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Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-5810-510X
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Anthropology
Year Degree Awarded
2022
Month Degree Awarded
February
First Advisor
Jean Forward
Second Advisor
Jacqueline Urla
Third Advisor
Anne Ciecko
Subject Categories
Communication Technology and New Media | Digital Humanities | Film and Media Studies | Indigenous Studies | Native American Studies | Social and Cultural Anthropology
Abstract
This dissertation seeks to examine the types of digital media being produced in the Northeastern United States, its content, the goals and motivations of its creators, the processes underlying Indigenous digital media creation, and the desired and projected audiences of Indigenous digital artists and content creators. Resulting findings from this study illuminate long histories of Indigenous use of digital media tied to digital media's development in Indigenous lands. I argue that Native people have been producers and influencers in film and later, digital media, and have underwritten digital production due to its development on Indigenous lands. Through interviews and media analysis, I discuss how Indigenous content creators use digital media to express identity, educate others, make political gains, and insert Indigeneity into the future. Insights garnered through interviews and media analyses and comparisons with earlier forms of visual media, particularly Indigenous self-portrayals in film and on websites, all indicate that Indigenous people in the Northeast are largely resisting stereotypical self-representations. Indigenous framings of media landscapes and the sociohistorical processes informing them are emphasized, which furthers research on underrepresented presences, uses, and understandings of digital spaces
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/27080792
Recommended Citation
McLaurin, Virginia A., "Digital Indigeneity: Digital Media's Uses for Identity Formation, Education, and Activism by Indigenous People in the Northeastern United States" (2022). Doctoral Dissertations. 2411.
https://doi.org/10.7275/27080792
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2411
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Native American Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons