Boyfriends, Babies, and a Few Good Headshots: Examining Girl Gamers' Identity Enactment on Twitter Using the Communication Theory of Identity

Girl gamers, while a substantial part of the gaming population, are often largely ignored in both the gaming industry and academic literature. In particular, there have been few investigations to date on what comprises the identity of a girl gamer, particularly outside the context of gameplay. To th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Storla, Kari D.
Format: Others
Published: Digital Archive @ GSU 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/communication_hontheses/2
http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=communication_hontheses
Description
Summary:Girl gamers, while a substantial part of the gaming population, are often largely ignored in both the gaming industry and academic literature. In particular, there have been few investigations to date on what comprises the identity of a girl gamer, particularly outside the context of gameplay. To that end, the current study aims to investigate how girl gamers enact their identities as girl gamers on Twitter, a social network site. Eight Twitter accounts whose users self-identified as either Gamer Girls or Girl Gamers on a Twitter user directory where identified and the profiles and tweets of each collected for a two week period. This data was then analyzed according to Hecht’s communication theory of identity in order to determine how girl gamers enact their identity in an online context.