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Sociology
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

New Media and U.S. Latinx identity (Ch. 3)

Profile image of Arthur D . Soto-VásquezArthur D . Soto-Vásquez

2020, Mobilizing the U.S. Latinx Vote: Media, Identity, and Politics

Abstract

This chapter considers how Latinxs in the United States navigate online spaces that intersect with established media and political institutions. Within these networks Latinx identity is contested, reframed, updated, and commodified. It is not the case that identity homogenization is a simple, unidirectional process where elite actors and institutions shape Latinxs into perfect consumers of U.S. politics and ideology. Instead, Latinx subjects simultaneously receive essentialized narratives about themselves and selectively perform aspects in advantageous moments. Online, hybrid media networks enable the use of culture capital for Latinxs in ways not previously possible. These moments of performance vary by class and institutional circumstances, such as middle-class Latinas preforming quince culture online or Latinas in Congress giving intersectional context to policy issues. In summary, these works point to a post-modern system of racial performance. In this system we preform our identity as Latinxs through media consumption and personalized new media. Culture then becomes a form of immaterial capital, or as I have said before – a commodity.

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References (25)

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"This study examines the schemata underlying the social dimensions and relationships associated with the processes of Latino identity construction in 500 YouTube postings in response to the Obama Reggaeton video. According to Van Dijk (1998), such schemata allow members of a given group to provide answers to questions such as who they are, what criteria need to be met for membership in their group, and what kinds of relationships are established among their group and other social groups. Along the lines of Wodak et al. (1999), our study unveils six main thematic contents or categories that discursively realize the social dimensions and relationships associated with the Latino identity, and tests them in a corpus of unsolicited data in a deindividuated environment, YouTube, in which social identity, such as the Latino identity, is salient. The analysis lends validity to these categories, as they were found to be highly relevant to the corpus. We argue that the Latino identity is essentially political, both in the narrow and the broad senses of the word (see Gee 2005; Joseph 2006). Furthermore, the Latino identity can only be properly understood within the identity politics climate of the US. Keywords: Latino identity, CMC, YouTube, social identity, ethnic identity, diasporic, migrant on-line communities "

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In Search of Belonging: Latinas, Media, and Citizenship by Jillian Báez
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Related topics

  • Latino/A Studies
  • Communication
  • Political communication
  • Latinx Studies
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