CNN of the Ghetto? Analyzing Black Girls and Violence as Entertainment on WorldStarHipHop Video Website

• In Event: 082 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 02. Criminology/Deviance

Abstract

The media framing of violence—particularly its racialized dimensions—is of central concern to social scientists. This paper examines one particular type of violence that is becoming increasingly popular on social media—urban street fights between Black girls. Although aggression among youth is not at all uncommon, street fights among urban Black girls garner a higher level of attention on social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) and video sharing sites (e.g. WorldStarHipHop and YouTube). Many of these fights go “viral” with over a million online views, and internet users create “memes” (digital images or video clips) to dramatize and bring humor to what began as a localized, public altercation. In this paper, I conduct interpretive content analysis on a sample of WorldStarHipHop videos. I examine the politics of street fighting as it relates to actors, videographers, audience members, and public viewers. Ultimately, I argue that WorldStarHipHop participates in a problematic project of misrepresenting urban Black girls as exceptionally violent, reckless, and incorrigible. Rather than contextualizing racial and gender inequality faced by poor black and brown girls, WorldStarHipHop fetishizes violent encounters in urban spaces. This paper contributes new insight to the critical discourse surrounding urban Black girls, violence, and new media.

Author

• Brooklynn K Hitchens, State University of New Jersey at Rutgers-New Brunswick