1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Hidden Content Via Cultural Values : Contribution to the Theory of "Standardization and Diversity"
| Project/Area Number |
06801020
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
社会学(含社会福祉関係)
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
HOLDEN Todd Tohoku University Faculty of Language and Culture Associate Professor, 言語文化部, 助教授 (60207058)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1994 – 1995
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| Keywords | Advertising / Semiotics / Globalization / Nationalism / Comparative Sociology / Body / Color / Social Construction |
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| Research Abstract |
This research centers on whether society is becoming more or less similar in its form, structures, ideas, and activities. It studies communication, specifically television advertising, comparing two post-industrial societies : America and Japan. Advertising was selected because, in a world moving toward greater capitalist/consumption organization, advertising is one of the most important and wide-spread communication vehicles, central to social reproduction.
Four weeks of advertising were recorded from seven television stations (4 in Japan and 3 in the U.S.) in two cities with similar features. Over 670 hours of programming was recorded (336 hours per country). From this, oveer 7,000 CMs were collected. Using "theoretical sampling" a hypothetical broadcast week was constructed with a total number of 3059 CMs (1927 in Japan ; 1132 in America). Teams of 3 evaluators then content analyzed each commercial, using a coding sheet with over 50 measures.
Findings suggests that : (1) general similarity between commercial cultures can be found, yet (2) areas of difference distinguish the societies from one another. After identifying 5 factors which promote uniformity, we look at specific cases of similarity and difference. We find content convergence in the body, formatic convergence in color, formatic divergence in logos, and content divergence in political values. In a final chapter we glean lessons from these case studies. We outline a theory of convergence in the modern world and a set of concepts which can be applied to understand when convergence is at work, and what mitigating factors exist to challenge it.
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