Leiden University Student Repository

Zhang, Xinxin Cindy (2018)

The Arbitrarily Systematized World(s) and the Media Mix

Master thesis | Asian Studies (120 EC) (MA)

This thesis explores how the media mix, the Japanese equivalent of the media franchise, influences the entertainment experiences of its fan audiences through a case study. It not only analyzes in what ways the anime media mix of Yuri!!! on ICE functions as a system, in which media content is dispersed and consumed in different media forms, but it also explores the ways Yuri!!! on ICE is experienced as a world of its own that is interrelated with various other existing worlds, such as the world of professional figure skating, the online and temporary (event) spaces centered on fan culture and its communities, and the various existing cities on which the world of Yuri!!! on ICE is based. By analyzing not only a specific franchise, but also the variety of texts that relate with it from different theoretical perspectives, this thesis looks for gaps that can be filled in between different but related theories on media, semiotics, culture and space, particularly on the (re)construction of...Show moreThis thesis explores how the media mix, the Japanese equivalent of the media franchise, influences the entertainment experiences of its fan audiences through a case study. It not only analyzes in what ways the anime media mix of Yuri!!! on ICE functions as a system, in which media content is dispersed and consumed in different media forms, but it also explores the ways Yuri!!! on ICE is experienced as a world of its own that is interrelated with various other existing worlds, such as the world of professional figure skating, the online and temporary (event) spaces centered on fan culture and its communities, and the various existing cities on which the world of Yuri!!! on ICE is based. By analyzing not only a specific franchise, but also the variety of texts that relate with it from different theoretical perspectives, this thesis looks for gaps that can be filled in between different but related theories on media, semiotics, culture and space, particularly on the (re)construction of arbitrarily systematized worlds (both actual and virtual) through cultural production, signification and play.Show less

popular culture

convergence

semiotics

intertextuality

information society

media studies

consumption

media mix

Author

Zhang, Xinxin Cindy

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Japanese Studies

Supervisors

Smits, I.B.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en