hi Han, this sounds really interesting. Could you please send me a copy? or pointers to other work you might have done... Thanks jon
Hello Greg and others:
For my master's thesis, I did a grounded theory study on representations of race in online personal ads at a site called "Gay.com." Gay.com personals serve as chat profiles with some social network features such as "Buddies" (of Friendster and myspace) and "Hot list." This may be relevant to your interests.
For the study, I was interested in learning about how and through what rhetorical themes race gets mapped out and configured in online environments where the immediate corporeal body--a biased metaphor general public tends to associate with race--fails to exist.
In the study, I've identified some themes:
1. Race as being The Other 2. Race as place 3. Race as body 4. Race as culture
and conclude that race is a very incoherent social construct (thus it is not as real as many people believe) that shifts its conceptual metaphors from one to another that are significantly different and yet it has "real" social consequences.
When designing the study, I also considered Friendster, myspace, Match.com, Bear411.com, and other sites that are devoted to one particular race/ethnic group and others who like that group (e.g., AsianAvenue.com). But I decided to go with Gay.com because the site had less restricted censorship in terms of what members could say in their profiles; the discourse of race was overtly present in the name of sexual politics (many people positioned themselves and others relying on/going against racial stereotypes); and the site was not restricted to one racial group, which was essential in generating general themes about the race concept. My choice of the site (or the sampling pool) had very specific reasons. The selection of myspace in your case may impose a different set of questions and goals.
Anyhow, if this sounds interesting to you, please contact me off the list and I will email you a copy.
Cheers,
Han
On 3/24/06, Greg Wise <Greg.Wise@asu.edu> wrote:
Hi folks, Just following up on the myspace thread that bounced around here last month: anyone know of any work regarding myspace and race? In particular representation, self-presentation, etc. of race on myspace (or similar sites). The article in the NYT a few weeks ago on online self-portraits got me thinking about identity performance and negotiation on such sites.
cheers,
Greg Wise _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Han N. Lee, Ph.D. Student Department of Communication, Machmer Hall University of Massachusetts 240 Hicks Way Amherst, MA 01003-9278 _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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