Sorry - i should clarify - i don't mean that there isn't diversity in users. MySpace has more traction with youth from diverse backgrounds than any site on the web. In the schools that i'm tracking, there's no racial differentiation in MySpace participation. That said, of the kids who i've talked to who refuse to use the site, 100% are white (most come from wealthy backgrounds too... a handful view it as a political stance against Murdoch... but the number of intentional non-participants is relatively small). Urban and suburban kids are more likely to participate than rural kids, but that's the only segmentation i've really seen. But when it comes to race and class, this is not stopping participation. Working class kids are all on there - they log in at school mostly. (Interestingly, the poorer schools are less likely to have the blocking devices on their technology so underprivileged kids can log in at school while rich kids can't.) [All this said, i have no official numbers - only what i see on a daily basis... PEW is working on getting some formal numbers though.] The lack of diversity that i'm noting is within a given network (on all levels). Users' friends tend to use the same language, representation style, have the same music identification, and, on a performance level, read as the same race. Homophily at work. This probably says something significant about offline interracial friendships. Take some of the schools that i'm following in Los Angeles and Oakland. These schools are typically half Latino and half black. If i look at the kids' profiles, the Latino kids all link to each other and the black kids all link to each other but there is very little interracial connections. I hope that helps clarify. As for the clunky interface... well, that's exactly why teens wanna be there. It's their space, not adult space. And all the better that adults can't figure it out. <grin> danah On Mar 25, 2006, at 5:06 PM, radhika gajjala wrote:

dana,

I would suggest that the lack of diversity is mostly "performative" - in that - there ARE diverse users (not diverse enough of course - but then myspace is such a clunky interface anyway - I wonder why we would want access there;-) - but you know what I mean)

The percentage of racially diverse vs white may be of course still - majority white... cant say.

But one particular user group my undergrad students and I are looking at are definitely from low income families and they are bi-racial and linguistically "diverse" as well.

Of course - I also see that the "south asian" presence with its bollywood and remix music population following is there - but that's not necessarily what we mean by "race" and underprivileged youth. And the implications of this side by side with satellite TV and the South Asia packages (Sony, Z, star and so on) and whathisname media mogul having bought myspace ... will no doubt impact "race" and globalization in myspace ...

...

I know of none but would be very interested in this. I am paying attention to the (lack of) diversity in youth networks on these sites. For example, even in schools that are racially mixed, the profiles people connect to on MySpace are very homogeneous.

On Mar 24, 2006, at 7:36 PM, Greg Wise 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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...

Sorry - i should clarify - i don't mean that there isn't diversity in users. MySpace has more traction with youth from diverse backgrounds than any site on the web. In the schools that i'm tracking, there's no racial differentiation in MySpace participation. That said, of the kids who i've talked to who refuse to use the site, 100% are white (most come from wealthy backgrounds too... a handful view it as a political stance against Murdoch... but the number of intentional non-participants is relatively small). Urban and suburban kids are more likely to participate than rural kids, but that's the only segmentation i've really seen. But when it comes to race and class, this is not stopping participation. Working class kids are all on there - they log in at school mostly. (Interestingly, the poorer schools are less likely to have the blocking devices on their technology so underprivileged kids can log in at school while rich kids can't.) [All this said, i have no official numbers - only what i see on a daily basis... PEW is working on getting some formal numbers though.]

In reading this, I fall back to some of the same old tired saws... 1) where's the *data*, danah? 2) what size is N? what sampling methodology? 3) what are your classification criteria for "black", "urban", "suburban", "hispanic", etc? "working class"? [want a flamewar? here's the place to start..] 4) what's your cite on "poorer schools" vs. "richer schools"? What evidence for the proliferation of blocking mechanisms in one vs the other? If there's no data, what you have is not research - it is a set of guesses and observations that you may or may not be able to substantiate and make a strong argument out of. You might want to modulate your presentation a bit to take that into account... --e

I am not trying to provide quantitative information or even formal research findings. I'm trying to provide useful observations from living in the site for 2.5 years and from spending far too much time thinking about, talking to and spending time with teens, teachers, parents, and MySpace developers. Every day, i surf teen profiles for 1-2 hours and have for 9 months now. How i start each day differs. Some days i start by search for 16-18 year olds in different states. Some days i start with a school and spiral outwards. Some days i search for a popular name. Some days i start from a profile that is shown to me for a variety of different reasons or from the name of some kid in the press. I have no idea how many profiles i've seen - definitely tens of thousands, perhaps more? I look for ethnicity in a couple of different ways. In the blurbs, people talk about Azn pride, being Mexican, fella niggas, etc. I look at the details where people list "Ethnicity" under "Body Type" and above "Religion." Options are: Asian, Black / African descent, East Indian, Latino / Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Native American, Pacific Islander, White / Caucasian, Other. Not everyone answers this though and many lie. For example, users who upload images that resemble pre-pubescent teens with blond hair, blue eyes, very light skin who say that they are 100 years old, from Antarctica and black are probably lying. At least about something. I do not try to formalize genre distinctions, but i listen for differences in style between the music on people's profiles. It's pretty obvious when a friend group is into the latest trends in indie vs. hip hop vs. house. It's pretty obvious if the music is being sung in English, Spanish, or Japanese. There are linguistic differences in profiles that i've learned to recognize. When written with a positive connotation, nigga and niggs are usually written by people who identify as black. When written with negative connotation, the author usually marks themselves as Asian (although usually Azn) or Latino. Such expressions are particularly common in regions where there is significant racial tension. When nigger is used in a negative connotation, it is usually spoken by someone who identifies as White. Negro seems to be often used by Mexican- identified people. Mixed case like "I'm NoT NauGhTy JuX PlaYfuL" is usually written by people who identify as Asian. Street speak like "yo wtf jus cuz u say so aint makin it rite, boi" is typically spoken from people who live in urban regions and, in California, the schools they go to are typically API ranked below 5. In terms of tracking schools, this is all work that i'm doing in California. I spend a lot of time in Title 1 schools. Title 1 schools have students in the highest level of poverty; sadly, most have API ranks below 5. I also work with charter schools and private schools that cost $20K+ (these schools typically have high API ranks). No Title 1 school that i've engaged with in Northern or Southern California has blocking software or technology consultants. Every private school has a tech person. Charter schools are a mixed bag - it depends on their constituency. This maps mashup helps me understand the racial diversity in the schools: http:// map.spieslike.us/school.php This maps mashup helps me understand the API rank of the schools (which unfortunately in California, is directly correlated with socio-economic class): http:// schoolperformancemaps.com/ca/ Does that help clarify where i'm coming from? All this said, what i'm offering on this list is not conclusive - what i'm saying is that these are the impressions that i'm getting from the data that i'm seeing. Racial clustering is something that i want to follow up on but haven't yet. Still, i think that i have enough data to raise it as an interesting observation that needs to be tested for its significance. danah On Mar 29, 2006, at 1:37 PM, elw@stderr.org wrote:

In reading this, I fall back to some of the same old tired saws...

1) where's the *data*, danah? 2) what size is N? what sampling methodology? 3) what are your classification criteria for "black", "urban", "suburban", "hispanic", etc? "working class"? [want a flamewar? here's the place to start..] 4) what's your cite on "poorer schools" vs. "richer schools"? What evidence for the proliferation of blocking mechanisms in one vs the other?

If there's no data, what you have is not research - it is a set of guesses and observations that you may or may not be able to substantiate and make a strong argument out of. You might want to modulate your presentation a bit to take that into account...

--e _______________________________________________ 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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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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