Introduction
My name is Kui Kihoro Mackay, I am a PhD student at the ICT4D Research Centre, at Royal Holloway University of London and the purpose of this page is to give a brief outline of what the fieldwork/data gathering portion of my PhD research will involve.
The (provisional) title of my research project
Identity construction and representation on Twitter: a case study of Kenyans in the UK.
My research questions
The main question that my project intends to answer is from a“what is the relationship between the construction and performance of identities of Kenyans in the UK and their engagement with #KOT (Kenyans on Twitter)?
Along with this primary question the research also seeks to answer the following sub questions;
- what does it mean to be Kenyan?
- what does it mean to a Kenyan living in the UK?
- what does it mean to tweet in relation to #KOT as a Kenyan living in the UK?
What the fieldwork/data gathering will involve
I will be conducting my research in stages
Survey/ Pilot study:
The first stage will involve a short survey. The primary purpose of this survey to determine the ways in which people identify as Kenyan and also what social media they use. It could be that initial results point to Kenyans in the UK using other forms of social media and/or having limited knowledge/interaction with #KOT this in turn will affect to what extent I centre my study on Twitter and #KOT as a case-study. As part of the survey, participants will also be offered an opportunity to take part in the other elements of my research
Interviews
I will be conducting one-to-one interview lasting no more than one hour. These interviews are intended to be face to face however in certain circumstances I may be able to conduct interviews via Skype/Facetime
Social Media Analysis.
- An analysis of participants’ Twitter timeline
- An analysis of participants’ Twitter biography
When I will be undertaking the fieldwork
I will be conducting interviews August 2016 – January 2017
Anonymity
I will respect the privacy of all research participants at all times and all responses and data gathered will be anonymised
Interested in taking part?
Thank you for expressing an interest. You can either complete the brief survey or contact me via the contact form to arrange a time and date for a one-to-one interview. I have provided an outline below of who I am interested in including in this research.
Research participants
I am primarily interested in working with individuals who meet all of the following criteria
Essential
- Identify as Kenyan
- Reside in the UK
- Maintain a social media presence on any of the following: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Desirable
- Have a personal Twitter account registered on or before 1st January 2015
- Maintain an active twitter account: i.e. following 30+ other Twitter users & recent tweets
- Knowledge of #KOT/#KenyansOnTwitter (see video for brief information)
