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5. Mizuko Ito, “Japanese Media Mixes and Amateur Cultural Exchange”

Summary

Japanese otaku culture encompasses a variety of media forms and active practices of remixing and remaking, suggesting ways that youth fan culture is always active.

Questions

1. What is participatory culture? How is it ordinarily a marginal activity?
2. How does otaku compare to Grossberg’s definition of a fan?
3. How is participation central to yugioh and card-trading activities?
4. How do girls participate in doujinshi that suggests an active remaking and remixing practice?
5. How is amateur cultural production of otaku cultures at odds with elite and high-brow concepts of culture and education?