Animation, Virtual world and global identity Case study of Iranian female teenagers

The main objective of this paper is to offer the results of a study on animations and how global identity-making is affecting Iranian girls in virtual world. In other words, the research aims to study the role of animation in making the international identity of Iranian female teens and show how it is displayed in blogs. It seems a considerable number of children and teenagers in Iran spend more than 2 to 3 hours of their daily time watching animations. Many of these animations seem to be so attractive and powerful that they have become some source of identity-making for their viewers. These animations contain messages that depict major cultural elements of the countries in which they have been produced. We used theoretical views of Manuel Castells, Giddens, and Stuart Hall, especially where they offer shared views on identity. We also used George Ritzer’s views on globalization of culture. Theoretically speaking, the new developments of the media industry especially internet and the changes that it has brought about, it has opened up new windows of opportunities for everyone including teens while opening grounds on which identity-making is being challenged. Methodologically, the paper uses content analysis to test its theoretical claims. To do content analysis, some 20 blogs that belonged to the Iranian teen girls who age ranged between 10 an 15 were randomly selected and studied. Some of the research results indicate that the global identity of teenage girls is made by an impact inflicted from becoming the audience of the animations. The effects of such impact can be observed in their blogs because virtual world provides them with the opportunities through which they can introduce themselves as members of the global community. Furthermore, they practice elements of the global culture. The research findings also indicate that animations create homogeneous cultural similarity among their audience including teenage girls.