當代臺灣原住民音樂人社群媒體的自我展演與身分認同初探

A Preliminary Study on the Relations Between Online Self-Presentation and Identity of Contemporary Taiwan Indigenous Musicians on Social Media

為了探詢臺灣原住民音樂人與閱聽眾在交流文化、音樂以及過程中對身分認同的再思考，本文檢視臺灣原住民音樂人於社群媒體的自我展演，並將自我展演視為接合（articulation）的通道，藉此探究其內涵與身分認同的關係。本文採用數位民族誌與深度訪談法，以便深入理解網路文化和社會價值的複雜現象。研究場域以受訪的九位音樂人Facebook官方粉絲團為主，觀察他們在個人資料、封面影像、貼文、相簿、影片等的樣貌，並針對數位民族誌的觀察，訪談音樂人對自我展演的內涵，重新思考透過自我展演所呈現的身分認同。本研究試圖勾勒出獨特的視角，以了解當代臺灣原住民音樂人與當代媒介環境之間的關係，並突破將臺灣原住民族視為一個整體的觀念。描繪臺灣原住民音樂人在數位情境中的自我展演，理解音樂創作者和閱聽人的傳播行為與互動，進而拆解他們具表演性身分的層次，理解作為臺灣原住民音樂人在「作為原住民」（being indigenous）、「表演原民性」（performing indigeneity）和「成為原住民」（becoming indigenous）三者相互關聯的身分過程中產生的震盪。

For Internet users, social media cover many channels that link content with indigenous music. However, for indigenous musicians and their fans, such platforms are a necessary tool for communicating their culture and identity with each other. In order to emphasize a content producer’s position as well as to understand the communication process between these indigenous musicians and their listeners, this research uses the term’social media with the characteristic of broadcasting, rather than as a social networking site or for networking.
The ideology that has played an essential role in the past through traditional media is no longer the main force that drives social movements. Instead, the two trends of personal lifestyle values and the emergence of social media links are creating new possibilities. It is thus important that we explore how such media enable communicative activities through which online content is posted, because this is the dynamic that establishes personal lifestyle values and users’multiple identities.
As online community platforms, social media have the function of interpersonal communication with the contemporary indigenous music community. Since most indigenous musicians with cultural intentions perform through social media, they communicate culture to other people. It therefore becomes necessary for indigenous people to perform indigeneity and to create an identity on a website that is regarded as a serious subject position. Indigenous musicians demonstrate their indigenous identity by declaring their interest in indigenous music and musicians. As a result, social media appear to be more than just“condensing on the Internet”, while music is the core concept and tool for embodying their beliefs and expressing indigenous culture and social development.
Music performance can be used as a practice of social space-making, whereby people not only carry out cultural presentation and innovation, but also exhibits identities of reforming and negotiating. However, some critical questions pertaining to the soundscape of Taiwan’s indigenous virtual community arise. What forms the interaction between the individual and collective identity of indigenous people? What is their online self-presentation? How do indigenous musicians communicate via performing their daily life online.
This research rethinks the identity of Taiwanese indigenous musicians through online self-presentation on social media and regards self-presentation as a form of articulation to explore the relationship between its connotation and identity. It applies digital ethnography and in-depth interviews to understand the complex phenomena of online culture and social values. The research field mainly covers official Facebook fan groups of the nine musicians interviewed, observing their profiles, cover photos, posts, albums, and videos and interviewing the musicians to perceive the connotation of self-presentation. This study provides a unique perspective on contemporary indigenous music and culture to recognize the relationships among contemporary Taiwanese indigenous music, culture, and social development.
With the transformation of the contemporary media environment, digital networks have become the main factor affecting self-presentation. This paper applies the concept of an ethical audience to present social activities that have shifted from one-way communication to multiple interactive media models, because the audience’s digital footprint needs to“encounter others”. Along with observing the performatives of indigenous musicians in social media through self-presentation, the findings herein show that although each musician has his own experience and cultural background, self-presentation is the key to articulation. The channel provides a rich and complex practice around which the identity behind the performance can be discussed.
This research localizes the soundscape of indigenous music on social media in Taiwan. To avoid breaking traditional indigenous culture, indigenous musicians organize their sound/music in order to convey a story of indigenous culture based on their social background of life in the city and perform on social media to communicate with audiences. Thus, this paper presents the cartography of the communication process adopted by indigenous musicians to encourage them to convey contemporary indigenous culture through music, in which they are experts, in Taiwan and to appropriately use social media to air their thoughts with audiences. Moreover, this research provides a unique perspective of contemporary indigenous music and culture to understand the relationships among indigenous music, culture, and social development in contemporary Taiwan. The aim is to break through the notion of regarding indigenous peoples as a collective, describe the online performances and music culture of indigenous musicians in digital situations, unpack their performative identity, and to understand the concussion of the interrelated identities of“being indigenous,”“performing indigeneity”, and“becoming indigenous”in contemporary Taiwan.
This paper provides a new perspective on the self-presentation of contemporary indigenous musicians so as to understand the differences in constructing identity under the influence of media between generations. This comprehensive debate on the complex interaction between indigenous culture and social media in Taiwan shows that“performing indigeneity”is an ongoing process for indigenous peoples, because the ritual of identity self-presentation is never complete. This means that the process of becoming an indigenous person is dynamic. This research regards the self-presentation generated in the new digital situation as a channel of articulation, through which indigenous musicians can connect online and offline through their traditions, modernity, and generations.
Taiwan’s indigenous peoples are a diverse group, and each indigenous person’s experience is unique. Thus, this research is interdisciplinary between indigenous culture studies and media studies by creating an inclusive and contemporary discursive space that breaks through the characteristics that give groups unity, instead of looking for a one-level definition of indigenous peoples or indigeneity.