Ethnicity and Self-Representation in Social Media: When Cultures Merge

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With the advent of the social media and the increase of the information availability, as well as the rapid growth of the intercultural communication, the significance of cultural peculiarities has become surprisingly obvious. Because of the number of ethnicities involved into the intercultural relationships, the necessity to preserve the cultural; features has become as evident as the tendency for these features to merge into each other.

Analyzing the ways in which and the means with the help of which people manifest their ethnicities in the social media, one can comment on the tendencies in the intercultural communication and the changes which are currently happening to the ethnical specifics in the world media.

Thus, the object of the given research is the way in which people represent their ethnicity in the social media, while the question is whether the ethnical features of various nationalities are preserved and can be traced easily in online communication or whether the interaction within any social media dulls the national features, making them merge into a single cosmopolitan style.

In addition, the question whether any national stereotypes are enhanced or, on the contrary, blurred in the course of online communication, is worth researching.

The paper is going to embrace five sources on the issue of ethnicity and its manifestation in the course of social interactions, both online and in reality. For the theoretical background, the work by Yong-Chan Kim, Joo-Young Jung and Sandra J. Ball-Rockeach is going to be used.

Erin Kaufman and Deborah L. Welse’s paper will help to understand the mechanics of relating to a certain ethical group during the conversation, while Koen Lerus, Eva Midden and Sandra Ponzanesi’s work will help to understand the way in which several cultures fuse during the communication. With the help of Mainsah’s work, the problem of losing cultural features is going to be touched upon, while Maxwell and Buck will provide an accurate account of the issue history.

As for the theoretical framework for the given research, the ideas offered by Yong-Chan Kim, Joo-Young Jung and Sandra J. Ball-Rockeach are going to be used as the basis for the paper. As the researchers claimed, they examine ethnicity in social media “as a dynamic and unique factor influencing individuals’ adoption and uses of communication technologies” (283), which presupposes a new prospect on the online social interactions.

To achieve the top results in the given research, the choice of the method is extremely essential. Taking into the account the fact that the paper is going to use statistics and identify the current state of affairs in the use of social media, the paper is going to be constructive and combine a quantitative and a qualitative approach.

It is important to mention that the research is going to touch upon certain ethical issues. Since the paper is supposed to deal with the features of various nationalities, the subject of national stereotypes in the social media and the way in which these stereotypes are manifested is unavoidable. Thus, the ethical limitations are also expected.

Admittedly, the given research has its limitations. Among the issues, the most obvious one is the subject of scale. Since it is impossible to encompass the entire number of nationalities and check every single instance of social interaction, the results of the research will be approximate.

Due to the growing popularity of the social media and the increase of the online communication as opposed to the live conversation, the given research is going to offer rather significant results which are going to determine the course for the future development of the online interactions between different cultures and the way in which people are going to relate to their culture in online relationships.

Once understanding the way in which online relationships differ from the real-life ones, people will be able to avoid a number of complexities and misunderstandings.

Works Cited

Kaufman, Erin and Deborah L. Welse. “Skin-Tone Preferences and Self-Representation in Hispanic Children.” Early Child Development and Care, 182.2 (2012): 277-290. OnlineLibrary. Web.

Kim, Yong-Chan, Joo-Young Jung and Sandra J. Ball-Rockeach. “Ethnicity, Place and Communication Technology: Effects of Ethnicity on Multi-Dimensional Internet Correctness.” Information technology and People, 20.3 (2007): 282-303. Emerald. Web.

Lerus, Koen, Eva Midden and Sandra Ponzanesi. “Digital Multiculturalism in the Netherlands: Religious, Ethnic and Gender Positioning by Moroccan-Dutch Youth.” Religion and Gender, 2.1 (2012): 150-175. Religion and Gender. Web.

Mainsah, Henry. “I could Well Have Said I Was Norwegian but Nobody Would Believe Me.” European Journal of Cultural Studies, 14.2 (2011): 179-193. SAGE. Web.

Maxwell, Andrew H. and Pem Davidson Buck. “Decolonizing Media Representations of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the New World of Order.” Transforming Anthropology, 3.1 (1992): 1-5. Wiley Online Library. Web.

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