Values, body experiences and images in youth communications: a gender perspective

Abstract

Do we communicate in the same way when we are physically present and when we do it through technology? How do we relate to the images about us and how do their publication affect us?

The body as a setting and as the content of communication is the thematic focus of this new comparative analysis, which tackles the values identified in an exploratory research. In this study, it has been attempted to make an approximation to the changes that are taking place in the communications among young people, based on their own testimonies.

The content analysis carried out uses the axiological categories of the Hall-Tonna model. It has been proceeded by grouping the responses, given by young students aged between 17 and 24 years, of boys, on the one hand, and girls, on the other. The attention has focused on analysing the experiences from a gender perspective.

The remarkable differences are found in the second question’s answers. In the answers provided by girls stand out the value of the image, however they have a perception of the body as of paramount importance regarding both personal (present) and professional (future) competence, meanwhile this is not present in boy’s answers. In both cases, the second ques­tion presents profiles of more discontinuous values than in the first one, which indicates the greater fragility experienced to the image of the body in the technological medium.