LGBT Representations on Facebook : Representations of the Self and the Content

Abstract: The topic of LGBT rights has been increasingly discussed and debated over recent years. More and more scholars show their interests in the field of LGBT representations in media. However, not many studies involved LGBT representations in social media. This paper explores LGBT representations on Facebook by analysing posts on an open page and in a private group, including both representations of the self as the identity of sexual minorities, content that is displayed on Facebook and the similarities and differences in two different settings (a private group and an open page). This study aims to fill the gap of self- representations of sexual minorities in non-anonymous online settings. Main concepts in this study include communication, gender, and sexuality, media representation, power, identity, stereotypes, self-representations, and discourse. A content analysis was conducted on posts from an LGBT open page and a private group with CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) being used as the method. Results suggest that both the open page and private group express values of non- discrimination, equality, and respect by presenting links, images and with an extra form of representation - personal statements in the group. Compared to the neutral environment on the open page, more personal emotions are involved in the private group and some of them tend to be negative. However, some images can go extreme, they overemphasise same-sex marriages but neglect other ones.