Gauntlett, David, Jayne Rodgers
'GIRL POWER' ONLINE: A REDEPLOYMENT OF THE INTERNET ACTIVIST MODEL
Abstract
Although the internet is potentially a global and/or globalising technology, its use on a local and individual level is often broad and diverse. Studies of online activists and other politicalı actors have generated models of online behaviour which describe the approaches and interactions of those internet users who have identified themselves as politically aware in some way. Use of the internet by such actors may be considered to be shaped to a significant degree by this pre-determined identity. The models produced by research into political activists has not, however, been adapted for or assessed against groups who demonstrate no such form of self-defined collective affiliation.
This paper draws together research from the disciplines of Communications Studies and International Relations by considering how analysis of one group of internet users can be adapted to examine the behaviours of others. It examines whether patterns and practices of online behaviour which have been noted in analysis of political activists can be utilised to understand the internet usage of less clearly self-identified individuals and groups. Thus, the notion of identity and its manifestations and interpretations through internet use are central to the paper. The paper considers whether studies of online activism can be used to understand online groups who operate outside of traditional political frameworks but who nonetheless use the internet as a tool of identity construction.
Female teenagers are taken as a case study. These young people clearly have a set of interests and enthusiasms which they wish to cultivate during their time online, but these concerns cannot be reduced to a recognisable political position. At the same time, however, their investment in teenage and female identities is politicalı in the broadest sense, and they want to give a social voice to these identities. Through analysis of female teenage websites, and interviews with young women, this study considers whether the discourses of girl powerı, which promote a positive view of youthful womanhood, actually make a difference in the lives or self-identities of young women.