Marginalized groups study Nееt

1.

Faculty of Creative Industries
Institute of Media
Representation of the NEET
Generation in Anime Series:
Discourse of (De)normalization
Student: Nikita Kostyukov
Academic Advisor: Evgeniya Nim, Associate Professor
Moscow
2023

2.

Institute of Media
Representation of the NEET
Generation in Anime Series:
Discourse of (De)normalization
Moscow
2023
2
RESEARCH RELEVANCE AND NOVELTY
RELEVANCE
NOVELTY
Marginalized groups study
NEET
Soft power strategies
Anime impact on social category image
Anime as a transnational product
A Japanese anime as a tool of national branding

3.

Moscow, 2023
Institute of Media
Faculty of Creative Industries
3
LITERATURE ANALYSIS
NEET issue in Japan and anime industry
Norms in Japan
NEET issue in Japan
Anime as a tool of soft
power
Contribute to conformity and
hierarchy through specific
institutional practices developed
by powerful actors, suck as
government and firms. The
ongoing shift is observed
NEET as a category are
constructed as marginalized group
that caused moral panic around
itself
A contemporary the most
powerful cultural product to
develop a national branding and
construct an images of Japan
either among Japanese citizens
and foreign fans

4.

Moscow, 2023
Institute of Media
Faculty of Creative Industries
4
OBJECTIVE AND TASKS
Identify the discursive and narrative features of the representation of NEET in anime series in order to
define normalisation or/and stigmatisation discourses
to identify the features of the social structure of Japanese society, its values and
social norms;
to characterise the NEET generation and the public discourses arising around it;
to consider anime as a transcultural media product that constructs the image of
Japan, as well as representing various social groups and problems;
to identify the features of the representation of the NEET generation in anime series in
the context of normalisation or/and stigmatisation;
to group and systematise identified codes forming NEET discourse in anime series.

5.

Moscow, 2023
Institute of Media
Faculty of Creative Industries
RESEARCH DESIGN
analysis of the contemporary norms in Japan and their shift;
analysis of the NEET origin and specifics in Japan;
observation of the anime as a political tool and a source of representation;
considering empirical base;
performing research on narrative and discoursive NEET representation
specifics in anime.
5

6.

Moscow, 2023
Institute of Media
Faculty of Creative Industries
6
METHODS
Critical discourse analysis method
Labov’s narrative analysis
T. Van Dijk’s approach. Analyses between 2 levels of language:
micro- and macro-levels
Examining story through its casualties
Hall’s representation theory
Barthes’ semiotic analysis
Investigation of the connotative and denotative meanings
of visual images
Investigation of the connotative and denotative meanings
of visual images

7.

Institute of Media
Representation of the NEET
Generation in Anime Series:
Discourse of (De)normalization
Moscow
2023
7
NORMS AND NEET IN JAPAN
Literature analysis
Norms base on collectivity and hierarchy,
which are maintained by specific practices
in institutions (schools, firms) by powerful
actors, such as the government and
employers.
NEET are culturally represented as a
threat to well-being of society. A
marginalised shameful group

8.

Institute of Media
Representation of the NEET
Generation in Anime Series:
Discourse of (De)normalization
Moscow
2023
ANIME SPECIFICS
Literature analysis
Main transcultural media product
nowadays. Constructs national image
among domestic consumers and
foreigners
8

9.

Institute of Media
Representation of the NEET
Generation in Anime Series:
Discourse of (De)normalization
Moscow
2023
9
EMPIRICAL BASE
NHK ni
Youkoso!
(2006)
ReLIFE
Rozen Maiden
(2016)
(2004)

10.

Institute of Media
Representation of the NEET
Generation in Anime Series:
Discourse of (De)normalization
Moscow
2023
10
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
“To tell the truth, I know what to do.
Get out of the house right now and
get...a job. And then no one will say that
NEET lives here!”
—
Tatsuhiro Satou (NHK ni Youkoso!)
Micro level: The desire to stop being defined as
NEET, as part of a category whose participation is
considered unworthy.
Macro level: correlation with a peak of the NEET
issue by the Japanese public, when category formed
a discourse of shame around itself.

11.

Institute of Media
Representation of the NEET
Generation in Anime Series:
Discourse of (De)normalization
Moscow
2023
11
RESULTS GAINED AND ANTICIPATED
NEET were considered as a group were artificially constructed and marginalised. The revealed cultural
codes and discourses are based on the proposition that NEET is the group demonstrating reluctance
of engaging in normal practices and no will to follow the approved and accepted life
An empirical base for the study has been formed
Anime series about the NEET issue focus on the narrative of rehabilitation forming
a dual discourse
Revealed narrative, discursive and semiotic codes that form the image of NEET in
anime series partly correlate with the mainstream cultural discourse around NEET

12.

Moscow, 2023
Faculty of Creative Industries
Institute of Media
1
2
RESEARCH PROSPECTIVES
Methodology
Expansion into the field
of sociology and focus
on active fan reception
studies
Empirical base extansion
and focus on other
marginalised groups
More authentic empirical
base

13.

Faculty of Creative Industries
Institute of Media
Moscow, 2023
1
3
REFERENCES
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