Construction of Gender in Social Media - Essay Example

Online Identity al Affiliation This poster tackles how males and females use social media in different ways, especially on Twitter and Instagram. Many posts on these sites demonstrate how gender identity is represented through interests/hobbies and the use of semiotics by people’s accounts (Moinuddin, 2010). My analysis is based on the concept of Waisman (2010), who states that the use of semiotics (viz., language, emoticons, photographs, and colors) helps in identifying gender identity in social media. This theoretical framework is necessary for responding to the following research questions; 1- How do men and women represent their gender identity in social media? 2- What kind of language do both genders use in social media? An online participant observation of Qatari society and a survey was used to analyze gender posts critically. It was found out that women were prone to the use of emoticons and hedges that express social warmth and uncertainty; unlike men who tend to use a language that does not show hesitation on social media. Moreover, women portrayed submissiveness in their conversations with men due to lack of power. Their choice of hobbies was influenced by societal stereotypes that consider certain activities to be feminine. On the other hand, men displayed dominance in their conversations and their choice of activities was influenced by societal stereotypes that term their preferred activities to be involving masculinity. Objectives This study aims at establishing the masculine and feminine differences that emerge in the use of social media (Twitter and Instagram) among men and women living in Qatar. The study looks at the kind of semiotics and language they employ while using these sites and even how they portray their gender by using them. Literature Review Extensive research has been conducted in the past to demonstrate the correlation between gender and media. Some have included studies on different types of media like movies, cartoons, music, and games. There are various methods used in studying the kind of language used by different genders on the social media that include; content analysis and discourse analysis (Carter & Steiner 2004, Gauntlett 2008). Herring (2008) attempts to bring ideas on computer-mediated discourse as a way to show that the study of the language used in social media is of great concern. Being that most social media sites are modern, Herring acknowledges that human-human communication via computer networks is a recent thing. In her ideas, she focuses on computer-mediated language and argues that is less correct, coherent and complex. Also, she states that the language that is used on social media differs according to the cultural and social context. A careful study of this computer-mediated discourse shows that language use can reveal the identity of the user whether he is educated or not, while he is trying to mask himself. Moreover, on media, especially social media the age of user can be revealed by the content of the message (namely, life experiences) that the user post. Herring assumes that the identity of the gender in social media can be expected easily by the stereotypical behaviors that are attached to each gender (viz., shame for females and verbal abuse and insults for males). In addition, gender differences can be revealed by the linguistic behavior as the assertiveness, length, and politeness that appeared in the content of the message. She also claims that the computer users use semiotics, particularly emoticons to show facial expressions such as; teasing or happiness and to replace “social cues”. Another related study conducted by The Telegraph newspaper, which states that 8 out of 10 people use emoticons. The use of emoticons increased rapidly because they are simpler and easier in expressing sentiments than using text. In addition to the above studies, statistics of how men and women have been using Twitter and Instagram also holds. In Saudi Arabia, nearly 85% of men use Instagram because they have more accessibility towards mobile apps than women (Abouzeid, 2008). In fact, most women tend not to be interested in the photo-sharing services. Other countries in the Middle East also have mainly male Instagram user bases. An example is Iran, where 82% of its male population uses the site (Eid, 2004). Methodology In this study, the methods of survey and observation were used to collect data on gender construction displayed in the use of social media. The sampled participants to be surveyed were 70 web users with 35 men and the other 35 women. The survey developed a number of questions that were to be answered by the internet users in order to provide answers to the research questions of the study. These questions included: 1. Are you male or female 2. Between Twitter and Instagram which one do you use more? 3. Do think we can recognize both genders on social media? 4. What helps us know whether a user is male or female on these sites (Twitter and Instagram)? 5. What kind of accounts do you follow on these sites? 6. Do you usually use emoticons? 7. What kind of photographs do you post in your account? 8. What color do you prefer to use as background in your account? 9. Do you frequently use hedges (sort of, maybe, I think, look like, kind of, I guess) when you are posting? Another part of the data collection was the observation on how both genders were using the social media. This was to ensure that there were consistency and tally with the survey responses. Results and Discussion The survey portrayed that approximately 56% of male respondents use Instagram, 40% of female use Twitter while 4% of both male and female use other sites of social media. Therefore, the results confirmed that the study was reliable in examining gender construction in social media. The next question was whether gender construction can be recognized in the use of social media. Of the 70 responses, nearly 73% were able to observe that gender construction is evident in the use of social media, especially Twitter and Instagram. 27% of the users under survey could not see this. The idea of having a difference in the manner social media is used by men and women was also tied to the question of the kind of semiotics that shows there are gender construction and difference. 62.86% agreed that style of language used, use of semiotics, type of photographs, and kinds of accounts the user follows assist to know whether the user is a male or a female. This confirmed Herrings study on the use of computer-mediated language and also showed that the there was a certain style of language that both genders used on the social media. On other areas of interest while using the sites, the percentage of women interested in cooking accounts was 24% while that of men was 1%. This data shows that women represent their identity in activities that are considered to be feminine such as cooking. On the other hand, 15% of male respondents were interested in politics accounts compared to 5% of women interested in the same field. Moreover, 7% of male respondents showed interest in sports accounts while few of the female respondents showed interest in the same field. The findings imply that there are various interests that are viewed as being suitable for men while others for women. The participants also responded to various questions showing clear gender-based distinction in their preferences. For example, for question 6 according to the use of emoticons, there was a 77.6% yes (55.61% female and 22% male). It shows that females express their feelings through the use of emoticons more than words unlike men. This result can be observed on the female user “Fatima” who uses in her conversation with others emoticons as a way of showing her expressions; whereas the male user “Fahad” prefer to use text and words. The survey shows that both genders post photographs related to natural views. However, the difference is that males represent their identity through posting car photographs with dark shadows while women display food and fashion photographs with light colors according to their stereotypical roles and interests in Qatari society. This can clearly be seen in the manner in which the participants answered question 7 and 8. Consequently, I observed that in many Instagram accounts women tend to capture fashion and food pictures and they care a lot about the decoration and the light soft colors, while men capture car photos with dark colors mainly. For questions 9 which related to the use of hedges, there was a ‘yes’ response of 70% with 49% female responses and 21% male responses as the chart shows below. The statistics show that women use hedges that show their hesitation or desire to make a warm atmosphere. Their tentative language and lack of access to power are also reflected in the findings generated. On the other hand, males use a style of language that shows their confidence, strength and power of their personality. For example, I observed that a high percentage of women users in the Qatari society use hedges frequently on these sites such as; شكلي، مادري، أحس، يعني،جي which indicate uncertainty and their attempt to mitigate the intensity of their speech. Conclusion Conclusion This poster is purposefully developed to show how gender identity is constructed in media through the use of language, semiotics, and hobbies/interests. It contains findings of a research conducted based on gender construction in media in Qatari society. It was found that females were interested in hobbies that were considered by the society to be feminine such as; cooking and fashion while men were interested in activities considered to be involving masculinity such as; sports and politics. Moreover, it was realized that women preferred using emoticons to express their feelings, unlike men who preferred using words. This fact ascertained that use of semiotics could be depended upon in examining gender construction on social media in Qatari society. Computer-mediated discourse confirmed that language could be used to examine gender identity in social media through analyzing the stereotypical behaviors displayed in the message content of both males and females. Females were considered to show submissiveness and lack of power while males displayed dominance and strength in their communications; factors that are synchronized with the societal views regarding the difference in gender roles. References Abouzeid, O. (2008). Projects of Arab Women Empowerment: Current Status and Future Prospects. Cairo: Arab Women Organization. Briggs, C. L. (2005). Reviews: Discourse. Language in Society, 21, 683-710 Herring, C.S (2008). Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Oxford. Blackwell Carter, Cynthia & Steiner, Linda. (2004). Critical readings: Media and gender. : Open University Press. Gauntlett, David (2008). Media, gender and Identity An introduction. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. Waisman, O. S. (2010). Body, language and meaning in conflict situations: A semiotic analysis of gesture-word mismatches in Israeli-Jewish and Arab discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. Magalhães, I. (2005). Critical discourse analysis and the semiotic construction of gender identities. DELTA vol.21 no.spe São Paulo. Retrieved on May 11, 2015 from < http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-44502005000300011> Read More