Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE May 2019 Identity Work of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on Reddit: Traversals of Deliberation, Moderation, and Decolonization Bryan Dosono Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Dosono, Bryan, "Identity Work of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on Reddit: rT aversals of Deliberation, Moderation, and Decolonization" (2019). Dissertations - ALL. 1034. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/1034 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Marginalized groups experience issues in managing their identities for a variety of reasons, and online spaces afford them the opportunity to make sense of and revise their intersectional identities. One such group is Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), who are at the receiving end of stereotypes that often manifest in inaccurate public perceptions. The dissertation consists of three empirical studies that disentangle how AAPIs construct and express their identity in online communities within Reddit: 1. The first study examines how users engage in an online community through a deliberation lens to understand the extent to which Reddit supports identity work as a deliberative process. Through a content analysis of 4,406 Reddit comments collected during the 2016 US Presidential Election, I discuss how the expression of identity, and thereby solidarity, in a politicized online setting may lead to a social movement. 2. The second study uncovers how moderators on Reddit shape the norms of their subreddit through the analytic lens of emotional labor. I conduct interviews with 21 moderators who facilitate identity work discourse in AAPI subreddits, present a thematic analysis of their moderation practices, offer recommendations for improving moderation in online communities centered around identity work, and discuss implications of emotional labor in the design of Reddit and similar platforms. 3. The third study examines marginalization through the analytic framework of decolonization, uncovering the threats and tactics that AAPI redditors encounter and employ to decolonize their collective identity. I find that moderators of AAPI subreddits develop collective resilience within their online communities by reclaiming space to confront brigade invasion, recording collective memory to circumvent systemic erasure, and revising cultural narratives to deconstruct colonial mentality. I discuss how algorithmic configurations within sociotechnical systems reaffirm existing hegemonic values and describe ways in which redditors may work toward resistance. These three studies are woven together to uncover ways in which AAPIs negotiate collective action in the context of online identity work. Identity Work of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on Reddit: Traversals of Deliberation, Moderation, and Decolonization Bryan Dosono B.S., Universitৼ of Washington, 2013 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Science and Technology. Syracuse Universitৼ May 2019 (Pre-published materials) Portion of Chapter 3 Copyright © ACM 2018 Portion of Chapter 4 Copyright © ACM 2018 Portion of Chapter 5 Copyright © ACM 2019 All other materials Copyright © Bryan Dosono 2019 All Rights Reserved To my dear parents Who planted and watered seeds For lifelong learning Acknowledgments No success is mine alone, and I would like to thank those who have wholeheartedly supported my pursuit of a doctorate degree. I would first like to thank my family for their encouragement throughout every endeavor of higher education. I thank my parents, Mary Ann and Baltazar Dosono, who valued my education above all else. This dissertation is dedicated to them. I hope this endeavor inspires my siblings and cousins to dare greatly and chase their dreams with full force: Patrick Dosono, Beverly Dosono, Tiffany Armijo, Gerome Dosono, Angela Dosono, Gerry Dosono, Lenny Dosono, Laika Diego. While I am the first person in my ancestry to get a doctoral degree, I do not anticipate being the last. I owe an immense amount of gratitude to my stellar advisor, Bryan Semaan, for helping me refine the necessary skills needed to become an independent researcher. I am also thankful to be advised by an amazing committee comprising of Yang Wang, Jeffrey Hemsley, Yingyi Ma, Apu Kapadia (external reader), Lu Xiao (internal reader), and Danielle Smith (examination chair). To even get to accepted to a doctoral program, I had the wonderful support of faculty like Ricardo Gomez, Andrew Ko, and Gene Kim who believed in my research potential during as an undergraduate at the Universitৼ of Washington. I thank my Lambda Phi Epsilon brothers for guiding me on a lifelong discovery of authenticity and personal growth. Those on the International Board have been especially encouraging: Charles Andrean, Toubee Yang, Phi Nguyen, William Tan, Victor Em, Justin Lo. And I am so lucky to have been surrounded by gentlemen who have sharpened my social skills during my formative years in Seattle, Washington: Wilson Lu, Ryuji Maung, Vincent Ly, David Fu, James Lee, Sundona Kittikhoun, Russell Vong, Hengxin Fun, Frankie Acfalle, Carsen Chu, Gavin Liu. I am grateful to have them continue to share their lives with me in such a meaningful and interconnected way. I am embraced by a growing collective of AAPI scholars, leaders, and activists who have introduced me to so many circles of fellowship across higher education and student affairs: Victoria Chan-Frazier, Brenda Dang, Bilal Badruddin, Vigor Lam, Hannah Seoh, Gordon Wong, Brian Gee, Teri Chung, Huey Hsiao. I have also drawn inspiration from dear friends who champion social justice in so much of what they do: Shanoa Pinkham, Blanca Chavez, Cynthia Wainaina, Dalia Amin, Sanya Dhermy, Kayla Booth. I truly appreciate the volunteer efforts of a number of crucial folks who helped tremendously with the packaging and presentation of work presented in this thesis. My undergraduate research assistants were fantastic in their transcription of interviews and coding of data: Mitchell Liang, YiRui Shen, Vincent Grimaldi, Annie Yang. I am fortunate to have the reviewing expertise of Benjamin Fang and Janine Slaker accompany me in the final leg of this marathon. I also thank my doctoral peers Lauren Britton, Sarah Bratt, Sikana Tanupabrungsun, Yaxing Yao, Natã Barbosa, and Mahboobeh Harandi for their constructive feedback on multiple iterations of this work. And finally, I deeply thank my beautiful partner Valerie Chou for her limitless love and emotional support throughout the journey we have been able to start together during our time in Syracuse, New York. I am excited to see where the future takes us next! v Contents Abstract i List of Figures x List of Tables xi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background and Motivation ................................ 1 1.2 Problem Statement ..................................... 4 1.3 Research Questions .................................... 5 1.4 Approach .......................................... 6 1.5 Relevant Publications .................................... 8 1.6 Thesis Overview ...................................... 9 Chapter 2 Literature Review 11 2.1 Conceptualizations of Identity ............................... 11 2.1.1 Constructing Identity ............................... 12 2.1.2 Constructing Identity, Online ........................... 15 2.1.3 Boundaries of Online Identity Work ....................... 17 2.2 Identity and Marginalization: The Case of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders . 19 2.2.1 Diaspora and Demography ............................ 19 2.2.2 Unpacking the AAPI Monolith .......................... 22 2.2.3 AAPI Identity Work on Reddit .......................... 26 2.3 Identity Construction in Sociotechnical Systems ..................... 29 2.3.1 Virtuality and Anonymity ............................. 29 2.3.2 Online Community Design on Deliberation ................... 32 2.3.3 Identity Work as a Collective Process in the Online Public Sphere . 35 Chapter 3 Methods 38 3.1 Site of Research ....................................... 39 3.2 Content Analysis ...................................... 40 3.2.1 Reddit Comment Data Collection ........................ 40 3.2.2 Content Analysis ................................. 41 3.3 Interviews ......................................... 42 3.3.1 Participant Recruitment .............................. 42 3.3.2 Interview Protocol ................................. 43 vi 3.3.3 Data Analysis ................................... 45 3.3.4 Participant Demographics ............................. 46 3.4 Reflexivity Statement .................................... 46 Chapter 4 Identity Work as Deliberation 48 4.1 Abstract: AAPI Political Discourse in the 2016 US Presidential Election . 48 4.2 Background ......................................... 49 4.3 Research Setting ...................................... 51 4.3.1 Identity Work During an Election ......................... 51 4.3.2 Structural Affordances of Reddit for Identity Work . 52 4.4 Findings ........................................... 53 4.4.1 Topics of Deliberation ............................... 55 4.4.2 Identity Work Through a Deliberation Lens ................... 55 Inclusivity