Stefanie Duguay – Using the Walkthrough Method for a Critical Analysis of Gender in Apps

Software applications (apps) are the site of significant sociocultural and economic transformations across many domains, from health and relationships to entertainment and finance. As relatively closed systems, apps pose methodological challenges for digital media research. In this session, I will introduce an approach, the walkthrough method, which combines cultural studies and science and technology studies (STS) to form a lens for critical app analysis. Drawing on feminist STS and the work of platform studies scholars who highlight how gender becomes ‘baked in’ to social media (Bivens & Haimson, 2015), this workshop will identify how the method can be used to sensitize researchers to programmed gender biases. Participants will learn how to establish an app’s environment of expected use by assessing its vision, operating model, and modes of governance. They will also gain hands-on experience using the walkthrough technique to systematically step through the stages of registration, everyday use, and discontinuation to identify the app’s embedded cultural meanings and implied ideal users.