African American girls on MySpace: Artistic expression, viral marketing and corporate presence

This study examines fifty MySpace profiles constructed by 14-17 year old African American females attending a Los Angeles public high school during the 2007-8 academic year. The text, images and multimedia applications found on the profiles sampled were analyzed in relation to race and gender ideologies that permeate popular mass media. The profiles were examined as intersectional digital bodies wherein the signs and messages used to communicate and socialize with others is publicly broadcast within the network. It was also necessary to examine the online social network as it functions as a corporate space ripe for viral marketing. Although advertising on MySpace has become part of the social fabric of the network, most young females in this sample created profiles that were largely devoid of corporate logos and did not link to corporate profiles as "friends" within the network. The profiles created by young African American girls in the sample did reveal images and text that were ideologically aligned with white, heterosexual love, Western standards of beauty and constructions of femininity. That said, the profiles did not transmit racist or homophobic ideologies via images, text or multimedia applications. These profiles represent the artistic expression and multifaceted identities of young African American girls attending a Los Angeles public high school during the 2007-2008 school year.