Behind the Reasons: The Relationship Between Adolescent and Young Adult Mental Health Risk Factors and Exposure to Season One of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why

With increasing media choice, particularly through the rise of streaming services, it has become more important for empirical research to examine how youth decide which programs to view, particularly when the content focuses on difficult health topics such as suicide. The present study investigated why adolescents and young adults chose to view or not view season 1 of 13 Reasons Why and how individual-level variables related to adolescents’ and young adults’ viewing. Using survey data gathered from a sample of 1,100 adolescents and young adult viewers and non-viewers of the series in the United States, we examined how participants’ resilience, loneliness, and social anxiety related to whether participants viewed the first season or not. Our descriptive results indicate that adolescents who watched the show reported that it accurately depicted the social realities of their age group, they watched it because friends recommended it, and they found the subject matter to be interesting. Non-viewers reported that they chose not to view the show because the nature of the content was upsetting to them. In addition, results demonstrated that participants’ social anxiety and resilience related to participants’ viewing decisions, such that those with higher social anxiety and higher resilience were more likely to report watching season 1. Together, these data suggest that youth make intentional decisions about mental health-related media use in an attempt to choose content that is a good fit for based on individual characteristics

THESE GIRLS (STRIP) FOR THE CLOUT: EXPLORING ASPIRATIONAL, EMOTIONAL AND EROTIC LABOR OF BLACK WOMEN HIP-HOP ARTISTS ON ONLYFANS

In the digital age, OnlyFans is suggested to be a new form of sexual empowerment, financial autonomy and social agency for Black women working as strippers, backup dancers and video models, particularly those ancillaries to the rap music industry. Through interviews and participant observation, I examine the everyday labor of Black women who work as sexually explicit content creators on OnlyFans while also building a public persona as artists in Hip-Hop culture. Findings suggested that despite financial opportunities, respondents felt ambivalent by the monetization opportunities afforded by this digital space. Even so, respondents enjoyed the affordances of promoting their OnlyFans content on social media to gain digital clout - a form of Hip-Hop influenced cultural capital that follows the logic of likes, followers, and re-shares of one’s social media content. Ultimately, this study introduces insights on the evolution of Hip-Hop culture’s relationship with sex work, digital Black feminism and the attention economy

THE ANATOMY OF DIGITAL CLOUT(CHASING): BLACK AESTHETICS, ONLINE VISIBILITY AND RELATIONAL LABOR AMONG DIY HIP-HOP MUSICIANS ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE

Prior literature has suggested that it is through popular music that the social, professional and technological aspirations of Black youth often come together. Nowhere is this more evident than in the context of Hip-Hop music, where Black youth inventiveness with digital tools is celebrated and valued far more than any other genre of media entertainment. Though many scholars have theorized on the centrality of authenticity and masculinity to the communication of Hip-Hop artists in digital spaces, little academic work has paid very little attention to artist perspective of how this relational labor and visibility strategy helps them cultivate viable careers as influencers. Using interviews with artists, artist managers and independent label executives, I detail the career potentials for Hip-Hop artists engaging in social media self-branding strategies. I explore the content and character of their work on social media toward acquiring “clout”- a digital form of influence rooted in Hip-Hop that allows marginalized youth to leverage digital tools in build social status, maintain authenticity, cultivate connections with fans, connect to friends and other cultural producers. In this study, I detail examples of three relational strategies that our respondents utilized to acquire “digital clout:” a) Corralling b) Capping and, c) Co-Signing. To conclude, I argue Chicago’s Hip-Hop scene provides an example of why formal institutions need to rethink how race, class, gender and geography influence the digital practices of young people and how their practices add significantly to the understanding of the cultural and communicative diversity arising from globalizing social media