Ethnicity-related weblogs. The interplay of the virtual and the real in ethnic identity management in America

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Communications - Ethics in the Media, grade: Phd, , language: English, abstract: Weblogs have come to the fore as major new media for identity formation and management. Within the context of the current 'global village' those new electronic spaces became vital tools in orchestrating certain particular and cultural traits that can be understood as new forces of anti-globalization resistance. Equally, such weblogs are also indispensible in contemporary modern societies notably multi-ethnic and multi-cultural ones like the United States of America. Based on American experience, this article attempts to show how American ethnic groups employ new technology to give a new shape and dimension to their quest for rights and identity assertion. Thus, blogs provided for ethnic and social minorities a digital virtual space to negotiate their identities and promote their perspectives. Bloggers, consequently, expressed and presented their 'real' ethnicity-related concerns in that virtual space. In this article, I randomly analyzed qualitatively a number of race-related blogs in order to trace the interplay between the real and the virtual in new media in general and blogs in particular. Key words: blog; ethnicity; the virtual; the real; and identity.

Dr. Hassen Zriba is a research assistant at the Higher Institute of Applied Studies in Humanities, University of Gafsa Tunisia. He holds a PhD in Cultural and Media Studies. Also, he has special interest in Intercultural and Translation Studies. He has published a number of articles in various academic journals. Moreover, Dr. Zriba works as an editor and a reviewer in different international journals. He is also a founder and a Chief Editor of the Journal of Studies in Humanities (JSH)published bi-annually by the University of Gafsa, Tunisia.