[Air-l] myspace and race

radhika gajjala radhika at cyberdiva.org
Sat Mar 25 17:06:03 PST 2006


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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