Volume 15 Spring 2019 djim.management.dal.ca |

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement: Halifax Pride 2018

Nicole Slipp

School of Information Management, Dalhousie University

Abstract

The following paper considers what researchers can learn from Twitter alone selected individuals or small groups of users and their sentiments on particular topics. More specifically, it attempts to evaluate the usability of data from Twitter as a measure of sponsor engagement in public events. Given that corporate and government sponsorship of Pride festivals is a pressing ethical concern for LGTBQ communities, this study takes the 2018 Halifax Pride Festival as its case study and performs both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the tweets of sponsors. Analyzing the Twitter data of sponsors of this event reveals some patterns of engagement and identifies the most engaged and informed sponsors.

Twitter (www.twitter.com), the popular local scale. It considers what researchers social media platform with over three can learn from Twitter alone about selected hundred and thirty-six million active users individuals or small groups of users and (Statista, 2018), is undoubtedly creating their sentiments on particular topics. This data. A decade of research in the social paper specifically explores the feasibility of sciences has demonstrated this data’s using Twitter posts (tweets) as an indicator usability as evidence for certain types of of sponsor engagement: it considers if studies, particularly the study of large tweets reveal anything about whether datasets. The present study asks whether sponsors of a particular event are engaged Twitter data is useful on a smaller and more in a cause beyond monetary support and

1 what engaged sponsors of an event might spectators of all sexual orientations. These have in common. Due to rising concerns events now typically have corporate and among queer 1 activists over the government sponsors who donate money commercialization of Pride, the question of or goods. sponsor engagement in Pride festivals is a It is undeniable that queer rights in North particularly relevant one, and the 2018 America have advanced since the 1960s; Halifax Pride Festival is the case study for however, many activists and theorists point this paper. Analyzing the Twitter data of out that only certain queer identities have sponsors of this event reveals some become somewhat acceptable, and these patterns of engagement and identifies the tend to be those that can fit into existing most engaged and informed sponsors. social structures, for example a The Commercialization of Pride monogamous, white, cisgender, middle- The genesis of the Pride festival is generally class, gay couple. Instead of changing held to be protests against harassment and social norms, certain queer people are demands for queer rights. Many trace the accepted into them, a process Duggan beginning of the modern queer rights (2004) critiques and names as movement to the Stonewall riots in New homonormativity. As a result of resistance York City on June 28, 1969, for example to this process of normalization and (Klinefelter, 2011). These sorts of protests assimilation, when corporate and turned into organized marches, and those government sponsors get involved in Pride marches turned into annual parades.2 The festivals, there is concern about how has been an essential part of meaningful their engagement with queer the queer rights movement because it issues is; for example, Utterback (2016) normalizes queer participation in public life critiques sponsors who simply use a and presents queerness as something of rainbow filter online or put a float in a which to be proud rather than a shameful parade but neglect to grapple with racism secret. In most Western countries today, or poverty in queer communities and Pride festivals are celebrations of queer argues, “when corporations support lesbian, identity and Pride parades attract gay, bisexual, and transgender rights, they

1 Queer is an umbrella term for various sexual This paper uses queer as a catchall for the many and gender identities other than heterosexual possibilities of gender and sexual identities. and cisgender (where sex assigned at birth 2 That linear development is of course a matches gender identity). More specific terms, simplification, but it is outside the purview of preferred local terms, and acronyms vary, e,g, this study to trace the history of Pride in much gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, detail. For more on the subject, see Klinefelter asexual, two-spirit, LGBT, 2SLBTBQ+, LGTBQ. (2011) or James (2018). 2 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement are really capitalizing on another unnamed are a viable way to measure that identity: consumer” (par. 8). Queer people engagement or involvement. do not want to feel that a company Halifax Context sponsors Pride only because they and their Halifax Pride has not been immune to allies now represent a viable market share. questions about commercialization or The objection to government sponsors is pinkwashing. In 2016, there was major generally for politicians who express controversy over the inclusion of Size support for Pride but who also support Doesn’t Matter, an Israeli tourism group policies that negatively impact queer encouraging gay tourism to Tel Aviv, in a people. This kind of promotion during Pride community fair (Boon, 2016; Graham, Pride by politicians or businesses is referred 2016a; Queer Arabs of Halifax, 2016; Segal to as pinkwashing (Boon, 2017; Dahl, 2014). & Julia, 2016). The resulting fallout over Some, particularly those serving on Pride mishandling of the situation saw Festival boards and organizing committees, community members questioning Halifax argue that the commercialization of Pride Pride’s ability to represent marginalized is not necessarily a bad thing because it voices, board resignations, and calls for signals mainstream acceptance of queer boycotts from queer community groups identities (Kushner, 2017), while others (Dingwell, 2017b; Graham, 2016b). The argue that if celebrations become too following year, Halifax Pride discontinued apolitical and commercial, they risk the community fair, a showcase of sponsors excluding the most vulnerable members of and businesses, in favour of a community queer communities and endorsing harmful market for queer crafters and not-for-profit capitalist practices (O’Flynn, 2018; Rand, exhibitors. Adam Reid, Executive Director of 2012; Utterback, 2016). Many articles and Pride, said that Queer Arabs of Halifax’s news stories on the subject of Pride pinkwashing motion had been mishandled commercialization attempt to provide both at the previous AGM, and that the new perspectives or suggest ways community market would be more corporatization could be ethical while thoughtful about which exhibitors would acknowledging potential problems (Alsop, be included (Dingwell, 2017a). 2001; Botelho-Urbanski, 2016; Farrar, 2018; In 2017, the debate surrounding Halifax Ross, 2016). If there is a path forward for Pride was over Prime Minister Justin ethical sponsorship, it seems to be through Trudeau marching in the parade. Critics of a sponsor’s thoughtful engagement with the Prime Minister’s inclusion in the parade the issues facing queer communities or felt that it undermined Pride’s stated repeated and meaningful involvement in interest in rebuilding trust with local BIPOC Pride activities, not just monetary support. (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) The aim of this study will be to see if tweets communities because he, a privileged white

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 3 man, would become the focus of the including, in broad terms, studies on the parade (Boon, 2017). Others argued that it behavioural side of social media, on reviews is still meaningful for a Prime Minister to and recommendations, on the integration support queer citizens in this way, of social media into workplaces, on social especially because Trudeau is the first media as a marketing tool, on online sitting Canadian Prime Minister to do so, communities, on the risks of using social so the community should be grateful for media, on negative stigma towards social his support (Kassam, 2016; King, 2016). media use in the workplace, on social media as value creation, on how users As a demonstration of their commitment to share information during critical events community outreach, Halifax Pride has (which is almost always on Twitter), on made changes to its operations since 2016. social media as a path for seeking help, and One such change is the Partner Initiatives on comparing traditional media and social Survey, which asks any sponsors and media (Kapoor et al., 2017). partners to report about what they do to support queer communities apart from The demand for Twitter data in research sponsoring the Pride festival (Halifax Pride, has resulted in numerous academic 2018). Overall, when it comes to publications on methodology (Borra & sponsorship, people respond best to actual Rieder, 2014; Bruns & Stieglitz, 2013; engagement, and the partner survey speaks Jürgens & Jungherr, 2016; Kapoor et al., to this desire to see sponsors who do more 2017; Snelson, 2016; Zimmer & Proferes, for the community than drop-in once a 2014), as well as various free and paid tools year. Halifax Pride’s recent issues with to use in data collection, analysis, and pinkwashing and sponsorship and its visualization. The Social Media Lab at relatively small scale make its 2018 Festival Ryerson University’s Social Media Toolkit an excellent case for a study of how tweets (2018) is a useful resource for evaluating might reflect sponsors’ engagement. the functions of over fifty such tools. Twitter in Social Science However, most tools that are free to use Research are only able to engage with Twitter’s API to return results in real-time or from seven As social media has become part of the days in the past; it also omits an unknown daily routine of many individuals and percentage of tweets at random (Borra & businesses, Twitter has become a valuable Rieder, 2014). These collect thousands of source for social science research. As tweets, which are cleaned of identifying Zimmer and Proferes (2014) put it, “Twitter information before being analyzed. In these has emerged as a valuable resource for cases the goal of the study might be to tapping into the zeitgeist of the internet, its gauge public response to a particular event, users, and often beyond” (p. 250). Studies or how users from a certain location use of social media can take many forms,

4 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement Twitter, so the identity of the users is not Morstatter, and Liu’s Twitter Data Analytics important. While accessing small (2014) instructs researchers on accessing of tweets, as this study does, is possible, the Twitter API with their own code, and typically Twitter research is more interested would still be applicable (though likely with in the possibilities of Twitter as a source of some modifications to the source code) for insight into large populations and general collecting real-time tweets or tracking sentiments on world events. As Bruns and ongoing hashtags. Articles over two years Stieglitz (2013) point out, wide scale old will also still be useful if they discuss generalizations should only be made if the ethics or use trends, but one must be dataset involves at least five thousand users. prepared for any specific technical advice Jürgens and Jungherr (2016) suggest that, to be out of date. because of the difficulties of working with Many of the ethical issues in using Twitter big data, the best way to collect, store, and as a source for research involve the analyze Twitter data may be to form question of whether tweets can be cooperative labs of researchers who can understood as published, public each perform one part of the process. information or not. Although tweets are The difficulty with past studies on Twitter publically available by default, Puschmann methodology is that Twitter changes so and Burgess (2013) argue that most users rapidly that some methodological practices do not understand some of the more are no longer applicable. For example, advanced features of Twitter or its code, articles written before Twitter updated its and so using their data presents ethical terms of service in 2011 and revised how problems because the user does not third party services could use its API understand all of what they make public recommend a service called with a tweet. On the other hand, Bruns et TwapperKeeper as the best way to collect al. argue that “publicly visible Twitter and export tweet collections; however, after messages are guaranteed to have been that revision to the terms of service, published to the internet at large, at least TwapperKeeper lost most of its functions. technically, and archiving them in the Articles written before 2014 might discuss course of research activities is therefore Gnip as a third party reseller of Twitter data, substantially less problematic [than doing as Puschmann and Burgess (2013) do, but the same with other social media types]” Twitter acquired Gnip in 2014 and (quoted in Zimmer & Proferes, 2014, p. absorbed its functions into Twitter 256). Breslawski (2014) argues that legally, provided premium service accounts tweets are not private. Overall, and this may (Etherington, 2014). There is still value in be obvious given the vast number of somewhat older articles on social media studies on the subject, researchers in the research methodology; for example, Kumar, social sciences have largely agreed that

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 5 social media posts are appropriate as the available free services and coding evidence. Of course, there are context options were not useful because they could dependent procedures to ensure ethical only access content generated in real-time handling of data and legal issues to or over the past seven days from Twitter consider; the Social Feed Manager’s (2016) and were geared towards retrieving bibliography on research ethics is a helpful thousands of tweets. After some place to begin reading in these areas. experimentation, the researcher concluded that the best way to access historical tweets Businesses and politicians use their Twitter without subscribing to a paid service or to accounts to make announcements, connect a premium access account to the Twitter with their customers or constituents, build API would be to combine the features of their brand, and engage with the public Twitter’s advanced search (Jacques, 2009; Ioanid & Scarlat, 2017). Like (https://twitter.com/search-advanced) and users in general do (Yoo, Choi, Choi, & Rho TweetDeck (https://tweetdeck.twitter.com), 2014), corporate or political accounts may a once independent dashboard application also tweet to conform to new social for tweets acquired by Twitter in 2011 expectations or to express their values. (Empson, 2011). Both require a Twitter user Colliander et al. (2017) find that presenting account for access. The researcher used her a balance of personal and political tweets existing personal account, but for future can have positive impacts for the individual studies creating a new account might be politician and for their party. Tweeting advisable in order to avoid mixing research about Pride festival attendance may with one’s personal account and its therefore be beneficial to politicians in metadata. particular because it both expresses a political position and, depending on the The combination of the two search content of the tweet, presents the politician functions was necessary in order to have as a relatable individual. The reasons that both a wider range of search filters and the businesses and politicians use Twitter mean ability to save results. Twitter advanced that their tweets can be assumed to be search allows for compound searches, with intended for mass public consumption, and search fields for keywords (all, exact, any, therefore there are fewer ethical issues at none), hashtags, language, accounts (from, play in collecting and analyzing them. to, mentioning), place, and date. There is Methodology an option to save a search, but only its terms, so it is possible the results could As discussed above, there are many change when retrieved on another day. available free or paid tools for Twitter data TweetDeck, on the other hand, will save analysis. One might also use one’s own collections of tweets from a search. It has code or provided code to interact with the only one search field and allows filtering by Twitter API. For the purposes of this study,

6 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement excluded words, date, location, tweet sponsors and government sponsors. The author, and engagement numbers. Pride Guide (Halifax Pride, 2018) contained However, by conducting a search in the a full list of sponsors. For the purposes of advanced search and then copying the examining government responses, the resulting search string into a TweetDeck, researcher selected the accounts of the one can include the search functions of Mayor, provincial MLAs of Halifax and Twitter advanced search with the saving Dartmouth ridings, provincial leaders of the capabilities of TweetDeck. That is the Liberal, New Democratic, and Progressive process used in the searches for this paper. Conservative parties, and Members of This combined process will only be feasible Parliament for Halifax and Dartmouth. for small studies like this one; manually There are two sponsors, one business and collecting and collocating tweets for more one politician, who did not have Twitter users or a larger date range would quickly accounts (for a full list of sponsors, their become unmanageable. Twitter usernames, and their sponsor level see Appendix A). For each sponsor the To collect the data for this study it was following information was considered for necessary to decide on specific search potential points of analysis: their scope, terms. The researcher began by looking at type, sponsorship level, whether they are the terms Halifax Pride used in its 2018 for-profit or non-profit, if the Twitter is a Pride Guide, adding synonyms as well as local account, and, if applicable, their the words from queer acronyms to get the political affiliation and political position. most comprehensive results. Two selected Sponsorship level is determined by either groups of search terms, hashtags and monetary or in-kind donations from the keywords, were searched separately each sponsor. Rainbow sponsors give thirty-five time. The selected hashtags are #hfxpride, thousand dollars or more; Diamond #hfxpride2018, and #HappyPride. The sponsors give ten thousand dollars or more; selected keywords are pride, LGBT, Gold sponsors give five thousand dollars or 2SLGBTQ+, queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, more; Silver sponsors give two thousand trans, transgender. The dates for the five hundred dollars or more; and Friend searches are between July 18 and July 31, level sponsors give one thousand dollars or 2018. The official dates of the Halifax Pride more (A. Reid, personal correspondence, Festival were from July 19 until July 29; the November 28, 2018). All politicians count selected date range returned tweets just as local in scope and Twitter account type before or after the festivities. because they are elected by Haligonians Next, it was necessary to collect the Twitter directly or represent a provincial party usernames (handles) of the sponsors of the operating out of Halifax. festival. These are all publically available. The sponsors included both business

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 7 Because of search limitations and a few tweets. Out of fifty-two sponsors, exactly experimentations, the researcher fifty percent, or twenty-six sponsors, performed a total of sixteen searches in the tweeted about the 2018 Halifax Pride process of data collection. As an example Festival. The researcher examined these of the construction of the search strings results by a number of factors: sponsorship (see Appendix B for full record of search level, scope, and location of twitter account strings), the search for hashtag use by administration. government sponsors was: There was one sponsor at the Rainbow level, #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR and they did not tweet about the Festival; #HappyPride from:MikeSavageHFX OR at the Diamond level there were five from:bmaguirens OR from:GaryBurrill OR sponsors and two tweeted; at the Gold from:LisaRobertsHFX OR level there were ten sponsors and three from:ChenderMLA OR tweeted; at the Silver level there were from:Keith_W_Colwell OR fifteen sponsors and seven tweeted; at the from:TimothyHalman OR Friends level there were eight sponsors and from:susanleblancMLA OR five tweeted; and at the government level, from:DarrenFisherNS OR nine out of thirteen sponsors tweeted (see from:AndyFillmoreHFX OR from:geoffregan Figure 1). If a company had a national or since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 international scope, they did not tweet about the festival, while fifty-six percent of Results are grouped into two tweet those sponsors with a provincial scope collections: government sponsors and non- tweeted and sixty-seven percent of government sponsors. For these results, the sponsors with a local scope tweeted (see researcher recorded if the account tweeted Figure 2). Sixty-two percent of sponsors about Halifax Pride, how many times they with a locally administered twitter account tweeted, and the text of their tweets. The tweeted, while sponsors without a locally researchers also recorded how many tweets administered twitter did not tweet. Fifty included images, as well as how many percent of sponsors who have a perceived tweets included emojis, which emojis were direct connection to queer communities used, and how frequently. A textual analysis tweeted (three out of six sponsors), and using Textalyser (http://textalyser.net) fifty percent of sponsors without a reported on the frequency of top words perceived connection to queer and top phrases. communities tweeted (twenty-three out of Findings forty-six sponsors). The retrieval of tweets from fifty-two sponsors of Halifax Pride 2018 resulted in a collection of ninety-three total relevant

8 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 16

14 15

12 13

10 10 8 9 Number of Sponsors in 8 Category 6 7 Sponsors Who Tweeted 4 5 5

2 3 1 0 2 0

Figure 1 – Tweeters by sponsorship level

35

30 32

25

20 21 Total Sponsors 15 Sponsors Who Tweeted

10 10 9 5 5 1 0 0 0 International National Provincial Local

Figure 2 – Sponsors by Scope

Sponsors who did tweet did so at varying sponsors tweeted only once. The average frequency (see Figure 3). Halifax Public number of tweets from sponsors that Libraries tweeted the most, with twelve tweeted was 3.54 tweets with a mean of 2 individual tweets about the festival. Seven tweets. Out of ninety-three tweets, eighty-

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 9 eight contained images. Twenty-nine of the Leaving out phrases of only prepositions sponsor tweets contained emojis. A and articles, the ten most repeated two Textalyser analysis of the tweets relevant to word phrases are happy pride, halifaxpride this study found that the tweets contain parade, pride parade, pride Halifax, and see 599 unique words and compiled the most you. The five most repeated three word commons repeated words and phrases in phrases are happy pride Halifax, the the tweets. The five most common halifaxpride parade, pride happy pride, the repeated words in descending order are pride parade, and parade on Saturday. pride, halifaxpride, parade, you, Halifax.

Number of Tweets 14

12 12 10

8 9 9

6 7 6 6 4 5 4 4 2 3 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 0

Figure 3 – Number of tweets per sponsor

Discussion mostly inaccurate based on the data It is possible to discern some patterns in collected. Though questions of meaningful the tweets of sponsors and to analyze the engagement are hard to measure, a content of tweets to form conclusions. The business or government officially researcher came into this study with sponsoring a Pride festival can be assumptions about how certain sponsors interpreted to mean, at the very least, that might tweet, but those assumptions were that sponsoring entity is not anti-gay. 10 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement Beyond that, the tweets of these sponsors The best indicator of whether a sponsor may reveal, again at the least, whether would tweet about the Pride Festival is if these sponsors participated in Pride events the business or person is local in scope, in addition to offering sponsorship, and that is, if they are based in Halifax. A strong which events those were. In some cases, tie to Halifax was even more important than discussed more below, the tweets also a perceived affiliation with queerness in the indicate a level of engagement with queer organization. Sixty-seven percent of Halifax issues. based sponsors tweeted. Sponsors with a Who Tweeted and Who Did Not provincial scope also had a high rate of Tweet? tweet engagement, at fifty-six percent. Since Halifax is the largest city in Nova It is fairly unsurprising that international Scotia as well as its capital, sponsors with a and national sponsors did not tweet about provincial scope are also likely to be based the Halifax Pride Festival. These sponsors in Halifax. It is logical that people and have nationally administered Twitter businesses operating in Halifax would be accounts that would not be concerned with more likely to engage with the Festival on local events because those events would be Twitter, since it is more likely that they irrelevant to many of their followers. In would be directly participating in the events. these cases, a lack of engagement on Twitter does not necessarily indicate a lack A study of Twitter content alone, of engagement with queer communities. unfortunately, cannot argue from absence TD Canada Trust, for example, is a Rainbow to conclude why sponsors did not tweet. Level sponsor of the Festival, meaning it Any business sponsor has chosen to contributed thirty-five thousand dollars or support Pride and it remains unclear why, more to Halifax Pride for the 2018 Festival if they have an active Twitter account, they (A. Reid, personal correspondence, would not also tweet about the Festival. November 28, 2018). TD sponsors over one O’Regan’s Kia, for example, is a local to hundred and sixty Pride festivals across Halifax company that contributed ten Canada and has been a Pride sponsor since thousand dollars or more to the Festival as 2004. The company faced pushback from a Diamond sponsor (A. Reid, personal customers over its sponsorship of Pride correspondence, November 28, 2018), but festivals but continues to offer major it did not tweet. Future research into support. (Beltrame, 2014; Dagostino, 2010). Twitter content might ideally also solicit Its Twitter account tweets during Toronto direct feedback from users through surveys Pride, the largest festival in Canada, and for or interviews; for example, it would be very Pride month (June) in general, but tweeting useful to know who was responsible for about all the smaller festivals it sponsors tweeting from each account and how their would be unsustainable for the one central company generally approaches social account based out of Toronto. Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 11 media use. In the case of engagement for sponsor of Halifax Pride in 2018. Several a Pride festival, it would possibly make a library branches hosted official events for difference if a queer person were the one Halifax Pride, and as a result the HPL contributing tweet content, for example. Twitter feed promotes the widest variety of events from the 2018 Festival, including The language of the tweets as revealed by Drag Queen Storytime and the Halifax Pride the Textalyser analysis is overwhelmingly Speakers Series. Like many sponsors, they positive. The most repeated words mostly also tweeted about their participation in involve some variation on “pride” and many the Pride parade. Additionally, they posted other frequently used words introduce a list of suggested books with LGBTQ+ concepts of community, joining, and themes available in the HPL catalogue. celebration. It would be interesting to see HPL’s tweets during Pride indicate that the if community members used similarly queer community is part of what happens positive language in their tweets. at the library. Other sponsors whose tweets Notable Results from Business indicated connections between their or Corporate Sponsors business and queer people or communities Some tweet results are notable because are the Youth Project (unsurprisingly, they indicate a potential lack of meaningful because they are a community advocacy engagement with queer issues even though group for queer youth) and Dalhousie they are about celebrating the 2018 Halifax University, whose tweets highlighted the Pride Festival. These tweets are those that current work of queer scholars at Dalhousie. include explicit self-promotion or what Notable Results from might be considered advertising content Government Sponsors alongside content about Pride. For example, One might have assumed that among the Halifax radio station C100 FM had two politicians, tweeting would fall along party tweets tagging a sponsor of their summer lines, with Progressive Conservative programs, Steele Subaru, thus promoting politicians participating less than the that company, which is not a Pride sponsor. Liberals and New Democrats, if at all. On the other hand, however, C100FM also However, the data proves this assumption linked to a blog post by one of its on air incorrect. The PC leader Karla MacFarlane personalities about how she explained tweeted twice about Halifax Pride, both Pride to her young daughter, which times about participating in the Pride indicates concern for Pride beyond parade. Timothy Halman, the Progressive advertising possibilities. Conservative and MLA for , Tweeting more than once or about multiple tweeted four times about Pride; all his events are ways sponsors demonstrated tweets concerned the Pride parade as well, engagement in the Festival. Halifax Public including one about bringing his children Libraries (HPL) tweeted the most of any to the parade. One of the NDP MLAs for 12 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement Halifax, , did not tweet about first Pride parade in Halifax and the threats Pride. However, she did not tweet at all of homophobic violence people faced for during the month of July, so this data may participating then, and a call to “rededicate not be significant. On the other hand, ourselves to a future where every single Liberal MLA for Halifax Atlantic Brendan one of us, no matter our gender expression, Maguire tweeted frequently (seventeen gender identity, or orientation is free to be times) during the Halifax Pride Festival, but who they are” (Fisher, 2018). This never about Pride. One can reasonably infer acknowledgement of past and current from this data that Mr. Maguire does not difficulties for queer communities is support queer communities in Halifax, since notable among other mostly celebratory he would have been invited to participate tweets. in events and declined to do so, and since Mere participation in Pride, if not backed the Liberals had a float in the parade, which up by policy and action, would be classified he would also have declined to participate as pinkwashing. More research into the in. specific voting records and other All MPs for Halifax tweeted about the Pride background of these politicians would be Festival, and two in particular tweeted in necessary to gauge their engagement with ways that could indicate meaningful queer communities more accurately. It engagement. Andy Fillmore, Halifax MP and might be useful to see if politicians tweet member of the Liberal party, tweeted the about queer issues at any other time of most of any politician about the 2018 year, since the celebration of Pride is much Festival. Based on his tweets, he attended easier to deal with than engaging with the Pride flag raising, a Pride Shabbat negative or challenging queer community dinner, the Pride parade, and a parade issues. While it is difficult to tell from tweets after-party. He also posted a video with the alone if a politician supports queer federal advisor on LGBTQ2 in which they communities in all of their actions, when a discuss current government initiatives to politician tweets many times during Pride benefit queer communities in Canada, or includes content acknowledging the including extending protections granted by hardships queer communities face, it is at the Canada Human Rights Act to include least indicative of an attempt at meaningful trans people. Mr. Fillmore’s tweets indicate engagement on their part. a higher than average level of engagement Limitations with the Pride Festival. Darren Fisher, The greatest limitation to this study is its Liberal MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, scope. Collecting more tweets, from a tweeted only twice about the Festival. variety of locations over more years would However, one of his tweets included a short yield more data to analyze; this data would video in which Mr. Fisher talks about the be especially interesting as a measure of

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 13 the evolution of engagement with Pride to community events as well as in festivals. Future work might also do comparison to the tweets of community comparison between the tweets of members. sponsors and the tweets of community References members, which could provide direct Alsop, R. (2001, June 22). Corporate evidence of community response to sponsorships at parades sponsor engagement. It would also be an alienate some activists—dissenters advantage to have software to collect and say events now put sales ahead of analyze the tweets, rather than doing so protesting; staging a “gay shame” manually. Another limitation to this study is rally. The Wall Street Journal. a lack of analysis of the pictures included Retrieved from in tweets from sponsors; photo https://search.proquest.com/ attachments might give more insight into, docview/398817745/abstract/402A at the least, a sponsor’s level of enthusiasm 05CBEF24731PQ/1 for Pride events. Similarly, a future study might consider the significance of emoji Beltrame, J. (2014, June 25). TD Bank's use in these kinds of tweets. diversity a point of literal pride for Conclusions CEO. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from Tweets provide an incomplete picture on http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/201 sponsor engagement, but they do provide 4/06/25/td-bank- some insight, particularly into enthusiasm diversity_n_5530269.html levels. When a sponsor tweets about an event it indicates that their engagement Boon, J. (2016, October 2). Halifax Pride extends beyond financial support. Merely draws ire over proposed tweeting may not be enough to indicate pinkwashing motion. The Coast. meaningful engagement, however, Retrieved from especially in the case of Pride festivals, https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBit where there is a danger of sponsors es/archives/2016/10/02/ halifax- practicing pinkwashing. If a sponsor tweets pride-draws-ire-over-proposed- many times or, again in the case of Pride pinkwashing-motion festivals, includes content beyond Boon, J. (2017, July 18). Trudeau celebration that acknowledges the pinkwashing Pride parade. The struggles of queer communities, then that Coast. Retrieved from sponsor demonstrates at least an attempt https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBit at meaningful engagement. Further studies es/archives/2017/07/18/trudeau- should consider tweet content alongside pinkwashing-pride-parade other measures of sponsors’ commitment

14 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement Borra, E., & Rieder, B. (2014). Programmed 74, 277-285. doi: method: Developing a toolset for 10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.042 capturing and analyzing tweets. Dagostino, S. (2010, April 12). Public Aslib Journal of Information pressure from pride sponsorship Management, 66(3), 262-278. doi: nothing new: TD Bank. Daily Xtra. 10.1108/AJIM-09-2013-0094 Retrieved from Botelho-Urbanski. (2016, June 28). LGBT https://www.dailyxtra.com/public- Night March decries Pride’s pressure-from-pride-sponsorship- corporate sponsorship. The nothing-new-td-bank-10649 Toronto Star. Retrieved from Dahl, S. (2014, August 26). The rise of https://www.thestar.com/news/gta pride marketing and the curse of /2016/06/28/-night-march- pink washing. The Conversation. decries-prides-corporate- Retrieved from sponsorship.html http://theconversation.com/the- Breslawski, T. M. (2014). Privacy in social rise-of-pride-marketing-and-the- media: To tweet or not to tweet? curse-of-pink-washing-30925 Touro Law Review, 29(4), 1283- Dingwell, R. (2017a, June 2). Halifax Pride 1304. Retrieved from addresses pinkwashing by http://digitalcommons.tourolaw.ed discontinuing community fair. The u/ lawreview/vol29/iss4/16. Coast. Retrieved from Bruns, A., & Stieglitz, S. (2013). Towards https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBit more systematic Twitter analysis: es/ archives/2017/06/02/ halifax- Metrics for tweeting activities. pride-addresses-pinkwashing-by- International Journal of Social discontinuing-community-fair Research Methodology, 16(2), 91- Dingwell, R. (2017b, July 19). South House 108. doi: offers alternative pride event. The 10.1080/13645579.2012.756095 Coast. Retrieved from Colliander, J., Marder, B., Lid Falkman, L. https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBit Madestam, J., Modig, E., & es/archives/2017/07/19/south- Sagfossen, S. (2017). The social house-offers-alternative-pride- media balancing act: Testing the event use of a balanced self- Duggan, L. (2004). The twilight of equality? presentation strategy for Neoliberalism, cultural politics, politicians using Twitter. and the attack on democracy. Computers in Human Behavior, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 15 Empson, R. (2011, May 23). Twitter buys pinkwashing-motion-voted-down- TweetDeck for 40 million. at-halifax-pride-agm TechCrunch. Retreived from Graham, A. (2016b, December 29). Halifax https://techcrunch.com/2011/05/2 Pride’s new director, uncertain 3/twitter-buys-tweetdeck-for-40- direction. The Coast. Retrieved million/ from Etherington, D. (2014, April 15). Twitter https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBit acquires longtime partner and es/archives/2016/12/29/halifax- social data analytics provider prides-new-director-uncertain- Gnip. TechCrunch. Retrieved from direction https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/1 Halifax Pride. (2018). Halifax Pride Guide. 5/ twitter-acquires-longtime- Halifax, NS: revolve Branding. partner-and-social-data-analytics- provider-gnip/ Ioanid, A., & Scarlat, C. (2017). Factors influencing social networks use Farrar, M. (2018, July 22). The problem for business: Twitter and YouTube with corporatization & LGBTQ analysis. Procedia Engineering, pride. The Proud Diplomat. 181, 977-983. doi: Retrieved from 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.496 http://www.theprouddiplomat.com /facts/2018/7/22/the-problem- Jacques, A. (2009). Get shorty: The with-corporatization-lgbtq-pride business applications for Twitter. Public Relations Tactics, 16(7), 10- Fisher, D. [DarrenFisherNS]. (2018, July 18). 10. Retrieved from Happy Pride Week! Will I see you http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ at the Parade on Saturday? detail @HalifaxPride #Pride2018 VIDEO. /detail?vid=0&sid=d41a16e9- Retrieved from d1b6-430e-8b0d- https://twitter.com/ a3aad0bbef94%40sdc-v- DarrenFisherNS/status/101957016 sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZW 8085798912 hvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth& Graham, A. (2016a, October 6). AN=44573677 Pinkwashing motion voted down James, M. K. (2018). Gay and lesbian at Halifax Pride AGM. The Coast. movement: An overview. In S. Retrieved from Bronner (Ed.), Encyclopedia of https://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBit American studies. MD: Johns es/archives/2016/10/06/ Hopkins University Press.

16 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement Jürgens, P., & Jungherr, A. (2016). A Kushner, H. (2017, August 29). Corporate tutorial for using Twitter data in pride isn’t totally a bad thing, the Social Sciences: Data here’s why. Entity. Retrieved from collection, preparation, and https://www.entitymag.com/comm analysis. SSRN. Retrieved from ercialization-of-pride/ http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.271 O’Flynn, B. (2018, August 7). Is it possible 0146 to escape the commercialization Kapoor, K. K., Tamilmani, K., Rana, N. P., of pride? Them. Retrieved from Patil, P., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Nerur, S. https://www.them.us/story/pride- (2018). Advances in social media commercialization research: Past, present and future. Puschmann, C. & Burgess, J. (2013). The Information Systems Frontiers, politics of Twitter data. SSRN. 20(3), 531-558. doi: Retrieved from 10.1007/s10796-017-9810-y https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2 Kassam, A. (2016, July 4). Syrian refugee 206225 marches beside Justin Trudeau in Queer Arabs of Halifax. (2016, October Canadian Pride parade. The 13). Halifax Pride stands at a Guardian. Retrieved from crossroads. The Coast. Retrieved https://www.theguardian.com/worl from d/ 2016/jul/04/syrian-refugee- https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/ha marches-beside-justin-trudeau- lifax-pride-stands-at-a canada-pride-parade crossroads/Content?oid=5725787 King, R.L. (2016, July 3). Trudeau makes Rand, E. J. (2012). Gay pride and its queer history in Toronto Pride parade. discontents: ACT UP and the The Toronto Star. Retrieved from political deployment of affect. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta Quarterly Journal of Speech, 98 /2016/07/03/toronto-pride- (1), 75-80. doi: parade-kicks-off.html 10.1080/00335630.2011.638665 Klinefelter, K. (2011). History of gay/lesbian Ross, I. (2016, August 11). The business of rights movement. In A. J. Andrea, gay pride. The Financial Times. World history encyclopedia. Santa Retrieved from Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. https://www.ft.com/content/22820 Kumar, S., Morstatter, F. & Liu, H. (2014). 7c6-5f46-11e6-ae3f- Twitter data analytics. New York: 77baadeb1c93 Springer.

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 17 Segal, R. & Julia, M. (2016, October 2). Statista. (2018). Number of monthly active We’re young Jews and we support international Twitter users from Queer Arabs of Halifax. The Coast. 1st quarter 2010 to 3rd quarter Retrieved from 2018 (in millions). Retrieved from https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/we https://www.statista.com/ re-young-jews-and-we-support- statistics/274565/monthly-active- queer-arabs-of- international-twitter-users/ halifax/Content?oid=5703440 Utterback, A. (2016, June 30). The capitalist Snelson, C.L. (2016). Qualitative and mixed appropriation of gay pride. The methods social media research: A Establishment. Retrieved from review of the literature. https://medium.com/the- International Journal of Qualitative establishment/the-capitalist- Methods, 15(1), 1-15. doi appropriation-of-gay-pride- 10.1177/1609406915624574 150fc6111326

Social Feed Manager. (2017). Legal and Yoo, J., Choi, S., Choi, M. & Rho, J. (2014). ethical issues of social media Why people use Twitter: social collecting: Annotated conformity and social value bibliography. Retrieved from perspectives. Online Information https://gwu- Review, 38(2), 265-283. doi: libraries.github.io/sfm- 10.1108/OIR-11-2012-0210 ui/resources/annotated- Zimmer, M., & John Proferes, N. (2014). A bibliography topology of Twitter research: Social Media Lab at Ryerson University. Disciplines, methods, and ethics. (2018). Social media research Aslib Journal of Information toolkit. Social media data Management, 66(3), 250-261. stewardship. Retrieved from doi:10.1108/AJIM-09-2013-0083 http://socialmediadata.org/social-

media-research-toolkit/

18 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement Appendix A

List of Sponsors, Their Twitter Usernames, Sponsorship Levels, and Scope of Operations

Business/Sponsor Name Twitter Username @ Sponsorship Level TD Canada Trust TD_Canada Rainbow Tweed TweedInc Diamond C100 C100FM Diamond Virgin radio 101.3 VirginRadioHali Diamond CIBC cibc Diamond O'Regan's Kia ORegansKiaHFX Diamond Stoli Stoli Gold Host Often HostOften Gold Winners LifeatTJXCanada Gold CBC CBCNS Gold Marriott Halifax Harbourfront HalifaxMarriott Gold Delta Hotels Halifax Deltas_in_HFX Gold Admiral Jobs AdmiralJobsHFX Gold revolve revolvebranding Gold Atlantic Superstore SuperstoreNS Gold Dalhousie University Dalnews Gold MicMac Mall micmacmall Silver McInnes Cooper mcinnescooper Silver CarShare Atlantic carshare_atl Silver Jazz aircanada Silver NS Teacher's Union NSTeachersUnion Silver Cox and Palmer CoxandPalmer Silver NSCC NSCCnews Silver The Coast TwitCoast Silver NS Human Rights Commission NSHumanRights Silver Enterprise halifax_erac Silver Deloitte DeloitteCanada Silver Murphy's the Cable Wharf MurphysHalifax Silver OutTVGo OUTtv Silver

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 19 Xtra dailyxtra Silver ECRSA TheECRSA Silver pride Health HealthNS Friend Wacky's Flooring WackysFlooring Friend Discovery Centre DiscoveryCntr Friend Halifax Magazine HalifaxMagazine Friend Indigo Parking GroupIndigo_ Friend Halifax Public Libraries hfxpublib Friend Downtown Dartmouth DT_Dartmouth Friend the Youth Project YouthProject_NS Friend MacFarland’s Industrial no twitter account Friend Mike Savage MikeSavageHFX Government Stephen McNeil StephenMcNeil Government Karla MacFarlane karla_macf_pc Government GaryBurrill Government bmaguirens Government Lisa Roberts LisaRobertsHFX Government ChenderMLA Government Keith_W_Colwell Government TimothyHalman Government Susan Leblanc susanleblancMLA Government Lena Metlege no Twitter account Government Darren Fisher DarrenFisherNS Government Andy Fillmore AndyFillmoreHFX Government Geoff Regan geoffregan Government

20 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement Appendix B

Search Strings Used in Data Collection

pride OR LGBT OR 2SLGBTQ+ OR queer OR gay OR lesbian OR bisexual OR trans OR transgender from:MikeSavageHFX OR from:bmaguirens OR from:GaryBurrill OR from:LisaRobertsHFX OR from:ChenderMLA OR from:Keith_W_Colwell OR from:TimothyHalman OR from:susanleblancMLA OR from:DarrenFisherNS OR from:AndyFillmoreHFX OR from:geoffregan since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR #HappyPride from:MikeSavageHFX OR from:bmaguirens OR from:GaryBurrill OR from:LisaRobertsHFX OR from:ChenderMLA OR from:Keith_W_Colwell OR from:TimothyHalman OR from:susanleblancMLA OR from:DarrenFisherNS OR from:AndyFillmoreHFX OR from:geoffregan since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 from:bmaguirens OR from:Keith_W_Colwell OR from:susanleblancMLA OR from:geoffregan since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 Pride OR LGBT OR 2SLGBTQ+ OR queer OR gay OR lesbian OR bisexual OR trans OR transgender from:TD_Canada OR from:TweedInc OR from:C100FM OR from:VirginRadioHali OR from:cibc OR from:ORegansKiaHFX since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR #HappyPride from:TD_Canada OR from:TweedInc OR from:C100FM OR from:VirginRadioHali OR from:cibc OR from:ORegansKiaHFX since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 Pride OR LGBT OR 2SLGBTQ+ OR queer OR gay OR lesbian OR bisexual OR trans OR transgender from:Stoli OR from:HostOften OR from:LifeatTJXCanada OR from:CBCNS OR from:HalifaxMarriott OR from:Deltas_in_HFX since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR #HappyPride from:Stoli OR from:HostOften OR from:LifeatTJXCanada OR from:CBCNS OR from:HalifaxMarriott OR from:Deltas_in_HFX since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 Pride OR LGBT OR 2SLGBTQ+ OR queer OR gay OR lesbian OR bisexual OR trans OR transgender from:AdmiralJobsHFX OR from:revolvebranding OR from:SuperstoreNS OR from:Dalnews OR from:micmacmall OR from:mcinnescooper since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31

Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement 21 #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR #HappyPride from:AdmiralJobsHFX OR from:revolvebranding OR from:SuperstoreNS OR from:Dalnews OR from:micmacmall OR from:mcinnescooper since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 Pride OR LGBT OR 2SLGBTQ+ OR queer OR gay OR lesbian OR bisexual OR trans OR transgender from:carshare_atl OR from:aircanada OR from:NSTeachersUnion OR from:CoxandPalmer OR from:NSCCnews OR from:TwitCoast since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR #HappyPride from:carshare_atl OR from:aircanada OR from:NSTeachersUnion OR from:CoxandPalmer OR from:NSCCnews OR from:TwitCoast since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 Pride OR LGBT OR 2SLGBTQ+ OR queer OR gay OR lesbian OR bisexual OR trans OR transgender from:NSHumanRights OR from:halifax_erac OR from:DeloitteCanada OR from:MurphysHalifax OR from:TheECRSA OR from:NSHealth since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR #HappyPride from:NSHumanRights OR from:halifax_erac OR from:DeloitteCanada OR from:MurphysHalifax OR from:TheECRSA OR from:NSHealth since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 Pride OR LGBT OR 2SLGBTQ+ OR queer OR gay OR lesbian OR bisexual OR trans OR transgender from:dailyxtra OR from:OUTtv OR from:WackysFlooring OR from:DiscoveryCntr OR from:GroupIndigo_ OR from:HalifaxMagazine OR from:hfxpublib OR from:DT_Dartmouth OR from:YouthProject_NS since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31 #hfxpride OR #hfxpride2018 OR #HappyPride from:dailyxtra OR from:OUTtv OR from:WackysFlooring OR from:DiscoveryCntr OR from:GroupIndigo_ OR from:HalifaxMagazine OR from:hfxpublib OR from:DT_Dartmouth OR from:YouthProject_NS since:2018-07-18 until:2018-07-31

22 Using Tweets as a Measure of Sponsor Engagement