The media niche that I have investigated has been feminist podcasts with a focus in particular on Australian feminist podcasts. Most of the autoethnographic research has been conducted on listening apps like apple podcasts, soundcloud and spotify. An analysis of fan interaction has also happened on other social network sites like Tik Tok.
- Podcast episodes: Move Over Gender Pay Gap & Move Over Education Barriers
- Podcast twitter: https://twitter.com/MoveOve86383821
- Youtube: Move Over Education Barriers
- Online Presence: https://soundcloud.com/user-741683581-686979994/sets/online-presence
Below is a field site map I created to illustrate the network of this niche.
Podcasts in my niche:
- Mamma mia podcasts – SOTM
- Nova podcasts – It’s a Lot
- ABC radio – Fierce girls
- Spotify studios – Flex’s Semi Factual History Lessons
- iHeart radio – There are no girls on the internet
- A Guardian Podcast – What would a feminist do
- ABC radio – The Signal
I go into further details about particular podcasts in my niche and why I chose them for my research in my blog posts, Key Ephianies in my Niche and Exploring Feminist Podcasts.
Research Overview
Learning firstly, about how economic niches operated, led to connections and comparisons to how my online niche worked and developed. One of these comparisons caused the realisation that feminist podcasting is an opportunity niche. I understood that,
“Opportunity niches change as the collective technology changes; and they elaborate and grow in numbers as the collective grows.”
(Gatti, Koppl, Fath, Kauffman, Hordijk & Ulanowicz 2020, p.102)
This niche has developed through the opportunity to fill an informational gap. A key example is She’s on the Money. As women are increasingly becoming more in charge of their finances an opportunity niche arises for a podcast to provide financial advice catered specifically to women’s needs.
This was also the case for female-black-educators whose voices were driven by a sense of purpose to participate in underserved areas. A study conducted by Shamburg (2020) found that the unique attributes of the podcast medium allowed for deep conversation and created an accessible, informal education which has seen a rise in popularity.
Learning about micro-publics also guided my research mapping to include both presentational media such as tweets, blogs and reviews, as well as more traditional forms of representational media such as podcasts. My field site grew exponentially through data gathering and this was predicted by the academic research of Burrell (2009) who articulated modern field-site mapping in a digital space.
Also understanding the history of ethnography and how autoethnography in comparison is a non-traditional research practice, set the tone to how I would conduct this research in a non-traditional way, that aimed to criticise hierarchical gendered structures through a feminist paradigm like Clarke-Viver & Stearns (2019).
“Autoethnographers recognize the innumerable ways personal experience influences the research process.”
(Ellis, Adams & Bochner, 2010, p.2)
Research Findings
The qualitative data was used to document experiences as both an audience and creator in my niche. This data can be found on my listening diaries and screenshot appendix blog posts.
Thick description
I used my listening diaries to reflect on my experience and draw connections to patterns of behaviour. Writing out what I liked and didn’t like helped me develop the structure and style of my podcast. An example is my reflection on The Signal which is a current affairs news podcast. It led to the epiphany that part of my persona as a creator is a student journalist and that tone of voice is important in a podcast.
Using thick description as a method allowed for me to encapsulate the why and how I listen which caused the epiphany that I have a fan persona. As Geertz (1973, p.30) describes, thick description
“is not to turn away from the existential dilemmas of life for some empyrean realm of de-emotionalized forms ; it is to plunge into the midst of them.”
I was a specific type of listening persona. I was trying to be a better version of myself and I listened while doing other healthy habits that helped form this ideal identity of mine. This was confirmed when discovering different categories as to why people listen to podcasts.
I also compared my experience to residents who,
“reported often listening to podcasts while doing other activities, being motivated by an ever-present desire to use their time productively”
(Riddell, Robins, Brown, Sherbino, Lin & Ilgen 2020, p.89)
This identification as a certain type of listener can be linked to the concept that you can take on different types of roles and persona’s when interacting with media. This was the case in Comerford’s (2021) article on personas in animal crossing.
Careful observation
By using methods of careful observation I began to understand that the Manosphere was very present online and participated in an organised and systematic effort to tear down women in this niche.
Networked misogyny is a cultural phenomena explored by Marwick & Caplan (2018). They describe the Manosphere as an interconnected web of blogs, videos, podcasts and forums run by groups that encourage violence against women. Many key persona’s in my niche like Flex and Abbie interact with these groups on social media like Tik Tok.
An example is Flex who stitched the Fresh and Fit podcast on Tik Tok. Through investigation it was discovered that the Fresh and Fit community is a group that can be directed towards particular women online and espouse violence against them. The result of experiencing this type of content as a fan encouraged a call to battle. It made me realise how important it is to have female voices on the internet and powerful that I was becoming one of them.
“When women are harassed, regardless of who they are or what they do, much harassing behavior focuses on their gender, such as sexist speech, pornographic imagery, and rape threats.”
(Marwick & Caplan 2018, p.543)
This was the case in reviews that were hateful over trivial things like the sound of Abbie’s voice. Also unnecessarily sexualising her through insults.
I provide further analysis of these key research findings in my blog posts Analysing my research findings and a Podcast update.
Incorporating Ethics
One key ethical consideration that I acknowledge both in my research and podcast is that I personally do not encapsulate the experiences of all women. This was made clear in my podcast by both myself and my guests.
It is an ethical consideration that led to asking my podcast guests questions like, “How do we decolonise feminism?”
It is important to understand that,
“The centering of women’s experience becomes a double-edged sword; that is, endeavouring to advocate for all women yet, operating from a singular identity or positionally that consequently jeopardises the feminist project.”
(Moon & Holling 2020, p.253)
References
Burrell, Jenna (2009) ‘The Field Site as a Network: A Strategy for Locating Ethnographic Research’, Field Methods, 21:2, 181–199.
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Koppl, R., Fath, B.D. et al, 2020, ‘On the Emergence of Ecological and Economic Niches.’ Journal of Bioeconomics 22(2), pp. 99–127
Clarke-Viver, S, Stearns, C 2019, ‘MeToo and the Problematic Valor of Truth: Sexual Violence, Consent, and Ambivalence in Public Pedagogy’, JCT: Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, vol. 34, no.3, pp. 55–75
Comerford, C. (2021). Coconuts, Custom-Play & COVID-19: Social Isolation, Serious Leisure and Personas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Persona Studies, 6(2), 101-117
Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2010). Autoethnography: An Overview. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(1)
Geertz, Clifford (1973) ‘Thick description- Toward an interpretive theory of culture,’ in The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books New York
Marshall, P, D 2014, ‘Persona studies: Mapping the proliferation of the public self’, Journalism, 15(2), pp. 153–170
Marshall, David 2008, What is a presentational media regime? The contemporary breakdown in systems of representation, in Canadian Communication Association. Conference (2008 : British Columbia, Canada), University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.
Marwick, A, E & Caplan, R 2018, ‘Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment’, Feminist Media Studies, 18:4, 543-559
Merriam, Sharan B. and Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2016) Being a Careful Observer, in Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation, Jossey-Bass: San Fransisco.
Moon, DG & Holling, MA 2020, ‘“White supremacy in heels”: (white) feminism, white supremacy, and discursive violence’, Communication and critical/cultural studies, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 253–260.
Popova, Milena. 2020. ‘Follow the Trope: A Digital (Auto)ethnography for Fan Studies.’ In “Fan Studies Methodologies,” edited by Julia E. Largent, Milena Popova, and Elise Vist, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 33
Riddell, J, Robins, L, Brown, A, Sherbino, J, Lin, M & Ilgen, JS 2020, ‘Independent and Interwoven: A Qualitative Exploration of Residents’ Experiences With Educational Podcasts’, Academic medicine, vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 89–96.
Shamburg, C 2020, ‘Rising waves in informal education: women of color with educationally oriented podcasts’, Education and information technologies, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 699–713.
van der Tuin, I 2016, ‘Microaggressions as New Political Material for Feminist Scholars and Activists: Perspectives from Continental Philosophy, the New Materialisms, and Popular Culture’, Australian feminist studies, vol. 31, no. 89, pp. 246–262.
Wall, Sarah (2006) An Autoethnography on Learning about Autoethnography, International Journal of Qualitative Methods 5 (2)
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