University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Online Media Forums as Separate Social Lives: A Qualitative Study of Disclosure Within and Beyond Reddit

Shelton, Martin; Lo, Katherine; Nardi, Bonnie

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/73676

Description

Title
Online Media Forums as Separate Social Lives: A Qualitative Study of Disclosure Within and Beyond Reddit
Author(s)
  • Shelton, Martin
  • Lo, Katherine
  • Nardi, Bonnie
Issue Date
2015-03-15
Keyword(s)
  • qualitative research methods
  • social computing
  • online communities
Date of Ingest
2015-03-24T16:07:13Z
Abstract
Social media websites and web forums increasingly resemble massive media-sharing spaces where participants must manage self-presentation by targeting data disclosures to anticipated audiences. To explore the dynamics of selective disclosure, we conducted a qualitative study with participants on the social news site, reddit, and examined how people discuss its content in conversation on the website, in other websites, and in face-to-face conversation. We conducted 24 interviews with users and analyzed a supplementary corpus of popular reddit threads and reddit Internet Relay Chat logs. We also made regular use of the website to ground our understanding of the community. In our inductive analysis we found that many reddit users described deliberate social choices to compartmentalize discussions involving content on the website from their social lives beyond.
Publisher
iSchools
Series/Report Name or Number
iConference 2015 Proceedings
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
Conference Paper / Presentation
Language
English
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/73676
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2015 is held by the authors. Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the authors.

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iConference 2015 Papers PRIMARY