Analyzing Virtual Manhood: Qualitative Analysis of Fappening-Related Twitter Data

Abstract

In August of 2014, hundreds of illegally hacked, nude, celebrity photos flooded the Internet. This event, referred to as “The Fappening,” offered an opportunity to examine gendered performance in the online social space of Twitter. The current case study details the research methods utilized to examine Fappening-related tweets that specifically illustrated the reproduction of virtual manhood. Researchers utilized a web-scraping tool to collect tweets over a 30-day period (August 31, 2014 to October 1, 2014). The decision to use a constructivist grounded theory approach to code and analyze the tweets offered multiple benefits while simultaneously posing noteworthy challenges. This case study is intended to benefit researchers interested in utilizing Twitter as a tool for qualitatively examining sociological phenomena.

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