Japanese American Interview Paper

There have been many research studies on the topic of LGBT characters in media, but I decided to make my study unique by studying how they are understood by a certain cultural group. I chose Japanese Americans because Japan and America have very contrasting views and distinct understanding on the LGBT community in society. With this, my audience based research question was the following: how are Mitch and Cam understood by the Japanese American community? To answer the question I created, I chose to interview one of my friends, Mira. Mira is half Japanese and half French. She was born in Paris but lived most of her life in Tokyo where she attended a school with an American education system. She speaks English, Japanese, and French fluently …show more content…
Throughout the interview she was able to provide insightful comments which were backed from both the Japanese and American perspectives. Her awareness of the issue allowed me to gain a fascinating understanding of the topic. The understanding of Mitch and Cam’s character among Japanese Americans varies depending on the extent of cultural exposure to Japan and/or America; while individuals who are more immersed in Japanese culture may feel uneasy about Mitch and Cam’s depiction on the show due to unfamiliarity with “domestic” and “realistic” gay couples in media and society, most Japanese Americans who are bi/multi-cultural are generally accepting of the characters. The method I chose was an in-depth interview. An in-depth interview provides my Mira’s personal account of media engagement. As the interviewer, I was able to see how she observes media. I was not as interested in media elicitation or the phenomenon as much, which is what focus groups provide. Rather, I wanted to gain a better understanding of Mira’s interaction with the text and topic through an asymmetrical collaboration which was semi-structured where I would be able to choose the questions to ask and thus have more power. I was able to