Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma
While participation in social media has become everyday practice among young people, there have been few studies examining how youth as social media users are represented in the media discourse. Focusing on the promotional materials of an award-winning and widely-viewed documentary film, The Social...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178425 |
| _version_ | 1811687468630540288 |
|---|---|
| author | Liang, Wei Jhen Lim, Victor Fei |
| author2 | Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) |
| author_facet | Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) Liang, Wei Jhen Lim, Victor Fei |
| author_sort | Liang, Wei Jhen |
| collection | NTU |
| description | While participation in social media has become everyday practice among young people, there have been few studies examining how youth as social media users are represented in the media discourse. Focusing on the promotional materials of an award-winning and widely-viewed documentary film, The Social Dilemma, this paper examines the media depictions of youth that attract the public's attention. Through a social semiotic analysis, we analyzed the representational, interactive, and compositional meanings in the poster and trailer to identify how young people have been represented in the media discourse. Our findings show that they are constructed as vulnerable social media users who are manipulated by social media companies. We argue that such depictions of youth not only negate their sense of agency but also ignore their active engagement in the participatory culture afforded by social media. The implications of such depictions propagate a protectionist perspective of youth. This can undermine efforts towards the development of an empowerment approach in digital literacy education. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:16:48Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/178425 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:16:48Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1784252024-06-23T15:37:05Z Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma Liang, Wei Jhen Lim, Victor Fei Interdisciplinary Graduate School (IGS) National Institute of Education Social Sciences Social media Multimodality While participation in social media has become everyday practice among young people, there have been few studies examining how youth as social media users are represented in the media discourse. Focusing on the promotional materials of an award-winning and widely-viewed documentary film, The Social Dilemma, this paper examines the media depictions of youth that attract the public's attention. Through a social semiotic analysis, we analyzed the representational, interactive, and compositional meanings in the poster and trailer to identify how young people have been represented in the media discourse. Our findings show that they are constructed as vulnerable social media users who are manipulated by social media companies. We argue that such depictions of youth not only negate their sense of agency but also ignore their active engagement in the participatory culture afforded by social media. The implications of such depictions propagate a protectionist perspective of youth. This can undermine efforts towards the development of an empowerment approach in digital literacy education. Published version 2024-06-19T02:21:44Z 2024-06-19T02:21:44Z 2024 Journal Article Liang, W. J. & Lim, V. F. (2024). Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma. Semiotica, 2024(256), 153-174. https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/sem-2023-0047 0037-1998 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178425 10.1515/sem-2023-0047 2-s2.0-85183098066 256 2024 153 174 en Semiotica © 2024 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Social Sciences Social media Multimodality Liang, Wei Jhen Lim, Victor Fei Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma |
| title | Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma |
| title_full | Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma |
| title_fullStr | Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma |
| title_full_unstemmed | Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma |
| title_short | Representing youth as vulnerable social media users: a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from The Social Dilemma |
| title_sort | representing youth as vulnerable social media users a social semiotic analysis of the promotional materials from the social dilemma |
| topic | Social Sciences Social media Multimodality |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178425 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT liangweijhen representingyouthasvulnerablesocialmediausersasocialsemioticanalysisofthepromotionalmaterialsfromthesocialdilemma AT limvictorfei representingyouthasvulnerablesocialmediausersasocialsemioticanalysisofthepromotionalmaterialsfromthesocialdilemma |