Techniques and Data

Research Matter

In my own initial browsing of Tumblr, We realized that there was clearly a really active, available, and vocal LGBTQIA community that challenged even my personal notions of sex and sex. Therefore, whenever conceptualizing this research, we was most enthusiastic about the ways Tumblr bloggers openly build their identities—often through labeling practices—and the implications with this construction that is open of identities. Consequently, we desired to resolve the next question that is guiding “In exactly exactly what methods do LGBTQIA Tumblr bloggers build and discuss their sex and intimate orientation identities? ”

Test Selection

To be able to examine identification construction on Tumblr, I selected an example of Tumblr bloggers by selecting 10 community-defined hashtags agent of this LGBTQIA spectrum: #gay, #girlswholikegirls, #bi, #ace, #queer, #lgbtq, #nonbinary, #gender fluid, #genderqueer, and #trans. These hashtags were selected since they’re commonly discovered whenever LGBTQIA that is browsing content Tumblr. Although we selected tags in line with the LGBTQIA acronym, there isn’t any label for “lesbian” but instead “girlswholikegirls. ” I noted that, since Tumblr has an active Not Safe/Suitable for Work (NSFW) community (Tiidenberg, 2012, 2013, 2014a, 2014b), this search returned primarily pornography rather than posts generated by users who identified as lesbian when I first attempted to collect data under the #lesbian hashtag. Probably in reaction to this, articles published by people who recognized as lesbian utilized #girlswholikegirls to tag articles instead than #lesbian. Also, i really believe it is crucial to make use of community-defined hashtags and terminology as this knowledge regarding sex and sexuality, particularly on SNSs, is socially built, defined, and developed, and, frequently, these self-identified hashtags are another kind of sex and sexual orientation labeling practiced by bloggers. Additionally it is well well worth noting that search phrases in English primarily discovered English-speaking united states of america bloggers, though there have been some English-speaking bloggers located in other nations such as for instance Japan, holland, and Ireland. As all information collected from all of these blog sites is voluntary, it absolutely was usually the situation that the blogger’s location wasn’t disclosed.

Finally, because the item of the research would be to examine identity that is individual, we created exclusionary requirements so that you can garner an example of individual LGBTQIA blog sites: for instance, blog sites moderated by a number of individuals don’t well express an individual’s NBG&SO identity construction. Exclusionary requirements are the following:

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The blogger is beneath the chronilogical age of 18.

Tags on search engine results that included #lovewins or #love victories. These articles had been excluded considering that the United states Supreme Court ruled that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional during data collection (Obergefell et al. V Hodges, 2015), and bloggers from outside the LGBTQIA community frequently utilized LGBTQIA tags in event of the ruling together with #lovewins or #love victories.

Duplicate blog sites (the blogs that are same turned up under various search phrases).

It had been not a blog that is personal for instance, your blog had been run by a number of moderators, this content of this web log had been mainly submissions of pictures along with other LGBTQIA content, or had been a promotional weblog ( ag e.g., for films or clothes lines).

Your blog content is primarily pornography or other intimately explicit product. Note: This failed to exclude blog sites with periodic content that is sexually explicit nudity.

The first 20 blogs that did not meet the exclusionary criteria were collected under each term search. Since Tumblr will not consist of an explanation that is official plus some Tumblr themes try not to consist of timestamps on articles, it is hard to express if search engine results are presented chronologically or if perhaps an algorithm impacts the outcome. In any event, the blog sites one of them scholarly research had been active at that time the information had been gathered. These information had been gathered through the months of June and July in 2015. These procedures lead to a preliminary total of 200 blogs collected. An additional 14 blogs met the exclusionary criteria for a total sample of 186 blogs upon closer inspection.