Media verdicts and juvenile contestations. Analysis of the dynamics and effects of the “moral panics” around manga and “japoniaiseries” in France

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze the dynamics, effects and uses of the “moral panics” that have been directed at manga and Japanese animation series in France. It is based on the analysis of interviews conducted with readers born from the 1960s to the 1980s (some of whom are professionals and cultural intermediaries in the field of manga - booksellers, publishers, journalists, etc.), as well as on the study of a corpus of media discourses (professional press and fanzines, audiovisual and digital archives). It will proceed in two steps to analyze the media discourses, the value judgments and the mobilizations that the French reception of manga has brought into play. The first part will focus on the temporality, the media supports and the discursive registers of these alarmist positions, and then on the properties of the “moral entrepreneurs” who keep these public concerns alive during the 1980s and 1990s, their resources and the effects of their action in the media, political, judicial and administrative arenas. A second part will focus on the “counter-discourses” and mobilizations of collectives of manga lovers and professionals of publishing and specialized journalism, as well as on the forms of moral regulation that they implement in a routine manner.