TWEETING AN IDENTITY:

A Content Analysis of Twitter Posts by Individuals Living with HIV/AIDS

Meghan Jane McEvoy-Hein

December 8, 2009

INTRODUCTION

THESIS

• Tweets of individuals living with

HIV/AIDS show how PLWHA

(people living with HIV/AIDS)

maintain their identities.

PREVIOUS LITERATURE• Stigma

• Visser, Makin, and Lehobye (2006)

• Construction of an HIV Positive Self• Roth and Nelson (1997)• Cadell and Marshall (2007)

• HIV as Identity, Experience, or Career• Bartos and McDonald (2000)• Flowers, et. al. (2003)

THEORY• Borderlands/La Frontera (Anzaldua 1987)

• Individuals living in “borderlands” experience the strain of belonging to identity groups that characteristically conflict with one another.

• General public’s stigmatized perceptions of PLWHA weigh heavily on those who see themselves differently from the way others see them.

• Social Identity Theory • Series of Categorizations• Multiple Groups & Dominance• Comparison

METHODOLOGY Content Analysis of Tweets of PLWHA

• Sample• 5 individuals living with HIV/AIDS that actively use

Twitter• Google search- Key words: “HIV postive blog”• Systematic search through Marvelyn Brown’s

followers

• Criteria• HIV positive• At least 18 years of age• Offer a “follow me on Twitter invitation”• Not a group or organization (an individual)• Tweet in English

FINDINGSType of Tweet

Username Tweets Retweets Replies Totals

Marvelynbrown 47 2 101 150

Oriolgutierrez 108 41 1 150

Justbthat 44 4 102 150

Just_Trav 28 3 119 150

DaddyDab 100 0 0 100

327 50 323 N=700

FINDINGSMentionings of HIV and/or AIDS

FINDINGSHIV as Identity

• oriolgutierrez• Self-description

• “Just added myself to the…twitter directory under: #latino#gay#hiv”

• Aspect of the self• “Coming Out Again: A feature article I wrote for

POZ about my coming out process, first as gay and again as HIV positive”

• DaddyDab

FINDINGSHIV as Experience

• Justbthat• Sense of Self (distinction made)• ‘Accident’ of HIV• Dealt WITH not Dwelt Within• Community

• Just_Trav

FINDINGSHIV as Career

Marvelynbrown

• HIV is involving & all consuming

• Crucial separation

• Self (per se) &

Involvement in HIV

Sense of Balance

Commitment to Community

DISCUSSION• Retweeting (lack of popularity)

• Popularity of the Reply (type of tweet)

• Strengths of my Research (Twitter)

• Weaknesses of my Research:• Sample Size • Data’s Depth/Richness for Coding

• Possibilities for Further Research (valuable)

Questions?

THANK YOU!