«My Friends are my Audience»: Mass-mediation of personal content and relations in Facebook (original) (raw)
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Socializing and Self-Representation online: Exploring Facebook.
OBS - Observatorio 6(1): 87-105., 2012
Blurring boundaries between producers and audiences are widely acknowledged (Bruns, 2005; Jenkins, 2007) Troubling of the distinction between producers and audiences is particularly striking in new media forms, such as social networking sites on the Internet. The role of the audience is no longer solely that of spectator, but now includes producing, spectating and socializing. The social network site Facebook has fast become a popular arena for socializing, and reached a ‘critical mass’ in Europe and, in the process of socializing participants must construct self representations. The paper will analyze how the social network institution and the technological features shape the possibilities for socializing and self- representation. The paper will be in three parts, the first part exploring the socialization aspect, the second part exploring the self-representation aspect and the conclusion drawing out some implications of the combined analysis of socializing and self-representation. The media industry has increasingly recognized the potential in institutionalizing people’s desire to be included in communities and to socialize in mediated spaces (Enli and Syvertsen, 2007). Online communities can be placed in a historical line of ideals of a more democratic media production (Brecht, 1979; Enzenberger, 1979; Corner 1994). New media are likewise expected to include more people in the process as producers and not just consumers of the product, through meaning production and digital storytelling. Social network sites such as Facebook have institutionalized and mediatized personal processes of socializing and display of identity, which traditionally have belonged to the private and non mediated spheres. These online communities combine features from mass media with features from personal media. The paper will explore the concept of digital friendship, and discuss the arena for socializing and self-represenation. How do the users negotiate the hybrid position between being private and being public, with what implications? In the process of socializing online in Facebook, people construct textual representations. Representations are always mediated by what they consist of; texts, photographs, moving image, pencil drawing, for example, and how they are framed; in a gallery, on a website, on a cinema screen, for example. Of course mediation begins before, and continues well beyond the production and display of ‘texts’ (Silverstone, 1999; Couldry, 2006; Martin-Barbero, 1993). This paper will address one dimension of the mediation process: the ‘processes of textual mediation’ (Thumim, 2012, 2009) in order to explore self-representations in Facebook. Self-representation as it is used here points to members of the public representing themselves and thereby affecting an intervention into ‘old’ media practices whereby the public are represented by media professionals. Boyd (2007) argues that the cost of the social convergence occurring in social networking sites is a sense of exposure and invasion. The combination of exploring socializing and self-representation allows us to speculate as to possibilities and limitations for self-representation in the infrastructure in Facebook, and how these intersect with users’ negotiation of their hybrid position between being in private and being in public.
Negotiating and Constructing Identities through Facebook Communication
This study was premised on the observation that in the contemporary moment, the online construction and presentation of the self has become a general cultural practice. Using the idea of persona, a concept that explains the presentation of the self and masks that people " wear " to constructthemselves in real and virtual settings, this paper argues that the existence of multiple personas is clearly demonstrated in the context of Facebook communication. Using a " desktop " analysis of a selected Facebook pages, and a semi-structured interviewing of the owners of the selected Facebook pages, this study explored the construction of self by Facebook activists in order to identify how they negotiated and constructed personas that they deployed and employed in their everyday Facebook communication. This study also established the versions of identities that emanated from such constructions and how those versions came to prominence.
Existing literature on technology-mediated social relations, and especially on social network sites (SNS), has mainly adopted a platform-centric approach. For a better understanding of technology-supported social relations, however, an accurate knowledge of specific platforms should be integrated with an ecological perspective (see Jenkins et al., 2009). Following the networked individualism (Wellman, 2004) and the networked sociability (Castells et al., 2007) approaches, the new patterns of sociability seem to be built on me-centred networks (Rainie & Wellman, 2012). Adopting an ecological approach, our research focuses on the (networked) individual and on his/her social relations, considering the whole spectrum of platforms where he/she interacts with others, managing relational patterns and identity performances. Following this perspective, we can also underline specific media “ideologies” people follow when selecting the platforms where to pursue specific purposes (see Gershon, 2010), with regard to different contexts and interlocutors (close friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, etc.) In order to explore such an approach, we have chosen a set of qualitative methods, realizing 4 focus groups and 20 in-depth interviews with young italian people (age 18-26). Our research questions are the following: − do young people have a precise representation (ideology) of the peculiarities of different digital platforms? − Do they perceive some platform as more appropriated for specific tasks, contexts, relational patterns? − Considering a specific platform (e.g. Facebook) are there communicative practices (tools, actions, etc.) that are perceived as more intimate than others? − How are such representations built and shared among their peer-groups? − How do they verbalize their representations of different platforms and the motivations for such perceived differences? As a stimulus, we offered a set of different scenarios, such as birthday greetings (both from/to close friends and acquaintances), the organization of a large party, etc., asking respondents how would they act in such different situations. Usage experiences, misunderstandings related to different media “ideologies”, appropriate and inappropriate usage patterns were also discussed. Results show that young people both follow group-specific norms and more individualized usage patterns. All of our respondents, however, show to have a clear picture of what can be defined as an appropriate use of digital technology in relation to specific purposes, contexts, tie strength, etc. Among the dimensions that have been used to motivate such perceived differences: publicity, communicative bandwidth, synchrony vs asynchrony, investment in terms of time and money, etc. Moreover, even younger people seem to tribute a high emotional value to face-to-face interaction, often opposing a critical distance (at least in terms of self-representation) towards SNS. In our opinion, the relevance of our contribution relies on the fact that specific norms and usage patterns appear to organize user choices when interacting with friends and family (also) through social media. Shared usage norms appear as a dynamic and constantly negotiated process: what our respondents used to perceive as an appropriate behavior in the past (e.g. Birthday greetings on close friends' Facebook walls) is no longer accepted as legitimate.
Publicized modes of appearance and appropriate participation on Facebook
2014
This paper discusses performed appearance and negotiated norms of appropriate behavior on the social network site Facebook. Whereas former studies tended to highlight how communicating on Facebook adapts to neoliberal discourses on networking as means of self-promotion and intensified connectivity, we are going to argue that Facebook is rather about an ambiguous performativity of everyday life by which politicized discourses are filtered through social interaction and personal embodiment. Accordingly, we are going to demonstrate, how legitimate discourse on Facebook takes the form of “publicized modes” of appearance and an ongoing negotiation of “(in)appropriate” behavior, shared content and other forms of contribution.
Balancing Audience and Privacy Tensions on Social Network Sites
As social network sites grow and diversify in both users and content, tensions between users’ audience composition and their disclosure practices become more prevalent. Users must navigate these spaces carefully to reap relational benefits while ensuring content is not shared with unintended audiences. Through a qualitative study of highly engaged Facebook users, this study provides insight into how people conceptualize friendship online as well as how perceived audience affects privacy concerns and privacy management strategies. Findings suggest an increasingly complex relationship between these variables, fueled by collapsing contexts and invisible audiences. Although a diverse range of strategies are available to manage privacy, most participants in this sample still engaged in some degree of self-censorship.
Are Friends Electric?: The presentation of self on social networking sites
(Undergraduate Essay) Introduction: Interactions between social agents are said to be governed by norms in how the self is presented to the other – that is, the audience, in Goffman's dramaturgical analysis (1990). In light of the emergence of online spaces for interaction, it is of interest to consider how foundational understandings of self-presentation, or impression management, apply to our interactions in those spaces, or social networking sites (SNSs), especially in relation to the sharing of secondary or usergenerated content. The aim of this essay is to address briefly some questions surrounding the 'self' and self-presentation in the context of the internet. In the first section, we will consider a brief personal experience which appeared to illustrate the paradigm shift which has occurred in social spaces, towards online interactions as an extension of traditional ones. Secondly, in the main section, we will consider directly the question of self-presentation on SNSs, and its implications for our understandings of sharing and privacy. Finally, we will make some reflections on discourses around narratives of the postmodern self, and its reported “saturation” and “population” in the age of contemporary technology (Gergen, 1991), and by way of conclusion reflect on what the considerations made in the essay may be able to tell us about the contemporary self and its presentation online.