The role of online spaces in contemporary youth cultures is an increasingly relevant and vibrant topic of research in a variety of analytical and methodological traditions. This dissertation joins a growing body of work which explores the complex relationship between youth and emerging media through deep interpretive engagement with contextualized questions of meaning and experience. This approach recognizes the diversity of young people's interactions with the digital world and their agency in shaping those interactions. I herein present an ethnographic account of young people who are part of the fandom community on social networking site tumblr, a group united by shared appreciation for books, films, television shows, and other media texts. Their connections run much deeper than these interests, however, as does the meaning their engagement in this space holds for them as individuals and as a community. I explore, in turn, how their practices of friendship and community-building diverge from those expected on more popular social platforms more integrated with offline social life; how they experience and manage "internet privacy" in ways which respond to the specific social pressures they face as young people; their perception and construction of authenticity in online self-representations without explicit ties to "verifiable" offline identities; and their approaches to discussing issues of social justice and human rights outside the bounds of conventional politics. I ultimately situate my analysis within a larger context of childhood studies scholarship addressing young people's experiences of and responses to social and cultural marginalization. I argue that this community serves as a space of ambiguity and possibility in which young people can engage in forms of cultural resistance, establishing divergent ways of being better suited to their needs and priorities than those of their offline social worlds. The perspectives and experiences of the young people of fandom tumblr thus provide a window into the broader transformative power of digital youth cultures, encouraging us to consider the myriad ways in which young people use these emerging social spaces to shape their lives, their communities, and their world.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Childhood Studies
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Fans (Persons)
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Popular culture
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Digital media--Social aspects
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Online social networks
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_8329
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Note
Supplementary File: Figure 1
Extent
1 online resource (iv, 236 p.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = vita)
Includes vita
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Julian Tavis Dale Burton
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Camden Graduate School Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10005600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.