[Air-l] myspace and race

[radhika gajjala]

thanks for this.

As for my space being there space  - what do you make of the owner of 
Fox buying it up and having his own myspace site on it.


r

>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
>>>>   _______________________________________________
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>>>  - - - - - - - - - - d a n a h ( d o t ) o r g - - - - - - - - - -
>>>  "taken out of context i must seem so strange"
>>>
>>>  musings :: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>- - - - - - - - - - d a n a h ( d o t ) o r g - - - - - - - - - -
>"taken out of context i must seem so strange"
>
>musings :: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts
>
>
>
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