Nico Nico Douga research has started
Our research on the Japanese video sharing platform Nico Nico Douga has started its hot phase: We conduct ethnographic research for 6 weeks in Tokyo and Osaka and talk about Nico Nico Douga with as much people as possible: How is it used? What does it mean? What is popular and why? We are of course particularly interested in Nico Nico Douga's function that enables users to write comments directly on the video.
Therefore, we talk to its users: People who watch, comment, tag and upload videos. We also talk with designers, media and film theorists, programmers, artists and anyone else, who helps us to understand Nico Nico Douga better. And of course we also use Nico Nico Douga ourselves, often together with the people we meet.
Tokyo, as it looks like for someone, who has just arrived
We might have to warn you at this place, especially if you are Japanese reader: For us, Nico Nico Douga is a new thing. There is nothing comparable in the United Kingdom. We are eager to learn more about it, but we have to learn it from scratch! So sometimes, we might talk about stuff that is self-evident for anyone from Japan. At other time we might blog about stuff that sounds pretty weird for anyone who is not. We just have to try hard to strike a balance here.
Nico Nico Douga fascinates us, because it brings together videos, sound, writing and reading in a new form. Our hunch is that Nico Nico Douga could produce a new form of media presence, and a new form of transtextuality (that is: a new way how videos relate to each otheras well as to other forms of content) – but we will only know more about this after our research!
As you might have guessed by now: We are an academic project, and our final outcomes will be academic papers and articles. Our project is not commercially oriented. It is research by the Centre For Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
A - pretty cheesy - video that advertises our College on Youtube (sigh)
This research is one of several case studies that are conducted by the Metadata project – check out Metagold or our offical website to learn more about us. Meanwhile, some of our first research on Nico Nico Douga will be published here. So come back and check it out! And even better if you comment – feel free to do so in Japanese, we will find a way to translate!
