Comments on: Biased Attitudes Towards Manga

By: Jules

Jules — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:25:41 +0000

@Glo

Actually, I didn’t write the open letter to the Times. Erica Friedman did.

By: Snark

Snark — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:55:22 +0000

Just to play devil’s advocate, I can imagine a reviewer who isn’t already a big manga fan becoming jaded over the medium after the 20th high school based harem comedy that they had to review -_-;

By: Glo

Glo — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:50:19 +0000

That kind of grinds my gears. That initial review was terribly bias (I would admit so even if I did not read manga), and that note that you wrote to them was perfect. Hopefully the Times makes a few changes.

By: Jules

Jules — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:23:03 +0000

You mean murder and torture are more important than romance and humor. That I agree, unless you were referring to Walking Dead then nevermind, but still their cred goes down slightly for such a little flaw that should have been learned in Journalism school.

By: hashi

hashi — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:50:04 +0000

Murder and torture are so much more respectable than romance and deep humor. Really. The Times is a great newspaper, but clearly has some staffing problems. However, it’s not easy: getting a shounen fan to review shoujo manga could be just as problematic.

By: zzeroparticle

zzeroparticle — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:15:13 +0000

Maybe this is why newspapers are dying? That they’re years behind the trends, lack people who can write about such upcoming topics, and come off in ways that show how hilariously misinformed they are?

Well, OK, that was a bit harsh since I do respect the times for most other things than their graphic novels bestsellers lists. My guess is that such a section isn’t really important enough for them to want to find someone who’s more knowledgeable, and if that is their rationale, I can sorta sympathize with it since there are more important topics to cover other than manga.

By: Jules

Jules — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:46:11 +0000

Ah, but the thing is newspaper writers aren’t supposed to show their biased side at all. The only time a writer can show any biased views at all is if they are critiquing or reviewing something. Even though it was something I learned in Journalism, that rule still holds up in today’s newspapers. That is what surprises me the most about the Times writer for the manga summary.

By: Yumeka

Yumeka — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:30:59 +0000

That kind of bias irks me too. Since anime and manga are still niche genres in America, usually the people who write about them in big media companies like The Times don’t have a clue about them. So their reports are usually full of misinformation or unjustifiably biased in this case. You shouldn’t write about or criticize something you’re ignorant about, but unfortunately it happens all the time.