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PN 057
The Importance of Language and Nationality in Understanding a Globally Uniform Media Product: Comparing The Hobbit Film
Audiences in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands
T. Krijnen
1
, P. Meers
2
, D. Biltereyst
3
, A. Veenstra
2
1
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2
Antwerp University, Antwerp, Belgium
3
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
The Hobbit franchise, as many global media products, reaches audiences worldwide. Audience members apparently consume a uniformmedia product. But
do they?The spoken language of the movies differs globally, because of dubbing or subtitling. Either could have an impact on audiences' understanding and
experience of the film. TheWorld Hobbit Project offers a new and exciting opportunity to explore these differences, for it provides us with audiences' under‑
standings of the trilogy across languages and nationalities. In this paper we analyze statistically differences and similarities in understandings ofThe Hobbit
trilogy between Belgium, the Netherlands, and France – both in what audiences do and do not feel The Hobbit films to be. Analyzing this particular region
in Europe provides an extraordinary opportunity, for TheWorld Hobbit project allows us to compare on the language level (the Dutch and French-speaking
Belgian regions with respectively the Netherlands and France), as well as on the level of national identities (comparing the three countries amongst each
other). In doing so, we are able to further understand what informs geographical and linguistic differences in the consumption of a uniformmedia product.
As such, this paper touches upon cultural hegemony, cross-border flows of fiction, language and cultural proximity.
PN 058
Blockbuster or Literary Art Work? Distinct Meanings of The Hobbit in Austria for Different Generations
S. Trültzsch-Wijnen
1
1
University of Salzburg, Dept. of Communication, Salzburg, Austria
The World Hobbit Project gathered data from 46 countries (N=36.109). In an overall perspective there are common relations and tendencies according to
the role of Tolkiens work for the rating of the movies, the role of fantasy and many more. In order to work with those data, the different cultural traditions
have to be taken into account and a breakdown for specific countries is needed as first step in order to discuss cultural similarities and differences. This
presentation is focussing on Austria, which does not have a developed tradition of Tolkien’s work as part of common shared culture, like it can be found in
many English speaking countries. Tolkien’s books became popular with young adults related to the Lord of the Rings movies in the years after 2000. It can
be seen as an aftermath of the movies popularity, which already passed the peak by the end of 2010. This includes that also The Hobbit book is not seen as
children’s literature and much more as a sequel of the Lord of the Rings books. The data gathered within the World Hobbit project illustrate such cultural
aspects for the Austrian Sample (n=706). The presentation is focussing on the quantitative data, but includes some first arguments from the qualitative
data (open ended questions). Accordingly the presentation focuses on the generational dividing line that can be found in the data, between youth (15–25)
and young adults (26–35). In the youngest agegroup are very few readers ofTolkien’s works and they most likely see the movies as Hollywood blockbusters.
At the same time there is a high number of readers of Tolkien’s books among the young adults which see the movies more as literary adaption and part
of Tolkien’s world of fantasy. Additionally between these agegroups differences occur regarding the individual meaning of fantasy for their life and its func‑
tions for society and culture in general.The young adults are more likely engaged in fan activities and see the plot in a complex set of meanings, which is not
relevant for the younger ones. To illustrate the specifics of the Austrian sample the data are compared to the answers from the English speaking countries in
an overview. These results from the quantitative part of the online-questionnaire can be understood and interpreted taking the open ended questions into
account, which illustrate the different meaning of the movies for the agegroups and give insight into the individual background of such positions including
aspects of everyday life and media socialisation. In that way it can be shown, that the different meanings of the movie are connected to a distinction be‑
tween ‘mainstream’and ‘real involvement’with Tolkiens world of fantasy as labelled in the answers.