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DESIGNING FOR A JAPANESE HIGH-CONTEXT CULTURE: CULTURE'S INFLUENCE ON THE TECHNICAL WRITER'S VISUAL RHETORIC
Title
DESIGNING FOR A JAPANESE HIGH-CONTEXT CULTURE: CULTURE'S INFLUENCE ON THE TECHNICAL WRITER'S VISUAL RHETORIC.
Creator
Carpenter, Russell, Flammia, Madelyn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This thesis analyzes the challenges technical writers face when designing documents for high-context cultures, such as the Japanese. When developing documents intended to cross cultural gulfs, technical writers must take into consideration cultural expectations, preferences, and practices in document design and communication. High-context cultures, such as Japan, design documents using drastically different design strategies than those used in the United States. Japanese communication habits...
Show moreThis thesis analyzes the challenges technical writers face when designing documents for high-context cultures, such as the Japanese. When developing documents intended to cross cultural gulfs, technical writers must take into consideration cultural expectations, preferences, and practices in document design and communication. High-context cultures, such as Japan, design documents using drastically different design strategies than those used in the United States. Japanese communication habits are more ambiguous than communication in the United States. Thus, the Japanese often use visuals for their aesthetic appeal, not for their ability to complement the text that surrounds the visual. The ambiguous nature of high-context culture communication habits often pose problems when Americans try to communicate--whether through written or oral communication--with a high-context audience. Without careful analysis and research into these cultural implications, the technical writer risks developing unsuccessful documents that do not accomplish the goals of the communication. It takes years of research to understand cultural differences, especially in the case of Japanese communication habits. With the research presented in this thesis, technical writers will understand better how to address document design issues when designing for high-context cultures in general and the Japanese culture specifically. In order to effectively analyze document design strategies across cultures, I have collected documents from two cultures--from the United States and from Japan. These two cultures represent a low-context culture, the United States, and a high-context culture, Japan. The United States and Japan are opposite each other on Edward T. Hall's cultural continuum, providing ideal subjects for a cross-cultural document design analysis. Using previous research in document design and cultural studies, I have established a grid for analyzing visual elements in the documents I have collected--full color automobile sales booklets. I analyze both high- and low-context documents against this grid. The various document design grids allow for visual representation of document design decisions in both cultures. American international technical communicators can use these grids as a starting point for addressing the cultural implications of document design for high-context audiences. The research presented in this thesis shows that high- and low-context cultures use visuals much differently. Readers, in both cultures, are persuaded differently by visual elements. By exploring and analyzing the use of visuals such as photos, diagrams, line drawings, and the way both cultures use visuals to approach their audiences, this thesis attempts to present an explanation of visuals in high-context cultures that will aid American technical writers who design documents for international audiences. This thesis uses Japanese cultural analysis and Japanese design theories to explain high-context design decisions applied to Japanese documents.
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Date Issued
2005
Identifier
CFE0000372, ucf:46336
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000372
Touching the Unreal: The Definition, Narrative Strategies, and Aesthetics of 3D Cartoon Narratives.
Title
Touching the Unreal: The Definition, Narrative Strategies, and Aesthetics of 3D Cartoon Narratives.
Creator
Snow, Nathan, Mauer, Barry, Applen, JD, Grajeda, Anthony, Larsen, Darl, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
(")Touching the Unreal(") follows the structure set out by Scott McCloudin Understanding Comics to argue that understanding cartoons is serious business and requires that we define the art form, outline its basic tenets, and theorize how the mind understands it. The dissertation argues for a new definition of 3D computer generated cartoons, beginning with the most basic definition applicable to all forms of animation and taking into account new technological developments before arriving at...
Show more(")Touching the Unreal(") follows the structure set out by Scott McCloudin Understanding Comics to argue that understanding cartoons is serious business and requires that we define the art form, outline its basic tenets, and theorize how the mind understands it. The dissertation argues for a new definition of 3D computer generated cartoons, beginning with the most basic definition applicable to all forms of animation and taking into account new technological developments before arriving at the 3D cartoon narratives of today. The dissertation outlines the basic facets of 3D cartoon narratives in terms of narrative and aesthetics, arguing that, in spite of the technological changes required to produce the art form, narrative strategies have not changed significantly from 2D to 3D cartoon narratives. Rather, the 3D cartoon narrative aesthetic is focused primarily on synthetic, sculptural materiality to create a tactile, haptic viewing experience unavailable in any other form of animation. The dissertation advances theories of how the mind understands 3D cartoon narratives, starting with how these films guide the spectator to pre-determined conclusions based on character identification, flow theory, and mirror-neuron cognition. As a result of their narrative, aesthetics, and reception, these films constitute a new form of posthumanism and operate as a node in the modern viewer's web of distributed cognition, enchanting viewers through the ability to touch the unreal, synthetic images common to the modern world. (")Touching the Unreal(") contributes to the media field by providing a definition for 3D computer animation in all of its facets as genre, narrative, aesthetics, and ideology.
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Date Issued
2018
Identifier
CFE0007101, ucf:51962
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007101
Mutable Means: An Exploration of Communication and Identity Through Visual and Verbal Deconstruction
Title
Mutable Means: An Exploration of Communication and Identity Through Visual and Verbal Deconstruction.
Creator
Castellanos, Reina, Price, Mark, Adams, JoAnne, Harris, Christopher, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Increasingly defined by my status as a Nonimmigrant Alien, I have lived longer in the United States than in my native Venezuela. Knowing my stay in this country will be temporary, I examine feelings of uncertainty about my future by deconstructing communication(-)both visual and verbal. Through ambiguity I express anxieties on my personal circumstances and retain objectivity in regard to my process through intellectual inquiry. I layer words, images, and sound to mirror my frustrations, and...
Show moreIncreasingly defined by my status as a Nonimmigrant Alien, I have lived longer in the United States than in my native Venezuela. Knowing my stay in this country will be temporary, I examine feelings of uncertainty about my future by deconstructing communication(-)both visual and verbal. Through ambiguity I express anxieties on my personal circumstances and retain objectivity in regard to my process through intellectual inquiry. I layer words, images, and sound to mirror my frustrations, and project the conflict of my internal dialogue.
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Date Issued
2016
Identifier
CFE0006086, ucf:50949
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006086