Identifying Gender Ideology in Web Content: Debates about Feminism

Anna M. Martinson marti411@umn.edu
Visiting Scholar, Internet Studies Center, UMN

The web is credited with re-energizing various types of political action, from e-democracy to grassroots activism. With the burgeoning quantity of content published on the web, there is a corresponding need to evaluate critically the quality of Web content. An information economy requires a new level of critical language awareness and tools that aid in the identification of underlying ideology in everyday discourse. This study examines the text, images, and links on websites that indicate particular ideological positions in advocacy websites about issues important to feminists.

This study is part of a larger research project investigating the textual features, visual features, and linking practices that indicate particular ideological positions in 45 websites addressing three controversial issues: domestic violence, pornography, and reproductive rights. Of interest is the identification of patterns, or discourse features that provide the ability to distinguish systematically between sites with differing ideologies. Methods of Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA) (Herring, 2004) grounded in the research tradition of CDA (Faircough, 1992; Fowler, 1991) will be used to analyze the data. A preliminary application of CMDA to a sub-sample of webpages reveals conflict over the definition of key concepts. This study focuses on the linking practices as well as expanding the preliminary textual and visual analyses.

Webpages on the same topic with similar interests and perspectives often will link to each other’s pages, creating a density of links. If links are considered one way by which a website signals its ideological stance, then the inclusion of links that address an issue from multiple perspectives may signal objectivity, while the inclusion of links from a single point of view is one indicator of ideology. For this analysis, the list of external links on the “Links” or “Resources” page from each website will be collected. Each link will be analyzed for whether other websites in the study sample contain the same link as well as for the apparent ideology of the site to which the link points. This analysis will provide additional information about the ideological commitments of the website’s creators.

References:

Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

Fowler, R. (1991). Language in the news: discourse and ideology in the press. New York, NY: Routledge.

Herring, S. C. (2004). Computer-mediated discourse analysis: an approach to researching online behavior. In S. A. Barab, R. Kling, & J. H. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved February 8, 2005 from http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/%7Eherring/cmda.html

Lee, D. (1992). Competing discourses: perspective and ideology in language. New York, NY: Longman.

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