Abstract

Social media is a term typically used to describe a host of web-based technologies that support communication and interaction between people, or users, who both communicate using these technologies and contribute to the creation of online content. Media scholars examining social media platforms from the perspective of gender might well study the ways in which gender and sexuality influence communication behaviors, identity play, and self-promotion and branding (Consalvo and Paasonen 2002). In these respects, social media technologies can be seen as platforms for creativity and communication, as exemplified in websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. But these sites also are corporations seeking to turn a profit. The way that social media sites function as corporations is the starting point for a gendered analysis of social media’s political economy.