The image of teenage girls on the web: searching for spectacular corporeality

• Grant number: 10/07193-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2010
• End date: May 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Maria Lucia Santaella Braga
• Grantee: Mariane Tojeira Cara Almeida
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pós-Graduação (PRPG). Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Since the beginning of 20th. century, teenage girls make use of the resources of mediated interpersonal communication in order to enhance their capacity to sociability. With the popularization of the multitasking cell phones and especially with Web 2.0, the typical invisibility of the body, presented in telephone connections has been surpassed by extra-visibility of the body in mediated interpersonal communication. The aim of this study is to analyze and evaluate the role that digital photographic image plays inside the youth culture, in focusing into their communicative acts with the purpose of socialization. The pre-definition of the corpus will be improved from the choice of consistent bibliographies on related topics, as: digital photography, youth and teenagers, cyberculture, and body image. To take account of the subject, the theoretical framework will be guided by interdisciplinarity, with contributions from philosophy, sociology, semiotics and poststructuralism. The research method will consist of questionnaires applied in a sample of teenage girls in São José dos Campos and in-depth interviews in a smaller and pre-selected sample. Given the increasing attention to the phenomena of communication coming from Web 2.0, this doctoral project has relevance in communications and youth studies, raising essential issues to understanding the generation who were born in the 90's.