The Internet and Formations of Iranian American-ness (eBook)

Donya Alinejad is a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC project “Digital Crossings in Europe: Gender, Diaspora, and Belonging” at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Dedication 5
Acknowledgments 6
Contents 8
List of Figures 9
Chapter 1: Introduction 10
Media Research Across Generations: From Exile Television to Internet 13
The Place: Los Angeles as a Global Hub for Media and Migration 17
The People: Who Is This Book About? 21
Posing Research Questions from an Insider–Outsider Position 26
The Field: Delineating the Parameters and Practice of Online–Offline Research 28
The Structure of This Book 30
Notes 32
Bibliography 35
Chapter 2: Theories of Migrancy and Media 40
Digital Diaspora 44
The Digital Production of Second-Generation Identity 47
Mediating Cultural Identity 50
Affordances, Uses, and Practices 52
Notes 55
Bibliography 59
Chapter 3: Memory 68
Digitally Photographing Haft Sin 72
Blogging Persia 78
Gamification of the Coup 83
Remediating Pop Cultural Nostalgia 88
Conclusion 97
Notes 100
Bibliography 106
Chapter 4: Race 109
Visibly Different, a Different Kind of Visible 112
Racially Ambivalent Bodies, Decisive Representations 117
Gendering Middle Eastern-Ness 125
Pan Middle Eastern American-Ness 130
Forming a Diasporic Anti-Racism 136
The Sustained Invisibility of Second-Generation Stories 140
Conclusion 146
Notes 148
Bibliography 156
Chapter 5: The Green Movement 161
Smartphone Videos and the International Formation of “The People” 163
Transnational Identification with the Movement 167
Screening the Movement 171
Simultaneity and the Live-ness of Being Online 176
Co-hashtagging and Sharing YouTube Remixes 182
Conclusion 184
Notes 186
Bibliography 190
Chapter 6: Conclusion 192
Digital Styles, Diasporic Selves 196
Notes 199
Bibliography 200
Index 202