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Researching Motherhood in the Age of Short Videos: Stay-at-Home Mothers in China Performing Labor on Douyin

Authors :
China Scholarship Council
He, Guanqin
Leurs, Koen
Li, Yongjian
China Scholarship Council
He, Guanqin
Leurs, Koen
Li, Yongjian
Source :
Media and Communication; Vol 10, No 3 (2022): Across Mobile Online and Offline Spaces: Reflections on Methods, Practices, and Ethics; 273-289; 2183-2439; 10.17645/mac.i317
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Addressing the particular context of China, this article has two aims. First, it offers reflections on the possibilities and limitations of using user-generated short videos (vlogs) as research data both methodologically and ethically. We specifically explore the potential of centering vlogs as a new format for examining motherhood behavior across online and offline spaces. Secondly, it adds to the thematic literature on the (re)production and representations of motherhood. We critically examine the rising phenomenon in China of the stay-at-home mother, by exploring how these mothers use short video platforms. Inductively learning from the thematic analysis of short videos of stay-at-home mothers published on Douyin, the patterns in the data indicate three distinct forms of labor are performed through digital motherhood practices: domestic labor, affective labor, and entrepreneurial labor. Drawing on these patterns, we update the original framework of “motherhood 2.0,” which was coined in the 2010s to address mothering practices in industrialized western societies. We extend this framework and conceptualize “motherhood 3.0” by analyzing a type of Chinese community-based intersectional performance of motherhood, gender, and labor that we see emerging in digital cultural production centered on short videos. Mediated labor within online and offline motherhood practices is informed by social, cultural, and technological factors. Digital technologies and mobile media communication provide new means for stay-at-home mothers to navigate between their roles as devoted mothers and their pursuit of self-actualization.

Details

Database :
OAIster
Journal :
Media and Communication; Vol 10, No 3 (2022): Across Mobile Online and Offline Spaces: Reflections on Methods, Practices, and Ethics; 273-289; 2183-2439; 10.17645/mac.i317
Notes :
application/pdf, English
Publication Type :
Electronic Resource
Accession number :
edsoai.on1456719936
Document Type :
Electronic Resource