Race and the Digital: Racial Formation and 21st Century TechnologiesMain Menu"From Tweets to Streets?" A Research Project with Digital Supplement"The Digital Divide" Research ProjectsRace and the Digital BlogIntersectionality and TaggingCourse SyllabusSyllabus for Race and the Digital at UCLAStatement of Values: Digital Ethnic StudiesContributors' PortfoliosAbout "Race and the Digital"Genevieve Carpiocbaef6f4fe1847cc774ee8ef5c2d6efb0a58fda3Kid Cometb62a4423d252f961609f416b7188ffbc7d84a7d3Yesenia Melgoza-Fernandeza6a8d8933b14c7be3a522d5102f92c9dfe52e9b2Michie Ortiz25daabac1577ec1d12a68b2c0b0a15c4dba1374bEduardo D. Garcia6e60d0784abf2b990f3510cceb60101259a8bdd3Alan Evangelistaf3e41e7c002a037bb13d71a1e837eb5bf5bef12fAna Victoria H.37ae5307effd9bccccea4f0fe7958d15cee30e07Arturo Sotelo38025c1bb15e36f2beff44b22df47fac513c339faade8e08161ecdfbe4206b74479dee1c1d007a58c4Ashley Martinez-Munoza5a71a08c4c1c5dc7904ffcbc148c4f2edb1e723Ebony Paramodca8ce0b7a38097adb1b511e4c75690f833171f0
Pew foundation twitter users
12016-04-28T04:53:53-07:00Michie Ortiz25daabac1577ec1d12a68b2c0b0a15c4dba1374b88771Data set taken from “The Demographics of Social Media Users-2012,” Pew Research Center, February 2013. http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_SocialMediaUsers.pdfplain2016-04-28T04:53:53-07:00Michie Ortiz25daabac1577ec1d12a68b2c0b0a15c4dba1374b
The data set I am analyzing was created by the Pew Research Center on February 14, 2013. They sampled "2,261 adults, age 18 and older" (Demographics, pg 12). The Pew Research center collected their data through telephone interviews that were conducted in Spanish and English. This data includes information regarding the usage of social media within different ethnicities and ages. The social medias included in this report are Twitter, Pintrest, Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook. Their focus is to see what age, race, and social economic status are the users on social media websites.
After observing the data I notice that a majority of people using Twitter live in Urban areas. The age group with more Twitter users are people ranging from 18 to 29 with 27%. It seems African Americans tend to use Twitter more than other ethnicity with 26%. There is not much of a difference in percentage when it comes to their household income and education which all seem to be in the same range. I feel Twitter was created for the young adults living in this fast pace world.
In Theorizing Digital and Urban Inequalities by Melissa Gilbert she mentions the research in critical race, and gender. The ideas that are researched are "the role of technology in the politics of identity [and]... women/racialized minorities as technology users, producers, and innovators not just victims of the digital divide" (Gilbert, pg 1004). In an attempt to show minorities as creators I mentioned the use of Twitter for minority activism and representation. It is true that minorities are victims of the Digital Divide but this does not mean they cannot be more than this. I wanted to make sure I represented different minorities making themselves known to the public. Whether it was activism or through the support of same race content creators. In terms of the data set, there leaves a lot to be desired. While it covers the basics, Gilbert brings up a good point that there needs to be more of a "developed conceptualization of power and inequality" (Gilbert, pg 1006). What goes on in a household can determine how minorities are using ICTs. There is also a lack of other minorities. There is no mention of Native Americans or Asian Americans on this data set. There is only White, Black, and Hispanic. A lack of more minorities makes this data set slightly disappointing.
In Lisa Nakamura's Measuring Race on the Internet: Users, Identity, and Culture Difference in the United States she mentions how there is a lack of proper data sets that include Asian Americans. Nakamura mentions one of the issues of surveys is because they "do not survey in Asian languages," (Nakamura, pg 172). This data set mentions they only conducted surveys in English and in Spanish. I understand it would be difficult to survey for Asian languages because of the variety (Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, etc) but for a more accurate representation the effort should be made. I mentioned a page dedicated to squashing any stereotypes Asian women faced. Another point Nakamura makes is the "[failure] to measure digital production in favor of measuring access or consumption" (Nakamura, pg 172). While this data set gives me the facts on who and where Twitter is being used there no section for production. Part of the issue with the digital divide is the lack of production seen by minorities. Surveys like these only perpetuate the idea of minorities being victims of the divide without factoring production or participation.