnography realises that different kinds of people have different assumptions  and…

View original post 555 more words

My Experience: Sita Sings the Blues

Matilda

Last week was my first experience in BCM320 as I have begun the subject a few weeks late… However, I dove straight into it with a screening of ‘Sita Sings the Blues’, and an introduction to live tweeting.

Going into the seminar, I knew that we had a screening. I had no idea what to expect, but it definitely wasn’t Sita Sings the Blues (2008), an animated interpretation of the Indian tale of Ramayana. My experience of animated films is mostly within the Disney world, so the jazz-singing Sita reminded me somewhat of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. I found it hard at the beginning to keep up with the plot, and I tweeted that despite this, I thought that the animation of the film was really cool. In comparison to many of the Disney and other animated films that I had grown up with, I loved the vibrant, unique and…

View original post 252 more words