SA represents in World Hobbit Project

Fantasy and cinema fans were ablaze with excitement and a hint of sadness as the last instalment of the hugely popular The Hobbit trilogy came to a close at the end of December.

A global research project has been undertaken by the British Academy. It has been entitled The World Hobbit Project. The project has been gathering responses from film goers across the world regarding their cinematic responses of The Hobbit trilogy.

The project has continued to be hugely ambitious. With research partners in an unprecedented 47 countries, and operating in 33 languages. The complex questionnaire has already gathered well over 25 000 responses.

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has been officially chosen as the South African representative for the project.

Lecturer at the Department of Journalism, Film, and Television Dr Michele Tager was thrilled at the opportunity to represent this global research project in a local context.

“We are the only South African university participating in this study, and as there is essentially only one academic from UJ participating in this, it has been daunting, given that many of the 47 countries taking part in the study have large research teams,” said Tager.

“Currently, we are lagging behind the other countries in terms of the number of participants who have actually completed the questionnaire, but we are hopeful that the response rate will pick up, and that South African viewers will appreciate the magnitude of the study and the opportunity that it provides to South African audiences to get their voices heard in a global context.”

An official Facebook page, The World Hobbit Project – South Africa, was created to raise awareness of the project.

The coordinator of The World Hobbit Project and professor at Aberystwyth University Martin Barker is confident that the research project would make an impact in the way audiences studies view these large fantasy spectacles.

“Our intellectual ambitions are similarly large. We aim to get at, not only people’s responses to these particular films, but more widely to their sense of what makes fantasy meaningful and valuable to different kinds of people,” said Barker.

This survey will remain online for several months to gather as many responses as possible.

When the survey period is completed, the researchers will begin their analysis of all the responses. Once they have gathered some basic information,they will post back what they have learned on their website.