ITO (family name) Youichi (given name) Akita International University, Akita-shi, Japan
[email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
Since about twenty years ago, I have published many articles on kuuki (the Japanese term meaning atmospheric social pressure). When the idea was presented in the Journal of Communication in 1993, it caught some attention and the term
kuuki was adopted as an independent entry in the fifth edition of Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies (2000). In 2009, the “Japanese kuuki theory” was
adopted as an independent entry in Encyclopedia of Communication Theory.Despite all these, my idea on the social influence of atmosphere has not been well accepted by mainstream social scientists. Major reasons for it were: (1) “Atmosphere” is ambiguous and not measurable. (2) Even if some atmosphere may have some social influence, it must be a secondary reason and the “real” reason must be somewhere else. Until recently, I could not effectively refute these criticisms.
Recently, however, I came across a book on the comparative study of aesthetics between the East and the West. According to this book, Western painters and poets encountered for the first time in the 19th century the East Asian aesthetics that emphasizes the beauty of atmosphere. Western artists before the 19th century were naturally aware of the existence of atmosphere. However, they had not thought that it could be the main target of painting or poetry. For them, atmosphere had been only a secondary or supplementary existence. The traditional concern of Western artists had been physical (or objective) entity such as mountains or flowers and their attributes (shape, color, etc.) OR psychological (or subjective) entity such as emotion and feelings of individuals (Boehme, 1995). In my opinion, the same can be said about the Western academic tradition. For Western academicians the target of their concern has been either physical (or objective) entity or psychological (or subjective) entity.
As for the ambiguity or measurability of atmosphere, it is not at all difficult to quantify atmosphere especially
kuuki, the Japanese concept meaning atmospheric social pressure. I have published many
empirical studies on political or social pressure of atmosphere by content analyses of newspapers and questionnaire surveys. I am now conducting every year, questionnaire surveys to measure the longitudinal fluctuations of “anti-atomic-power-generator kuuki” after the Fukushima atomic generator accident in 2013. In my presentation, I will show the results of these empirical surveys.Also, due to the strong influence of the natural sciences, social sciences also tend to assume that
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only one reason explains one result. Actually, however, social phenomena are so complicated that it is common that there are many reasons for one result. For example, why did Japan decide to attack Hawaii in 1941, or why could the Nazi Party seize power in Germany? There are many reasons for them and any stated one reason is only one of many reasons. Therefore, atmosphere may be a secondary reason in some cases, but there is no reason to determine that it must be ALWAYS a secondary reason. . .
Just as Westerners learned the beauty of atmosphere from East Asian arts and poems, I would like to develop the theories of political and social influences of atmosphere and have Western social scientists realize its importance as a cause of political and social events and change.
Keywords:
Political or Social Pressure, Atmosphere, Conformity and Compliance.References
Boehme, G. (1995). Atmosphaere: Essays zur neuen Aestetik [Atmosphere: Essays for New Aesthetics].
Frankfurt am Mein, Suhr kamp Verlag.
Ito, Y (1993). The Future of Political Communication Research: A Japanese Perspective.
Journal of Communication 43(4):69-79.
Ito, Y (2002). Climate of Opinion,
Kuuki, and Democracy. In W. Gudykunst (ed.) Communication Yearbook, 26. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ito, Y (2009). Japanese Kuuki Theory. In S. W. Littlejohn & K. Foss (eds.), Encyclopedia of
Communication Theory. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Pp. 573-574.
Ito, Y (2014). The Kuuki Theory and the Spiral-of-Silence. In W. Donsbach, C. T. Salmon, & Y. Tsfati (eds.)
The Impact of the Spiral of Silence Theory: New Perspectives on Communication and Public Opinion. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 201-209.
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Netnography: a novel internet-based approach to Ethnographic research in Psychology
Aida Dehkhoda1 & R. Glynn Owens21School of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
2School of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
*Corresponding author email: [email protected]
Abstract
Ethnography is one of the most in-depth research methodologies that being used to obtain rich insight into humane, social, organizational and cultural aspects of any understudy phenomena in its context.
However, as this method requires a long term face-to-face immersion in the relevant field, it is time- consuming and hugely expensive. A faster, simpler, and less expensive alternative is the Netnography method which studies cultures via computer-mediated communities instead of conducting fieldwork in the real world. This method aims to gather its data through participant observation and interaction with online communities’ members. Given the growth of computer-mediated communication, researchers using Netnography attempt to acknowledge its importance in culture members’ lives by including the data from various online and offline sources.
Since the time that Kozinets coined the term ‘netnography’ in 1996, this method has been used mainly in the field of consumer and marketing research. However like marketing, psychology is also a social science and can benefit from research using such methodology with an in-depth qualitative approach to communities, cultures, social behaviours, etc. This coupled with the fact that people have shifted to use social networks to express their thought, discuss public matters, and receive help or advice from online support/social group, highlights a need to adopt netnographic guidelines of marketing research in the psychological filed. This contributes to applying a rather new methodology in a different discipline for a first time.
The present paper outlines some of the key elements in designing and carrying out a netnography study. These include decisions regarding approach (e.g. observation or participant observation), data sources (e.g. closed or open sites), data collection and analysis strategies and interpretation of results.
Whilst netnographic approaches may have several advantages over traditional ethnographic approaches, there are also limitations which may need to be addressed.
Keywords: Netnography, Ethnography, Research methodology, Online Community, computer- mediated communications.
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