ABSTRACT
The aim of this book has been to understand the diversity, dynamism and complexity of audiences in the global rich media environment of today and create an integrated framework of the sort Silverstone argues is required. In this chapter I wish to address three issues. In the fi rst section, I will, through a summary of my fi ndings in terms of the complexity model of audiences which I proposed in Chapter 1, indicate the complexity and dynamism of Japanese audiences today. Secondly, in the context of globalisation, we face two important issues related to the cultural, social and political debate about universalism and cultural specifi city: these are (a) cultural homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation (cf. Appadurai, 1990) and (b) universalism ‘in the West’ and peculiarity ‘in the Rest’ within the tradition of social science (cf. Hall, 1992b; Iyotani, 2002). I will address the latter issue with reference to my aim of the ‘internationalisation’ of media studies in the second section. In the third section, and fi nal part of the book, I will consider the possibility of a recreated self-identity in a global Japan and the future of globalisation, addressing the former issue of universalism and cultural specifi city.
