Online Identities: National and Cultural Expression Online, an Australian Perspective

Celia Lam

Studies in Media and Communication, 2013, vol. 1, issue 1, 116-130

Abstract: Over the last decade the genesis and use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) has steadily gained traction with the almost instant popularity of sites such as Youtube, Facebook, Cyworld and Twitter to name a few. In Australia, as in the rest of the developed and developing world, Social Media (SM) use has become an integral part of the communication, entertainment and media practices of large sections of the population, with participation in online communities often employing the same social capital and patterns of communication that occur in offline encounters. Online interaction in SNS necessitates the creation of an individual¡¯s online identity, and with it notions of representation and group-affiliation come to the fore. The policy of multiculturalism in Australia encourages the interaction of minority (ethnic) Cultural identities with the dominant (national) Australian identity. This study examines the role online interaction plays in an individual¡¯s engagement with these two notions of identity by focusing on the SM use of students at a University in Australia. Results reveal a highly nuanced expression of self-hood where National and Cultural identities are enacted as minor components of a holistic Personal online identity.

Keywords: online identity; expression; ethnic; national; multiculturalism; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://redfame.com/journal/index.php/smc/article/view/29/104 (application/pdf)
http://redfame.com/journal/index.php/smc/article/view/29 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rfa:smcjnl:v:1:y:2013:i:1:p:116-130

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Studies in Media and Communication from Redfame publishing Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Redfame publishing ().