On 'being' online - Insights on contemporary articulations of the relational self
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School of Business |
Doctoral thesis (article-based)
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Authors
Date
2017
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
165 + app. 95
Series
Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS, 94/2017
Abstract
One of the growing research interests in media and Internet studies concerns how the self is constructed in the digital environment, while the complex relationship between the self and consumption continues to be of interest in consumer research. This thesis is an examination of relational being at the intersection of digital media and consumer culture. The thesis takes a critical perspective to examine the conditions under which the contemporary self is constructed and how the self is articulated in digital contexts, and thus views the online as embedded in the offline. Rooted in social constructionism, the relational perspective sees the self as an intersection of multiple and shifting relations. The aim of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of self-construction in our media-saturated consumer society. The study examines bloggers and fans and their mediated consumption practices through the lens of the social imaginary. The empirical material is collected from social media sites, plus-sized fashion blogs and YouTube, and analysed in the discourse analytic tradition combined with digital ethnography. The findings of the empirical studies show how 'aspiration' is constructed in the imaginary, with two conflicting, yet mutually constitutive notions of 'being yourself' and 'improving yourself' being negotiated at the site of the self, in the relational flow of the Internet. The studies also discuss disenfranchisement and marginalisation as properties of relationships, and show how imaginaries, in offering a range of interpretative resources for the self, also provide opportunities for counter-discourses. The study makes several theoretical and methodological contributions: within media and Internet studies, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of the embeddedness of the digital and to the ongoing discussion of how the digital is shaping the self; within consumer research, to the theorisation of relational self in the contemporary consumer context. Treating imaginaries as semiotic systems allows us to see imaginaries as constructed terrains of aspirations with complex significations. Thus, as sources of relational tension, imaginaries can be seen as implicated in the positioning, even othering, of individuals. The study suggests that the self is a fluctuating process of various alignments and disalignments within the matrix of social, cultural, and economic forces, with momentary discursive and relational achievements translating into temporary and situated congruence with others.Description
Thesis advisor
Ventola, Eija, Prof., University of Helsinki, FinlandMoisander, Johanna, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
Keywords
digital culture, relational being, self, social imaginary, media, consumption, digital ethnography, discourse analysis
Other note
Parts
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[Publication 1]: Harju, A., Huovinen, A. (2015) Fashionably Voluptuous: Normative Femininity and Resistant Performative Tactics in Fatshion Blogs. Journal of Marketing Management. Volume 31, Issue 15–16, 1602–1625.
DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2015.1066837 View at publisher
- [Publication 2]: Harju, A., Moisander, J. (2014) Fans on the Threshold: Steve Jobs, the Sacred in Memorialisation and the Hero Within. Myth and the Market, Campbell, N., J. Desmond, J. Fitchett, D. Kavanagh, P. McDonagh, A. O'Driscoll, and A. Prothero (Eds.). Dublin: UCD Business School: 51–64.
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[Publication 3]: Harju, A. (2015) Socially Shared Mourning: Construction and Consumption of Collective Memory. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia. Volume 21, Issue 1-2, 123–145.
DOI: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983562 View at publisher
- [Publication 4]: Harju, A. (2016) Imagined Community and Affective Alignment in Steve Jobs Memorial Tributes on YouTube. Systemic Functional Linguistics in the Digital Age. S. Gardner and S. Alsop (Eds.). Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd: 62–80.