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
 FINDINGS
Type 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

 FINDINGS
Mentionings of HIV and/or AIDS
 FINDINGS
HIV 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
 FINDINGS
HIV as Experience
• Justbthat
• Sense of Self (distinction made)
• ‘Accident’ of HIV
• Dealt WITH not Dwelt Within
• Community

• Just_Trav
 FINDINGS
HIV 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!