Darling-Wolf - Imagining the Global: Transnational Media and Popular Culture Beyond East and West

Joseph Turow
SERIES EDITOR

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Imagining the Global: Transnational Media and Popular Culture Beyond East and West
Fabienne Darling-Wolf

DIGITAL CULTURE BOOKS, an imprint of the University of Michigan Press, is dedicated to publishing work in new media studies and the emerging field of digital humanities.

TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA AND POPULAR CULTURE BEYOND EAST AND WEST

Fabienne Darling-Wolf

University of Michigan Press
ANN ARBOR

Copyright by Fabienne Darling-Wolf 2015
Some rights reserved

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Published in the United States of America by the
University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper

2018 2017 2016 2015 4 3 2 1

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/nmw.12748915.0001.001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Darling-Wolf, Fabienne.

Imagining the global : transnational media and popular culture beyond East and West / Fabienne Darling-Wolf.
pages cm. (New media world)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-472-07243-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-472-05243-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12079-6 (e-book)
1. Mass media and culture. 2. Mass media and globalization. 3. Mass mediaSocial aspectsUnited States. 4. Mass mediaSocial aspectsFrance. 5. Mass mediaSocial aspectsJapan. I. Title.
P94.6.D365 2014
302.23dc23

2014020615

Artist Statement: The art I designed for the cover of this book is part of a series of works titled Signs of Our Times. This series of original paintings draws from visual elementsgraffiti and other street art, signs, posterscollected in my travels in North America, Europe, and Japan to create phenomenological collages of contemporary urban life. Rather than focusing on my own engagement with landscapes in different parts of the world, this particular collage, however, references key elements of the books journey through reality television, news coverage of disaster, global magazines, French rap, and Japanese animation. Taken as a whole, the image illustrates the hybrid and polysemic nature of global culture.
John Darling-Wolf

Many people supported me in various ways in the process of researching and writing this book. At Temple University, I am grateful to all of my colleagues who provided the intellectual and moral support that made this project possible. In particular, I thank Carolyn Kitch for her continuing encouragement over the years, for her assistance in developing a book proposal, and, more generally, for serving as the most amazing (albeit frustratingly unattainable) role model. I am deeply indebted to Andrew Mendelson for his willingness to give me the flexibility to conduct research abroad in his capacity as chair of the Journalism Department and for his help and support as a friend. I thank Nancy Morris and Patrick Murphy for their willingness to read the manuscript, for their insightful comments, and for cheering me on when I faltered. Also crucial was Temple Universitys financial support for my fieldwork provided through two summer research grants and a sabbatical leave.

At the University of Pennsylvania, I thank Marwan Kraidy for being a constant inspiration, for our numerous productive chats, for sharing his knowledge of academic publishing, and for his feedback on various drafts of the manuscript. I thank the Annenberg School for Communication for inviting me to present at the Real Worlds: Global Perspectives on the Politics of Reality Television conference. I also thank series editor Joseph Turow for helping me write a stronger and clearer book that people might actually want to read.

My graduate students in the Media and Communication doctoral program were the source of many provocative conversations and revisions to the text. The reviewers comments and suggestions provided another invaluable guide to the numerous rounds of revisions. I am deeply thankful that they were willing to find the time in their busy schedule to read the manuscript and provide a fresh perspective on the text. Some of the materials included in builds on reflections I started to develop in Getting over Our Page vi Illusion doptique: From Globalization to Mondialisation (through French rap) (Communication Theory 18, no.2 [2008]).

Perhaps most importantly, this research would not have been possible without the help of my informants in France, Japan, and the United States, who generously gave their time and opened their homes to me. I am particularly grateful to those informants in Japan who have kept me in touch with the rapid developments in Japanese popular culture throughout the years and who often helped me secure the basic material support and information necessary to do my work when I first entered their lives as a graduate student. Words cannot describe their generosity or how grateful I am for their continuing involvement. I have chosen to refer to them throughout the book as informants rather than participants or co-researchers not to minimize their incredible contribution to my work but, on the contrary, to highlight how I am disproportionately benefiting from their willingness to share their knowledge. I am particularly indebted to my interpreter and research assistant Yasumi Okame who has been with me since the beginning even when I had very little to offer as compensation for her incredibly hard work. I also want to thank all the friends and neighbors on the 400 block who have supported my research in Philadelphia.

The fact that my mentor Hanno Hardt will not get to read this book simply breaks my heart, but I am glad I had a chance to discuss the project with him the last time we were together in Slovenia. He will always be present in my writing even though he is no longer with us. I thank his wife Vida for her continuing support and hospitality in the summers.

Finally, my husband John and daughters Hana and Mei were instrumental in bringing this project to completion. I am grateful for their willingness to accompany me in the field and to put up with my writing-induced absent-mindedness. I thank Hana and Mei for the role they have played in keeping me connected with Japanese animation and French television programming and for helping me keep things in perspective by bringing daily joy to my life. I thank John for serving as a patient sounding board for my ideas, for his unwavering moral support, and for designing the books magnificent cover image. I dedicate this work to them with all my love.