Without much more than a glance at the AnimeFreak.TV, it is
apparent that the site possesses one key element of a community right off the
bat: the hobby/interest. AnimeFreak is a site which revolves around Japanese anime
and manga; the target audience is people who have an interest in enjoying (by
watching or reading) anime/manga as a
hobby. There are also lingual boundaries for the AnimeFreak community: most
content on the site is not understandable to anybody who does not know Japanese
or English. For example, most anime episodes on the site are - for the most
part - preserved in their original Japanese format with only English subtitles
added on (or "subbed") or they are edited to have English voice
actors rather than Japanese ones ("dubbed"). In both cases, somebody
who is familiar with neither of these languages cannot properly enjoy the
content, so they are outside of the community's lingual boundaries.
The common goal among the community's members is to indulge
in their anime/manga hobby and rate good content for others to hopefully check
out. Members are able to rate content on a scale from 1 to 5
"hearts"; in this way, they can see a general outline of how well an
episode or issue was received by other viewers before checking it out, which is
a simplistic form of participation but still enough to benefit a community. The
capital is the amount of content available to members of the community and the
size of the community itself. The governance is left in the hands of the site
administrators, so no extended privileges appear to be given to frequent users.
Based on these observations, AnimeFreak.TV certainly does
fit our definition of a community.
-B
-B
I would disagree with you that this site is a community due to the fact that there is little place to actually have conversations with others about anime. While the common goal and common interest are present, I would consider this a similar interest site over a community.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying and I'm glad you touched base with all of the issues. However, I'm with Caitlin on this. I think the site encompasses and even serves a special population. It does have barriers (linguistic and interest-wise) which serve as boundaries, but there really doesn't seem to be an provision for governance, protection, or privilege for membership; it's wide open--an electronic frontier, but not necessarily a community where people cooperate and interact. It's up for debate, certainly, but I chose the site because I thought it was lacking in community.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. I thought that it met the minimal requirements to be considered a community of sorts, but just barely so. Without the "rating" system, I would have definitely said it was not enough to be considered a community, but I figured that function being included was just enough to make it qualify.
DeleteI agree with Caitlin and professor Wilson. I agree that anime and manga themselves are fertile ground for large, thriving communities, but animefreak.tv specifically does not encourage or sponsor communication or discussion about the topic which it represents, so the site specifically is not a community. It may be used by a community but does not form one independently.
ReplyDeleteI will admit to watching anime and I will admit to thinking that the Japanese language can be hard to understand when watching anime. Because you are really trying to figure out what is happening but you can't figure it out. The language barrier can be a problem for people who are not familiar with that language.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, but it really doesn't address the community debate. It's a valid observation, though.
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