- Between weeks 8 and 14, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
This week I did a deep dive into TikTok specifically to look at different fitness accounts and to find trends in posting habits, styles of videos, and clothing/camera angles. The last time that I dove into fitness TikTok, the accounts were not as diverse as they are now. However, it is still a very white, seemingly wealthy space. I was very intrigued as I was taking down notes as to how important wearing a sports bra and bike shorts was to the fitness aesthetic. Nearly every single video that I watched followed a woman who was performing some form of an exercise in this attire. Additionally, I tried to focus my eyes on the different camera angles and style of filming that the videos used. Many of the angles of the camera focused on the butts of the women in the videos and moved to different angles of them as the videos went on.
I was not super surprised to see this video style as I did my content analysis given my exposure to this content for almost two years now as a fitness enthusiast myself. As I move forward, I am really focused on acknowledging my own biases and trying not to let them impact the videos that I choose to view based on my aesthetic interests. I want to capture a wide array of content as I continue my research and find data that supports my theories related to the male gaze and what is reflected as important factors of a successful fitness influencer.
One of the challenges that I have been facing in my research is trying to identify which videos and accounts I want to save and use for further research. Because I changed my timeline and am now completing my content analysis before my literature review, the open ended scope of my research has made it a little difficult to decide which videos are important and serve me hypotheses about women in fitness. My next steps are to narrow my search and identify a hashtag, video style, or other marking that I can use to find videos as I continue. I will work to recognize my bias and work on maintaining an “objective” perspective as I research further.