Author: Haley Person
Author: Haley Person | Major: Public; Biology | Semester: Spring 2024
My name is Haley Person, and I am an Honors College Fellow in the College of Education and Health Professions as well as the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, working towards a BS in public health, a BA in biology, and a minor in medical humanities. During the Spring 2024 semester, I researched under my mentor, Assistant Professor of Public Health Dr. Shristi Bhochhibhoya. Our research is a qualitative assessment of the conversation surrounding sexual violence (SV) that occurs on the social media platform, TikTok. Our research will continue throughout the summer and into the fall semester. We plan to continue our research as possible questions arise and present our findings at an annual convention held by the American Public Health Association.
For this research, we are performing a content analysis using the Apify TikTok scraper to collect videos related to SV. Contents that were posted in English and that used #sexualharrassmentawareness and #sexualassaultawareness were included in the analysis. Another undergraduate student and I have worked through each video in order to explore themes related to awareness techniques and coping strategies posted by TikTok users.
Dr. Bhochhiboyha and I were introduced in the Fall of 2023 by my Intro to Public Health Instructor, Kylie Lovett. Dr. Bhochhiboyha was seeking two undergraduate students to work with her on exploring this potential research topic, and I swiftly volunteered because of my special passion for the topic of SV. Throughout this project, I have worked in a team of five individuals, including Dr. Bhochhiboyha, two graduate students, and another honors undergraduate student. Because this experience is my introduction to research of any sort, these individuals have been crucial. They have guided me through any confusion I may have had as I have learned the ins and outs of qualitative research and given me constructive criticism to grow my research skills. They have valued my opinions and insight and respected me in any disagreements we have had while coding the content into its various categories.
I have faced various challenges throughout my research. In the beginning, we struggled to create categories to code the content into. However, we were able to work together and find commonalities among the videos to develop themes and subthemes that accurately represent them. I also struggled when our research team met to discuss discrepancies between our codes. I was put on the spot to defend why I had coded a video the way that I did. This was so we could have a thoughtful discussion and come to an agreement on how a video should be categorized. This was an anxiety-inducing process, and it took me time to realize that I was not being berated or interrogated and that my team did not think I was stupid for coding something wrong. Rather, they respected me and valued my insight into the content.
This research will continue throughout the summer and into the fall. After we have coded all the videos and settled any discrepancies, we will hopefully be able to identify a multifaceted approach to SV awareness on TikTok. We may continue our research depending on questions that pop up throughout the research process. After we have completed our work, we plan to write up a paper on our findings and present them at the annual conference held by the APHA. As for me, I am currently looking into volunteer opportunities to work with victims of SV and am considering this as a possible avenue in my future career.