Thesis
Organising obscenity : a three-part exploration into the architecture of adult sites from the western world, their intimate interactions and lusty language when searching for sex
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2024
- Thesis identifier
- T16875
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202054584
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Video-streaming porn websites made porn media more widespread and commonplace to the everyday internet user. This study takes a multi-disciplinary approach to exploring porn by treating it as information and viewing it through the lens of Information Science. It updates the idea of porn, the user’s journey and the interaction found on porn websites. The thesis comprises three parts using a scientific approach that experiments, morphs and builds on each study to build a narrative of exploratory discovery within this lesser-studied field. The first part of the study expands on the definitions of porn sites. Using concepts and frameworks from Information Architecture, it breaks down the many types of porn sites and focuses specifically on video-streaming sites. Video streaming sites are then broken down into defining characteristics that are compared to other sites to show the overlapping features and how they straddle different site categories; allowing them to simultaneously fit within the internet yet stand out from these sites. By also applying the video streaming porn site characteristics to a sample of porn sites to test, it draws out further nuances and questions. The second part, applies the new characteristics to the interactive elements found on the sample sites. Primary and secondary data builds a quantitative and qualitative picture of the user's journey. This chapter illustrates the breakdown of interactions and viewership, making correlations between the two and comparing them across the sites. A list of interactions are broken into two types, Simple and Complex, and the site's areas for interaction into two layers, Basic and Involved. Information Seeking concepts like Berrypicking and Information Foraging are used as a framework to create speculations and hypotheses, possible reasons, and searching methods that inform the site's usability. The third part focuses on Pornhub as an example and descriptively explains the changes to its categories over time by using resources like the Wayback Machine for data collection. It takes an exploratory approach to the changing categories and use of tags to supplement the information-seeking speculations made in the previous chapter. Focusing on the links between categories as Controlled Vocabularies and tags as Folksonomies informs how the sites morph and change to suit the content creators commercially and the users communally. Anecdotal evidence closes this chapter with speculations from industry professionals about their opinions on the site changes and future predictions. The thesis concludes with contributions that include new definitions, terminology, methods and applications. The definition of porn expands by employing information science that encompasses the nuances of the internet. The various interactions and options create new terminology. New methods explore frameworks for future studies to collect data in new ways. Applying Information Architecture and information-seeking behaviours to porn sites provides a novel way of viewing and speculations about porn sites for future interest and application.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Ruthven, Ian, 1968-
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2023
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PDF of thesis T16875 | 2024-04-16 | Public | Download |