Using Multiple Methods for Evaluating Black Women Graduate Students' Social Media Use

• In Event: Differing Approaches to Mixed- and Multimethod Research

Abstract

For this submission, I introduce a multi-method approach where I used both a content analysis and dramaturgy for interrogating Black women graduate students’ (BWGS) social media use. To counter the reactive nature of higher education practitioners regarding social media, I actively produced research and used social media posts as a data source (Stoller, 2013). I present a study where I coupled content analysis with a methodology often used in communications studies called dramaturgy (Goffman, 1959) to analyze Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter data for five Black women. I also use Black feminist thought (Collins, 2002) as a conceptual framework, centering the experiences of BWGS and challenging dominant ideology, which would focus on experiences of a majority population.

Author

• Sacha Sharp, Indiana University School of Medicine