Transitioning (on the) Internet: Shifting Challenges and Contradictions of Ethics of Studying Online Gender Transition Narratives

Joanna Chojnicka

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.20.1.05

Authors

Joanna Chojnicka University of Groningen, the Netherlands

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.20.1.05

Keywords:

Ethics, FAIR, Poland, Social Media, Transgender, Vulnerable Community

Abstract

The use of social media in qualitative research has become extremely popular. YouTube, in particular, has attracted attention from scholars working on (self-)representation of minority groups, including the transgender community (e.g., Dame 2013; Horak 2014). Most academic disciplines, however, have been slow in responding to the increasingly challenging nature of social media in terms of their ethics and methodologies. For example, there is a common misconception that any publicly available YouTube videos can be freely used for research. Many studies openly reference the YouTube channels they discuss (Wotanis and McMillan 2014) or anonymize data, but do not seek informed consent from creators (Raun 2020). What is more, researchers rarely reflect on how their work could impact the communities under study or the way creators use social media (Leonelli et al. 2021). At the same time, researchers wishing to protect vulnerable communities may find themselves falling short of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable) research principles required by funders. In this contribution, I discuss these and other challenges using, as a case study, my project, which investigates gender transition narratives on Polish social media. I wish to show that there is no one-fits-all approach to the ethics of social media studies—as the very nature of social media is in constant flux—and call for attentiveness and reflexivity as an inextricable component of qualitative social media research methodology.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Joanna Chojnicka, University of Groningen, the Netherlands

Joanna Chojnicka is an assistant professor in Linguistics and English as a Second Language at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Previously, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Cardiff University in Wales, where she worked on the project Trans in Translation: Multilingual Practices and Local/Global Gender and Sexuality Discourses in Polish Transition Narratives. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland in 2012 and worked in Marburg, Konstanz, Bremen, Luneburg, and Poznan before relocating to Cardiff in September 2021. Her research interests include gender, sexuality, and discourse studies, multilingualism, translation, and minority languages, as well as postcolonial, queer, and eco approaches to linguistics.

References

Alexander, Jonathan. 2002. “Homo-Pages and Queer Sites: Studying the Construction and Representation of Queer Identities on the World Wide Web.” International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 7:85-106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015888915258

BBC. 2019. “Transgender No Longer Recognised as ‘Disorder’ by WHO.” BBC News, May 29. Retrieved August 15, 2022 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-48448804

Bell, Justyna, Agnieszka Trąbka, and Paula Pustulka. 2020. “Ethics of Relational and Representational Disclosures in Qualitative Migration Research.” Qualitative Research Journal 20(3):317-328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-01-2020-0003

boyd, danah and Kate Crawford. 2012. “Critical Questions for Big Data: Provocations for a Cultural, Technological, and Scholarly Phenomenon.” Information, Communication & Society 15:662-679. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878

Chojnicka, Joanna. 2015a. “Homophobic Speech in Post-Socialist Media: A Preliminary Typology of Homophobic Manipulative Discourse.” The Journal of Language and Sexuality 4(1):139-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.4.1.05cho

Chojnicka, Joanna. 2015b. “Contesting Hegemonic Gender and Sexuality Discourses on the Web. Latvian and Polish Discourses of Gender Dissidents.” CADAAD Journal 7(2):222-242.

Chojnicka, Joanna. 2020. “Transition Narratives on Polish Trans Blogs: A Discursive Colonization Approach.” Pp. 201-227 in Solidarity, Place, and Power: Queer-Feminist Struggles and the East/West Divide, edited by K. Wiedlack et al. Bern: Peter Lang.

Dame, Avery. 2013. “‘I’m Your Hero? Like Me?’: The Role of ‘Expert’ in the Trans Male Vlog.” Journal of Language and Sexuality 2:40-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.2.1.02dam

Dhoest, Alexander and Łukasz Szulc. 2016. “Navigating Online Selves: Social, Cultural, and Material Contexts of Social Media Use by Diasporic Gay Men.” Social Media + Society October-December 2016:1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116672485

Enguix, Begonya and Elisenda Ardévol. 2012. “Enacting Bodies. Online Dating and New Media Practices.” Pp. 502-515 in The Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Media, edited by K. Ross. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118114254.ch30

Haraway, Donna. 1988. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” Feminist Studies 14:575-599. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

Harding, Sandra G. 1998. Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Harding, Sandra G. 2006. Science and Social Inequality. Feminist and Postcolonial Issues. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Heinz, Matthew. 2012. “Transmen on the Web. Inscribing Multiple Discourses.” Pp. 326-343 in The Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Media, edited by K. Ross. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118114254.ch20

Henson, Bryce. 2020. “‘Look! A Black Ethnographer!’: Fanon, Performance, and Critical Ethnography.” Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 20:322-335. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708619838582

Herring, Susan C. et al. 2004. “Women and Children Last: The Discursive Construction of Weblogs.” Retrieved April 17, 2023 http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/172825

Horak, Laura. 2014. “Trans on YouTube: Intimacy, Visibility, Temporality.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1:572-585. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2815255

Hume, Tim. 2020. “‘Violent’ Arrests Spark Protests against Polish Government Homophobia.” VICE World News, August 12. Retrieved August 16, 2022 https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7qkbe/polish-stonewall-margot-szutowicz-arrest-homophobia

Janiszewski, Jakub. 2021. “Neither In Nor Out: The Paradox of Poland’s ‘LGBT-Free’ Zones.” BIRN, April 15. Retrieved August 15, 2022 https://balkaninsight.com/2021/04/15/neither-in-nor-out-the-paradox-of-polands-lgbt-free-zones/

Jenzen, Olu. 2017. “Trans Youth and Social Media: Moving between Counterpublics and the Wider Web.” Gender, Place & Culture 24:1626-1641. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1396204

Jørgensen, Marianne W. 2010. “The Terms of Debate: The Negotiation of the Legitimacy of a Marginalised Perspective.” Social Epistemology 24:313-330. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2010.521898

King, Brian W. 2017. “Querying Heteronormativity among Transnational Pasifika Teenagers in New Zealand: An Oceanic Approach to Language and Masculinity.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 21:442-464. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12237

Kopytoff, Verne G. 2011. “Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter.” The New York Times, February 20. Retrieved August 15, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/technology/internet/21blog.html

Kulpa, Robert and Joanna Mizielińska, eds. 2016. De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives. London, New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315576107

Leonelli, Sabina et al. 2021. “From FAIR Data to Fair Data Use: Methodological Data Fairness in Health-Related Social Media Research.” Big Data & Society January-June:1-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211010310

Martino, Wayne, Kenan Omercajic, and Wendy Cumming-Potvin. 2021. “YouTube as a Site of Desubjugation for Trans and Nonbinary Youth: Pedagogical Potentialities and the Limits of Whiteness.” Pedagogy, Culture & Society 29(5):753-772. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2021.1912156

Marwick, Alice. 2013. “Gender, Sexuality, and Social Media.” Pp. 59-75 in The Social Media Handbook, edited by T. M. Senft and J. Hunsinger. New York: Routledge.

Milani, Tommaso M. 2014. “Marginally Speaking.” Multilingual Margins 1:9-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14426/mm.v1i1.19

Miller, Brandon. 2017. “YouTube as Educator: A Content Analysis of Issues, Themes, and the Educational Value of Transgender-Created Online Videos.” Social Media + Society April-June:1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117716271

Miller, Jordan F. 2019. “YouTube as a Site of Counternarratives to Transnormativity.” Journal of Homosexuality 66:815-837. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2018.1484629

Mitra, Rahul and Radhika Gajjala. 2008. “Queer Blogging in Indian Digital Diasporas: A Dialogic Encounter.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 32:400-423. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859908321003

Mizielińska, Joanna and Robert Kulpa. 2013. “Debating Sexual Politics in the Central-Eastern Europe. A Response to Takács and Pichardo Galán’s Comments on De-Centring Western Sexualities. Central and Eastern European Perspectives (Farnham: 2011: Ashgate).” Southeastern Europe 37:102-110. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18763332-03701007

Mulak, Agnieszka. 2021. “Osoby transpłciowe [Transgender Persons].” Pp. 311-332 in Sytuacja społeczna osób LGBTA w Polsce. Raport za lata 2019-2020 [Social Situation of LGBTA Persons in Poland. 2019-2020 Report], edited by M. Winiewski and M. Świder. Warsaw: Kampania Przeciw Homofobii, Lambda.

O’Neill, Matthew G. 2014. “Transgender Youth and YouTube Videos: Self-Representation and Five Identifiable Trans Youth Narratives.” Pp. 34-45 in Queer Youth and Media Cultures, edited by C. Pullen. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137383556_3

Ot, Anina. 2022. “Nothing Gets Deleted from the Internet, Ever. Here’s How.” MUO, March 02. Retrieved August 15, 2022 https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/saving-web-nothing-gets-deleted-Internet-ever/

Pustulka, Paula, Justyna Struzik, and Magdalena Ślusarczyk. 2015. “Caught between Breadwinning and Emotional Provisions—The Case of Polish Migrant Fathers in Norway.” Studia Humanistyczne AGH 14(2):117-139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7494/human.2015.14.2.117

Raun, Tobias. 2015. “Archiving the Wonders of Testosterone via YouTube.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 2:701-709. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3151646

Raun, Tobias. 2020. Out Online: Trans Self-Representation and Community Building on YouTube. London, New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Schneider, Christopher J. 2018. “Making the Case: A Qualitative Approach to Studying Social Media Documents.” Pp. 105-124 in Unconventional Methodology in Organization and Management Research, edited by A. Bryman and D. A. Buchanan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Spallaccia, Beatrice. 2020. It’s a Man’s World (Wide Web): A Critical Analysis of Online Misogyny and Hate Speech. Bologna: Bononia University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30682/alph05

Sundén, Jenny. 2002. “‘I’m Still Not Sure She’s a She’: Textual Talk and Typed Bodies in Online Interaction.” Pp. 289-312 in Talking Gender and Sexuality, edited by P. McIlvenny. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.94.12sun

Szulc, Łukasz. 2014. “The Geography of LGBTQ Internet Studies.” International Journal of Communication 8:2927-2931.

Szulc, Łukasz. 2016. “Domesticating the Nation Online: Banal Nationalism on LGBTQ Websites in Poland and Turkey.” Sexualities 19:304-327. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460715583604

Świder, Magdalena and Mikołaj Winiewski. 2021. “Wstęp [Introduction].” Pp. 7-9 in Sytuacja społeczna osób LGBTA w Polsce. Raport za lata 2019-2020 [Social Situation of LGBTA Persons in Poland. 2019-2020 Report], edited by M. Winiewski and M. Świder. Warsaw: Kampania Przeciw Homofobii, Lambda.

Tagg, Caroline et al. 2016. “The Ethics of Digital Ethnography in a Team Project.” Applied Linguistics Review 8(2-3). Retrieved November 23, 2023 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2016-1040/html DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2016-1040

Townsend, Leanne and Claire Wallace. n.d. Social Media Research: A Guide to Ethics. Aberdeen: The University of Aberdeen. Retrieved November 23, 2023 https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_487729_smxx.pdf

Turner, Fred. 2006. From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226817439.001.0001

UKRI. n.d. “Using Data about People in Research.” UK Research and Innovation. Retrieved August 15, 2022 https://www.ukri.org/councils/mrc/facilities-and-resources/find-an-mrc-facility-or-resource/mrc-regulatory-support-centre/using-data-about-people-in-research/

Vincent, James. 2017. “Transgender YouTubers Had Their Videos Grabbed to Train Facial Recognition Software.” The Verge, August 22. Retrieved August 15, 2022 https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/22/16180080/transgender-youtubers-ai-facial-recognition-dataset

Wiedlack, Katharina et al., eds. 2020. Solidarity, Place, and Power: Queer-Feminist Struggles and the East/West Divide. Bern: Peter Lang.

Williams, Matthew L., Pete Burnap, and Luke Sloan. 2017a. “Towards an Ethical Framework for Publishing Twitter Data in Social Research: Taking into Account Users’ Views, Online Context, and Algorithmic Estimation.” Sociology 51:1149-1168. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038517708140

Williams, Matthew L., Pete Burnap, and Luke Sloan. 2017b. “Ethics in Social Media Research: Where Are We Now?” NCRM, December 07. Retrieved July 26, 22 https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/news/show.php?article=5522

Wotanis, Lindsey and Laurie McMillan. 2014. “Performing Gender on YouTube: How Jenna Marbles Negotiates a Hostile Online Environment.” Feminist Media Studies 14:912-928. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.882373