[Air-l] myspace and race

[Jonathan Marshall]

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 at 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
> > _______________________________________________
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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
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