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The cultural context of media interpretation 327

spheres. Whether or not there is too much violence in programmes is a subjec-
tive question as much as it is a scientific one: the answer lies, to a large extent,
in the prevailing public taste and opinion.” These public opinions, I would sug-
gest, are the representations we are communicating and negotiating within a
particular cultural context. Taking the example of the Hong Kong kung fu movie
genre, one interpretation is that these movies contain a series of violent inci-
dents. However, this is not the only interpretation. Bruce Lee, the superstar of
the genre, preferred to class his work as ‘action’ rather than ‘violence’ (Logan
1995). The performance of the other major star, Jackie Chan, is viewed by the
audience as balletic and comedic (Clemetson 1996). Thus, we should not expect
the same discourse of media violence for a community such as Hong Kong with
its lower levels of youth violence and we would not expect the same connotation
to be placed on children imitating their screen heroes.
If we look at the example of Japan, we can see that recently there have been
public concerns about youth violence (e.g., Balasegaram 2001), particularly as
a result of well-publicized murders by young people (despite Japan remaining
a country with extremely low rates of crime, see Tamura 2004). Here, however,
the debate about the causes of these crimes has focused on the nature of modern
Japanese society, rather than specially on the media. It has been suggested that
a social and economic system geared up for material success has led to a high
degree of pressure on the young for academic success and many find it difficult
to cope, becoming socially isolated (referred to as ‘hikikomori’). Thus, the
question of youth violence is contextualized within both the role of the edu-
cation system and the nature of social relations within Japanese society in a
period of change. Whilst there are discussions of how to deal with young
people in the criminal justice system, much of the debate has focused on the so-
cial bonds and social control within the changing Japanese society and the
spiritual and emotional well-being of the young within it (Japan Echo 2000a
2000b 2001 2005). Hence, in Japan, the recent publicity about youth violence
has not led to an examination of the media per se, but rather to an examination
of society itself.

3. Audience interpretation

As well as the considerable amount of work on media effects, there has been a
second strand of research that has examined the active role an audience plays in
interpreting the meanings of media messages (Livingstone 1990). Much of this
work, interestingly, has focused on audience involvement with television dra-
mas, commonly referred to as soap operas. In the modern global marketplace,
television programmes from the United States of America have been exported
to many countries round the world and these programmes (many of them soap