What is online pornography teaching our children?: A computational study of PornHub and XVideos
Within the context of adolescents’ widespread use of digital technologies, this project aims to identify the ideas about sex and relationships young people encounter through online pornography. Many teenagers watch far more pornography, at a much younger age, than their parents realise (McCallum, 2023), raising concerns that it shapes their views on sexual relationships and gender equality (APPG, 2023). Evidence-based literacy programs are urgently needed, but first, we must ask: what messages does online pornography convey?
This project answers this question through a computational and qualitative discourse analysis of language used on two major pornography websites. In addition to analysing the most frequently viewed videos, titles, and keywords, it will examine comment sections to identify the most dominant discourses on these widely available platforms.
The project will be key to developing a toolkit for innovative sex education. Academic outputs include a special issue on pornography and sex education, a chapter on Gender, Violence & Popular Culture, and a research paper on ethics in pornography research.
Main Research Topics
- Corpus linguistics
- digital humanities
- pornography
- misogyny
- sex education
Curriculum Vitae
- Dec 2015 – Senior Lecturer in Communication and Applied Linguistics, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK
- Mar 2015 – Aug 2015 Research Associate – Full fact, London, UK
- Sept 2014 – Jan 2015 Research Intern – DEMOS (CASM – Centre for the Analysis of Social Media), London, UK
- May 2013 – May 2014 Research Fellow – The Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust, Edinburgh, UK
- Oct 2010 – May 2011 Research Fellow – AVA – Against Violence and Abuse, London, UK
Publications and Presentations
- Tranchese, A. (forthcoming, 2024). “Like shagging a dead fish”: Online misogyny in sex buyers’ reviews. Feminist Media Studies.
- The impact of online pornography on young people’s relationships. Farrers’ Annual Safeguarding Conference. London, UK. October 2023.
- Tranchese, A. (2023). From Fritzl to #MeToo: Twelve years of rape coverage in the British media. Palgrave Macmillan. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Sexuality book series. [“A much-needed corrective to the kind of media commentary we’re most likely to see” – Prof Deborah Cameron. Read more about my research in an article in The Observer and a review by Prof Deborah Cameron].
- Tranchese, A. (2023, April 28). Why we need to talk about porn when we talk about Andrew Tate. The Conversation.
- Tranchese, A., Sugiura, L. (2021). “I don’t hate all women, just those stuck-up bitches”: How Incels and mainstream pornography speak the same extreme language of misogyny. Violence Against Women. 27(14), 2709-2734.