Participatory Culture

Understanding Participatory culture through Japanese video sharing platform -- Niconico Douga

Social media becomes a new trend and platform for sharing different cultures, opinions or interests. This trend enhances a modern idea called participatory culture. According to Jenkins, participatory culture means individuals can be both consumers and producers that can share their creations to others who have the same interests in social media(2009). Take a popular Japanese video-sharing platform -- Niconico Douga(Niconico) as an example.

Niconico is a platform where individuals or companies can share videos and streams about Japanese anime. Also, it has live-commenting on videos and streams which allows the content creators or streamers to interact with viewers. The comments will also slide through the video for anyone who is watching which increases the interaction of viewers.

Niconico with Participatory Culture

Niconico enhances the development of remix culture. One of the characteristics of Niconico is everyone can post their creations based on anime. Many new creations are made by fans creativity. For instance, I watched the animate song arrangement which is the opening of "A Certain Scientific Railgun"(figure1). People can immerse themselves into the culture by generating videos instead of only purchasing the official products which genuinely diversify the ways to enjoy animation. Also, by watching this video, it allows people to learn and help many people start designing their content. For example, some videos contributed to the animate opening song by making a karaoke version. People within this platform have equal opportunities to learn and create their ideas which boosting the remix culture on the Internet.

Figure1 The arrangement of the animate opening song([Electone] I tried playing only my railgun magnificently [Railgun] https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12462390 )

Also, this platform raises the participation of the culture. In the past, if you want to recognize the people who have the same interests, you need to join some meeting or fan clubs. But nowadays, everyone can join the social media group where have a kindred spirit or explore via hashtags. It gives a larger chance for individuals to explore the content to see if they are interested. Meanwhile, people can choose not to disclose their favourites with the anonymity of socials. If you search the anime on Niconico, you will find out many “MADvideos” which are using an anime video clip applied different music. They use the live-comment to chat or exchange opinions about the MAD or anime(figure2). Therefore, Niconico offered a broad platform that can exchange subculture and connect with different fandoms in the same platform.

Figure2 The video comments ([MAD] A Certain Scientific Railgun S Episode 1 with Various mistakes https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm20708072 )

In this case, people who access those platforms are looking for animation-related content. However, regardless of how innovative or discussing drawing this commentary and derivative videos are, they will most likely be flagged for copyright. With this being more common, the community guideline is necessary to be more clear on the percentage of content can be modelled off the original one. In retrospect, content creators do have a responsibility to post work that is original to some extent and add their interpretations into it to deepen the ideology of posting onto those platforms.

Conclusion

Niconico provides a platform for animate lovers to communicate, learn or share opinions with the same interests, or participate in the social network by uploading different incredible content. People nowadays not only can consume what they like but also can engage in interests virtually which people may enjoy more.

---

Reference

Garner, K. (2019). The Digital Otaku: Anime, Participatory Culture, and Desire. California State University, Long Beach.

Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture : media education for the 21st century. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.