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Articles

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2022)

A Study for Cultural Meaning Movement of Japanese Anime-Comic-Game Commodities and Its Influence on Teenagers

DOI
https://doi.org/10.29465/ijdmd.v14i1.8
Submitted
September 17, 2023
Published
2022-07-30

Abstract

This study uses the "movement of meaning" model proposed by McCracken to examine the process of consuming Japanese ACG commodities, the movement of its cultural meaning on teenagers. This study focuses on the movement of cultural: Japanese manga and culture integrated with commercial consumption; and the empirical study of the second stage of the model. The teenagers feel the movement of cultural meaning when they are consuming Japanese anime and comic commodities. The main purposes of the study are: (1) to establish a theory model of how the cultural meaning of manga is transferred to teenage consumers; (2) and explore how the culture meaning of Japan are transferred to younger consumers; (3) statistically validate the movement of cultural meaning model. In order to objectively evaluate the movement of cultural meaning and influence of Japanese manga for teenagers, 457 questionnaires were returned and 412 valid questionnaires were collected. The constructs of the questionnaire cover (1) behavior of fans, (2) influence among peers, (3) ACG media consumption, (4) participation in the ‘Doujin group’ activities, (5) collection of peripheral merchandise and (6) cultural meaning. The research results show that ACG media consumption has a moderate positive correlation with the transfer of cultural meaning (0.544**); there is a moderate positive correlation between the collection of peripheral goods and the transfer of cultural meaning (0.365**); the behavior of fans and the transfer of cultural meaning have a moderate positive correlation (0.319**); there are low positive correlations between peer influence, participation in ‘Doujin group’ activities with the transfer of cultural meaning. The findings of this research demonstrate how the Japanese ACG has successfully transferred cultural meaning from a culturally constituted world into a commodity packaged to teenagers by using McCracken's ‘Movement of meaning’ theory. Our statistical results and data interpreters are also in line with Raymond Williams' view of cultural meaning.