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Using Kenneth Burke's Equipment for Living to Explain Teenage Girls' Engagement with Online Media in Trinidad and Tobago

Cumberbatch, Melissa Alicia

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Mass Communication (Communication).
All teenagers entering high school in Trinidad and Tobago receive a laptop that is capable of accessing the Internet. However, the distribution of laptops to teenagers was highly criticized as many adults were concerned that the teenagers will misuse the laptops, especially by accessing undesirable materials online. Their fears were escalated when a teenage girl posted a defamatory video on social media that went viral in Trinidad and Tobago. Because of this one incident many adults assumed knowledge on how teenage girls used online media. For this dissertation I decided to discover how teenage girls in Trinidad and Tobago used online media, and more specifically how, they used online media as equipment for living. Equipment for living is a theory put forth by Kenneth Burke that essentially explains that people use text as a means to deal with situations that occur in their everyday lives. By using Burke’s philosophy on symbols and symbolic action, I created a model called "Equipment for Living Model for Teenage Girls based on Burke's Interpretation of a Symbolic Action" to explain how teenage girls in Trinidad and Tobago use online media as equipment for living. Previous research (Stern and Willis, 2007) discovered that teenagers' online activity fell into three categories: communication, information seeking, and content creation. Through combined methods of surveys and focus groups, as well as asking the teenagers to blog about their online experiences, conducted in a same-sex high school, I was able to discover that teenage girls in Trinidad and Tobago also use online media for communication, information seeking, and content creation, as well as explain how through the symbolic use of online media, such as social networking sites, how the teen girls are able to use online media as equipment for living. Stern, S. R., & Willis, T. J. (2007). What are teenagers up to online? In S. R. Mazzarella (Ed.), 20 questions about youth and the media (pp. 211-224). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
Norma Pecora, Dr. (Advisor)
Duncan Brown, Dr. (Committee Member)
Roger Aden, Dr, (Committee Member)
290 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cumberbatch, M. A. (2014). Using Kenneth Burke's Equipment for Living to Explain Teenage Girls' Engagement with Online Media in Trinidad and Tobago [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1395397954

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cumberbatch, Melissa. Using Kenneth Burke's Equipment for Living to Explain Teenage Girls' Engagement with Online Media in Trinidad and Tobago. 2014. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1395397954.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cumberbatch, Melissa. "Using Kenneth Burke's Equipment for Living to Explain Teenage Girls' Engagement with Online Media in Trinidad and Tobago." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1395397954

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)