Resisting the Spectacle of Pride: Queer Indian Bloggers as Interpretive Communities more

This article was downloaded by: [Mitra, Rahul] On: 6 March 2010 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 919691554] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 3741 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t775648091 Resisting the Spectacle of Pride: Queer Indian Bloggers as Interpretive Communities Rahul Mitra a a Department of Communication, Purdue University, Online publication date: 05 March 2010 To cite this Article Mitra, Rahul(2010) 'Resisting the Spectacle of Pride: Queer Indian Bloggers as Interpretive Communities', Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54: 1, 163 — 178 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/08838150903550485 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838150903550485 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. 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Using the theory of interpretive communities, this article analyzes a network of queer Indian bloggers/readers/commenters and their reading of the mainstream media coverage of India’s first national Gay Pride marches. Media ethnography and qualitative content analysis decipher the strategies used by the interpretive community, and explore how bloggers are at once consumers/audience of mainstream media and producers of alternative media. Resistance to mainstream media-sponsored gender-normativity is problematized, and the analysis reveals a simultaneous ‘‘talking-back’’ and legitimization of media authority. Audience research long examined users of the Internet and other electronic media, either in conjunction with more traditional media forms (such as newsprint or television), or on their own merit. For instance, Dutta-Bergman (2004) observes a complementarity between traditional and Internet news media usage, while Webster and Lin (2002) show how conventional concepts of audience size and audience duplication may be reconfigured in the context of new media. But Internet users go beyond mere audience demographics to form a ‘‘virtual community’’ (Lindlof & Shatzer, 1998), so that the bonds of community formation and their interpretations/ representations must also be examined. The present study looks into ‘‘communities in cyberspace’’ (Smith & Kollock, 1999) to understand not only how these Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Rahul Mitra (M.A., Bowling Green State University) is a doctoral student and Ross Fellow in the Department of Communication at Purdue University. His research interests include organizational culture and identification, corporate social responsibility, critical media studies, and queer identity in South Asian contexts. The author thanks Dr. Joshua Atkinson, Dr. Rebecca Lind, and the anonymous reviewers at JoBEM for their keen insight and help in shaping this article. Thanks are also due to Mr. John Fred Cassidy (Junior) for his input. A previous version of this article was presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association in Chicago, IL in May 2009. © 2010 Broadcast Education Association DOI: 10.1080/08838150903550485 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 54(1), 2010, pp. 163–178 ISSN: 0883-8151 print/1550-6878 online 163 164 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/March 2010 communities may form, but also how they may operate and sustain themselves. Papacharissi (2002) posits that Internet users regard their personal web pages as ‘‘functional alternatives’’ to traditional forms of communication, thereby forming communal ties. Day and Schuler (2004) contend that communities are ‘‘abstract constructs that depend on the subjective and emotional loyalties of community members,’’ sustained through ‘‘community practice,’’ such as the empowerment of members, planning and campaigning community-oriented services, and mobilized action (pp. 11–15). This research considers the theory of interpretive communities (Fish, 1980; Lindlof, 1988) to understand how a class of queer Indians may utilize their weblogs (blogs) to ‘‘talk back’’ to mainstream media. Extending the literature on interpretive communities, bloggers are viewed both as an audience for mainstream media, and as producers of alternative media. This article defines alternative media as any noncommercial and non-state media outlet, attempting to bring about social change by entering into a direct and knowing struggle with institutional structures (Atkinson & Dougherty, 2006; Atton, 2004; Downing, 2003). Thus, ‘‘producers of alternative media can be thought of as repositioning themselves from a more or less passive audience : : : to become media producers themselves’’ (Atton, 2004, p. 9), and the mainstream/alternative media reflect a complex continuum of ideologies and social positions. While blogs are more popularly regarded as online personal diaries, their potency as a form of alternative media posing resistance to the mainstream has also been recognized (Bailey, Cammaerts, & Carpentier, 2007). Crampton (2003) looks at blogging as a kind of frank-speaking and ‘‘self-writing’’ that is ‘‘a form of resistance to normalization because they are where one works on oneself in a process of becoming’’ (p. 104). At the forefront is how the real/virtual worlds are inseparable; concepts of race, gender, class and sexuality become inevitable even in cyberspace, where these may not be readily explicit (O’Brien, 1999). Gajjala (2008) notes this duality of the lived experience, as real/virtual or online/offline, by examining South Asian ‘‘digital diasporas,’’ moreover, communities (virtual or otherwise) do not come easy and must be worked at, ‘‘through continual negotiation and renegotiation of goals and ideologies—common or divergent’’ (p. 42). In June 2008, queer organizations in three major Indian cities held simultaneous Gay Pride protest-marches, with a combined turn-out of around 1000 (Wax & Sen, 2008). While queer groups in Kolkata had sporadically organized such annual marches since 1999, this was the first time they occurred on a national scale. While the June marches were largely protesting Section 377 (the Indian law against homosexuality), they coincided with Gay Pride parades organized in some Western countries to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots, indicating a kind of ‘‘internationalization’’ of gay politics and identity (Altman, 1996). Although the main purpose of the Indian marches was protest, participants were celebratory, much as in the West (Johnston, 2005). The mainstream media’s coverage of the marches was considerable: regional/national print and electronic media reported on the marches (many with ‘‘live’’ reports), held panel discussions with experts on ‘‘freedom’’ for Indian homosexuals, and aired reactions of viewers/spectators/participants. The Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Mitra/QUEER INDIAN BLOGGERS AS INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES 165 mainstream media coverage was followed keenly by members of the gay community. Several queer Indian bloggers remarked on the coverage and solicited comments, setting into motion a veritable cycle of interpretation. Many of the bloggers/readers/commenters were present at the marches, and narrated how the media coverage corresponded with their lived experience. Thus, in acting as both a media audience as well as producers, a ‘‘denaturalization of the media frame’’ may be seen in the blogs (Couldry, 2000). Building on the work of scholars on queer blogs (Mitra & Gajjala, 2008; Rak, 2005; Williams, 2007), this article investigates how these virtual communities sustain an interpretive world-view of the media around them. The main research questions are: RQ1 : How does strategic influence spread within and out of the interpretive community? That is, how is the community sustained and spread? RQ2 : Do the queer blogs legitimize or challenge mainstream media coverage? Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Interpretive Communities Fish (1980) asserts that the concept of interpretive communities removes the conundrum of primacy either of the text or the reader, because : : : it is interpretive communities, rather than either the text or the reader, that produce meanings and are responsible for the emergence of formal features. Interpretive communities are made up of those who share interpretive strategies not for reading but for writing texts, for constituting their properties (p. 14) Thus, people belonging to different interpretive communities share a dissimilar set of strategies to ‘‘write’’ the world around them, and develop different interpretations. The reader becomes a kind of ‘‘communal property,’’ being as much a product of the interpretive community as the meanings it enables him/her to make. Interpretations, however, are constantly renegotiated, as the interests of one community are dislodged or modified by the other. While the theory’s roots lie in literary criticism, it was appropriated for audience research, most notably by Lindlof (1988), who saw interpretive communities acting through the genres of content, wherein the same content is interpreted by different communities to establish different genres; the genres of interpretive strategies that detail the rituals/performances communities use to make meaning; and the genres of social action, which constitute cultural and institutional knowledge to create joint action for change. Interpretive communities may be formed on the basis of age, economic advantage, information search skills, eagerness for innovations, religious beliefs, fiction genres, media exposure, fan-bases and source-audience relationships, to consider but a few (see Berkowitz & TerKeurst, 1999; Jensen, 1990; Lindlof, 1998, 2002; Radway, 1984; Rauch, 2007; Zelizer, 1993). Research also shed light on the 166 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/March 2010 Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 strategies employed by interpretive communities. Zelizer (1993) noted both ‘‘local’’ and ‘‘durational’’ modes of interpretation: in the local mode, interpretation was particularistic and displayed tightness to the community, whereas in the durational mode over time, there was a tendency to see the text/event as part of a longterm interpretive continuum that sought to loosen the initial tight interpretations. Hermes and Stello’s (2000) study on fans of feminist detective novels shows how genres of social action may build community based on neo-feminism. Gourgey and Smith (1996) examined William Gibson’s landmark novel Neuromancer and its brilliantly-etched idea of ‘‘cyberspace,’’ and elucidated how texts can help sustain an information technology-focused community, just as a community works on texts. Interpretive communities were reconfigured to take into account selfreflection and in-group criticism (Raval, 1998), as opposed to depending on an overwhelming climate of agreement. Noting also that interpretations are transient, forming ‘‘communities of improvisation’’ based on time, place and occasion, specific ‘‘landmarks’’ of changing themes have been recognized (Machin & Carrithers, 1996). Virtual Communities in Queer India Queer identity in the developing world is often regarded exotic and Other by those in the West—what Foucault termed the Orientalization of Third World sexualities—yet its inherent fluidity both defies the typical Western notions of ‘‘gay’’ and appropriates resistance against institutional hegemony (Boyce, 2008; Gopinath, 2000, 2005; Khan, 2001; Mitra & Gajjala, 2008; Reddy, 2005). In the Indian context, on the one hand, there is the ‘‘benign hegemony’’ of the familial/civil framework and the implications of such queer invisibility for citizenship rights (Narrain, 2007). On the other hand, a ‘‘queer diasporic viewing frame’’ (Gopinath, 2000) allows one to see how non-heteronormative characters/characterizations may appropriate traditional cultural frames to resist being silenced—in popular Indian cinema, at least. Prior research indicates three mainstream characterizations of queer: as hijra or third-gender/cross-dresser, as foreign intrusion, and as secondary to socio-political concerns. The scope for performances of gender/sexuality within patriarchal and normalized social structures thus becomes important, both as resistance and reinforcement to heteronormativity, when seen in light of these typical characterizations of queer. With India’s post-1990s increasing urbanization and economic liberalization, Khan (2001) noted the emergence of a queer urban subculture that may be considered in terms of the ‘‘internationalization’’ of gay identities (Altman, 1996): not a shift to a monolithic Western gay culture, but ‘‘multiple homosexualities’’ that originate from, interact/coalesce with, and invariably morph into new identities. The insistence on ‘‘value’’ and ‘‘community formation’’ through this continuum links interestingly with the self-reflecting and ever-evolving interpretive community (Raval, 1998). The role of the Internet, in particular, to organize a ‘‘gay global Mitra/QUEER INDIAN BLOGGERS AS INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES 167 village’’ was noted by Gross (2003), and Roy (2003) detailed how important new media were (and continue to be) for organizing queer groups in India. The Internet was invaluable for appropriating ideas from the North American and European Gay/ Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender (GLBT) movements, for the construction of an online ‘‘safe space’’ for Indian queers at a time when offline/real contact for nonsexual purposes was largely unimaginable, and for organizing/mobilizing the movement’s cadre (Mitra & Gajjala, 2008; Roy, 2003). The construction and representation of online queer identities is problematic however, in that it involves both ‘‘critical silences’’ and strategic negotiation, which are likely to engender a particular stream of queer identity but leave others out (Alexander, 2002). Heinz, Gu, Inuzuka and Zender (2002) note a buoyant celebration of ‘‘global gay identity’’ in several international queer websites, but also a worrying tendency to uncritically appropriate the American rhetoric of gay politics. Alexander (2002) acknowledges the inherent potential for community formation through queer personal websites, seeing a transformation of the ‘‘queer is identity’’ construct into ‘‘queer integrated in identity.’’ Rather than take an uncritical view on the formation of online interpretive communities, one should consider O’Brien’s (1999) reservations on the immutability of race, gender and sexuality constructs for sense-making purposes and the very real possibility ‘‘that these spaces will become ghettos with the consequences of further inscribing differences between ‘normal’ gendering and transgendering’’ (p. 100). In this space, queer blogs function as a tool for both community-creation and self-writing. Rak (2005) details how queer bloggers search for similar Others (blogwriters/readers/ commenters), and employ specific rhetorical strategies to cement these links, such as regarding all revelation as true confession, balancing revelation with markers of privacy, and common ideologies. Williams (2007) studies some other community-forming strategies used by queer bloggers, such as discussions on queer sexuality, markers of same-sex relationships, references to a queer subculture, and audio-visual indicators of queer sexuality. Thus, blogging is conceptualized as ‘‘technologies of the self : : : which effect an ethos of care of the self’’ (Crampton, 2003, p. 98), rather than Foucauldian confession that involves a higher authority (moral or otherwise) to confess to and reinforces the panopticon’s power. However, blogging as self-writing also involves a conundrum in ‘‘talking back’’ to hegemony: On the one hand, if the ‘‘powers’’ of cyberspace (the sovereigns) are wise and cooperative, they will allow people to speak and publish freely : : : On the other hand, it reinforces the powers that be, encourages the stability of power, and legitimizes the ruler-ruled relationship. (p. 108) Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Thus, resistance to normalization through self-writing and blogging may not be taken for granted. Mitra and Gajjala (2008) examine how queer Indian bloggers ‘‘talk back’’ to institutional normativity, and appropriate an institution-engendered divide between ‘‘practice’’ and ‘‘person/body’’ in terms of civil identity, online representation, partial anonymity and partial review. 168 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/March 2010 Method Media ethnography was employed to gather relevant blog-posts and comments (Lindlof & Shatzer, 1998), and qualitative content analysis was used to study the meanings shaped by the interpretive community (Mayring, 2000). Data Collection Schroder (1994) advocates that the audience be viewed as both social fact and part of a larger community, apart from mere socio-demographics, so that its interpretations are the result of a combination of factors: the language community, cultural positions, communicative interactions and individual repertoires. Through a long-term study of the queer South Asian blogosphere, the author interacted with several bloggers, read, and commented on their spaces. Over a period of 5 years, views on a variety of topics concerning (but not limited to) queer sexuality, relationships, identity, illegality of homosexuality in India, media structures and recognition, current events, musings on family and careers, creative expression, and friend-networks, were exchanged. The role of an unobtrusive observer in gathering data for this study, and as an active member of the interpretive community allowed the author to ‘‘fit in,’’ as it were. Thus, the author hopes to have paid ‘‘persistent and sensitive attention to the stories, conversations, rituals, and routines of living’’ (Lindlof & Shatzer, 1998, p. 3), but taking care to avoid ‘‘enthusiast infatuation’’ (Conquergood, 1985). The material for analysis here is not just the visible discourse on the blogs, but also contextual information, personal history, and blogger-aided interpretations of lived experiences. Here, the study considers not just the blog-writers, but the entire interpretive community of writers, readers and commenters, who interact to create shared meaning. What assumes primacy is not so much the agency of the netizen but the interpretations accorded to the text and the ‘‘processes by which strategic influence spreads within, and flows out of, an interpretive community’’ (Lindlof, 2002, p. 71). Seven blogs are examined, three of which are group-operated while the rest are individually maintained personal blogs. No claims are made about these being representative of the entire gamut of queer Indian blogs (the Bombay Dost wiki site provides a larger directory at www.bombay-dost.pbwiki.com), or that they are the only queer Indian bloggers’ interpretive community, or even that they are the only members of this particular community. Their origins are heterogeneous, in that their contributors are both diasporic and Indian citizens. They are regarded as part of a common interpretive community since many of them link to each other and are active readers/commenters on each others’ blogs. Moreover, since the blogs are publicly available—and in fact speak to potential readers frankly about queer issues—their names or URLs are not altered here. While many of the posts and comments analyzed date immediately after the June 2008 pride-marches, some of them were written before the marches and some several days/weeks after. Where Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Mitra/QUEER INDIAN BLOGGERS AS INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES 169 statistics are available, the number of hits at the time of writing this piece is listed to give an idea of the popularity of the blogs: 1. QueerMediaWatch (http://qmediawatch.wordpress.com) is operated by an offshoot of Orinam.net, a bilingual Tamil-English website that features information on alternate sexualities/genders, and contact numbers for support groups based in south India. The blog does not feature original entries, but boasts an up-to-date library of queer references in the mainstream media (both English and vernacular), fulfilling a kind of watchdog role. Its tagline is: ‘‘Towards a fair, inclusive Indian media.’’ QueerMediaWatch had eight posts related to the marches, between June 27 and July 7, and these were examined along with the ‘‘About Us’’, ‘‘Pride Marches—News Coverage’’ and ‘‘Section 377 Watch’’ pages. 2. Queeristan (http://queeristan.blogspot.com) is another group-operated blog, maintained by seven self-identified queers of South Asian origin (‘‘desis’’) based in North America. The blog posts original contributions by members, a round-up of prominent mainstream media news on queer South Asians, and (sometimes) essays by readers/commenters. Its tagline is ‘‘Desi queered by queer desis.’’ Between July 2 and July 10, it posted six entries related to the pride-marches. 3. BengaluruPride (http://bengalurupride.googlepages.com) is maintained by two individuals (with names and contact numbers listed on the home page), who are members of the June 2008 march-organizers in the city. Its focus is clearly the march itself and the blog’s tagline is ‘‘Come out and celebrate!’’ It lists the itinerary of the Bengaluru march, political demands of the queer groups, a background of Gay Pride events around the world, pictures taken by marchparticipants, detailed mainstream media coverage of the event, and letters by readers/commenters on the same. Since BengaluruPride was so intrinsically tied to the pride-march, all seven pages of the blog were examined. 4. UnsungPsalm (http://unsungpsalm.wordpress.com) is the anonymous blog of a (closeted) 21-year-old college student originally from New Delhi, but whose current location is unclear. UnsungPsalm designed an advertorial YouTube video for the marches that was forwarded through the online queer community to raise awareness. There were 4,334 hits at the time of writing. Two blog posts were related to the marches, dated June 22 and July 7. 5. The Reluctant Observer (http://mike-higher.livejournal.com) is the blog of an (out) infotech professional based in Bengaluru. The blogger, who is a member of the queer group Good As You, was involved in the organization of the Bengaluru march and participated in it. The tagline ‘‘Nothing is truth; only observations in a specific context at a specific time,’’ perhaps reflected a more mature understanding of fluid sexuality/gender than most. The march was blogged twice, on June 24 and July 2. 6. Crazy Sam’s Bloginess (http://samsbloginess.blogspot.com) is maintained by Sam, whose location in India is unclear. The blog, with the tagline ‘‘The straight-friendly gay blog,’’ is clearly popular, in that it had been visited 21,049 Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 170 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/March 2010 times since September 21, 2007, at the time of writing this piece. Two posts mentioned the pride marches, dated July 6 and July 19. 7. OutInMyHead (http://outinmyhead.blogspot.com) is the personal blog of a 24year-old successful professional settled in Sharjah (UAE), also anonymous. The tagline of the blog is ‘‘Straights by appointment only.’’ OutInMyHead posted only one entry related to the marches, dated June 10, but is an active reader/ commenter on many of the other blogs (both group and personal). All the blogs examined target both queers and straight allies, addressing a mix of topics, not just queer issues, and this is true even for OutInMyHead with its seemingly antagonistic tagline. Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Data Analysis Qualitative content analysis uncovers latent themes and underlying meanings contained within the text, rather than the frequency of topics mentioned (Mayring, 2000). The study follows an inductive mode of category development, with research questions based on theory and prior literature. The relevant blog posts, visuals and comments by readers were copied onto a Word document that ran 95 single-spaced pages. The data were coded according to the inductively determined categories: strategies used by the interpretive community, and reactions to mainstream media. The data were rearranged according to the categories, and the two categories were constantly re-checked to ensure that they suited all the data collected. The realigned data were then separated into two blocks for each category, and each theme through which the categories emerged were marked with colored highlighters. Notes were entered alongside the data pertaining to the themes of each category. Finally, in a third re-ordering of the data, categories and their themes were arranged, to address the research questions. Verification To verify the trustworthiness of the data obtained and its interpretation (Cresswell, 1997), feedback was sought from the blogs’ creators. A summary of the analysis was e-mailed to them, and the creators were asked whether they agreed with the findings and/or had any suggestions. Four of the bloggers replied, concurring with the findings; minor modifications yielded greater clarity on some issues, but the bulk of the interpretation remained unchanged. Findings Bloggers and commenters are referenced by their chosen online nicknames. Blogexcerpts are reproduced verbatim, including spelling. Mitra/QUEER INDIAN BLOGGERS AS INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES 171 Spread of Strategic Influence The first research question asks how strategic influence spreads within/out of the interpretive community of queer Indian bloggers, i.e., how it is sustained and spread. Rather than creating a utopian alternative to a heteronormatized world, the blogs (both personal and group-run) are deep-rooted in the real/offline world their creators/readers occupy. The establishment/sustenance of a community is almost an oasis where they can ‘‘be’’ as they are: queer and Indian, real and virtual, simultaneously. The strategies of influence used to interpret the pride-march media coverage are also clearly responsible for a larger gamut of meaning-making than just this particular instance, and must be examined accordingly. First, there is the ubiquitous hyper-linking of other queer Indian blogs that have reacted to the pride-marches and media coverage—perhaps the most basic marker of community formation. In a post dated July 19, CrazySam links to the BengaluruPride blog to acquaint newcomers with the marches; a commenter named Firoze posted on QueerMediaWatch that the blog was ‘‘an eye opener for the rest of the world, a selfish somnolent world that has done nothing to bring the transgender back home,’’ showcasing another blog (http://hijdaeunuchblog.wordpress.com) as a voice for Indian transgenders and hijras. With the exception of ReluctantObserver and OutInMyHead, all the blogs used popular queer images/references and linked to websites of more formal queer groups, in an effort to raise community awareness. All the blogs, even these two, posted against Section 377 repeatedly in the past, indicating that though levels of identification with formal queer organizations may not be uniform, their ties with other blogs are strong. Strategies seeking involvement and hands-on participation in future events act to sustain the community, and usually elicited positive responses from readers. ReluctantObserver’s post (June 24) in the run-up to the Bengaluru march details the camaraderie between organizers and participants while crafting banners and t-shirts for the march. In the comments section of a later post (July 2), the creator banters with commenters on the march’s success and how it helped everyone present bond with each other. In a reader-contribution on Queeristan (July 7), Pawan who marched in Kolkata, calls for participation in future marches, lists possible ways of organizing future events, and talks about involvement in previous queer causes in the city. Involvement, or the pledge of participation, is also seen through numerous comments by readers from outside India, such as Ryan, who states, ‘‘Anyway, glad to know there’s a gay parade happening in India. I am waiting [for] it to happen in my country, Malaysia’’ (on CrazySam, July 6)—building a transnational link reminiscent of Altman (1996) and Gross (2003). This transnational link is also seen in QueerMediaWatch’s take on media coverage of queer issues on its ‘‘About Us’’ page—‘‘these are stories that we—and the media—have a responsibility to share’’—which is derived verbatim from the U.S.-based Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD, see http://www.glaad.org). The use of YouTube videos also fostered communal influence. In an entry dated July 5, Queeristan posted successive clips of pride-marches in New Delhi and Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 172 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/March 2010 the South Asian contingent at New York Pride, inviting readers to draw comparisons. The YouTube video UnsungPsalm crafted and posted (June 22) was intended to raise awareness of the impending New Delhi march, and plays on both a global gay identity (showing international gay icons and vignettes of Gay Pride parades in the West), and national solidarity (depicting well-known Indians who support the queer cause), repeatedly using community-building phrases (like ‘‘you are not alone,’’ ‘‘take to the streets and celebrate yourselves,’’ and ‘‘hope to see you there’’). YouTube is not the only alternative media channel in use among the interpretive community. QueerMediaWatch, on its ‘‘About Us’’ page, received two interesting comments, the first (July 4) from a New Zealand-based documentary-maker who wanted to network for a project (he received a response with an email address to contact), and the second (April 5) from one Nirmal who referred readers to the website of an alternative film production company that has tackled several queer topics in the past. It is interesting also to note that a blog served as part of the publicity campaign for its most recent film Yours Emotionally, directly targeted to the community of queer Indian bloggers. While using blogs for direct-to-user campaigns may be a current trend in marketing movies, it highlights the recognition of a cohesive queer Indian blogosphere here. In addition to alternative media, references to mainstream media were harnessed to build community. All three of the group-blogs studied regularly feature queerrelated stories in the national/global mainstream media; links to the pride-march media coverage were provided on all of them. Blogger-ties with mainstream journalists also are seen in a news-reporter’s appeal for help/networking with a story on alternate Indian sexuality, in the comments section of a QueerMediaWatch post (June 22). This is hardly surprising given the high incidence of Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual journalists active in the Indian gay movement (see www.queermediacollective.word press.com). But mainstream media references also achieve a more somber and powerful community-building role: for instance, by reporting about a gay suicide pact in the south Indian state of Kerala in QueerMediaWatch (originally reported in the prominent regional daily Mathrubhumi), commenter Murleedharan directly focuses on the event’s tragic implications for all queer Indians, and highlights the duality of the real/virtual spheres for the bloggers. Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Reaction to Mainstream Media The second research question focuses on the reaction of the interpretive community to mainstream media coverage, chiefly in how they challenge and/or legitimize it. Mainstream news coverage of the June 2008 pride-marches is criticized for focusing disproportionately on the performance/spectacle aspect of the marches, rather than the protest angle (Johnston, 2005). The media are accused of pandering to stereotypes of queer, chiefly that of queer as hijra (Reddy, 2005). CrazySam posted, Mitra/QUEER INDIAN BLOGGERS AS INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES 173 But media can be a bitch sometimes. They have their own convoluted methods to twist the reality and present the facts to the world based on what can attract the audience : : : This is like the western media trying to showcase India as a country of elephants, snake charmers and gurus. (July 6) Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 To resist the stereotype, CrazySam also posted a slideshow depicting a loving gay couple with a baby—interestingly, the couple was Caucasian. Resistance against media-stereotyping was reiterated by others: RambunctiousWhippersnapper commented that ‘‘the media does not exist to bring the truth to people’’ (on CrazySam, July 7), OutInMyHead said the media ‘‘projects[s] the ‘typical’ gay image so that people can have some sort of familiarity’’ (on CrazySam, July 7), and Nobody’sAngel remarked that ‘‘the media is making sure that people think being gay is [j]ust about putting on mascara [a]n[d] charm[ing] as many straight guys as one can’’ (on OutInMyHead, July 7). There were several instances in which bloggers physically participated in the pride-marches, saw it covered later in the mainstream media, and then blogged about the reportage. In many cases, a dissonance of sorts occurs; for instance in the reader-contribution to Queeristan (July 2) by Aniruddhan, who dwells on how ‘‘not up to the job’’ he felt the mainstream media in Bengaluru were: Then the TV cameras arrived, with the reporters and cameramen looking with wideeyed wonder at this psychedelic gathering of not just hijras, kothis, drag queens, sex workers, bisexuals, lesbians and gay men, but also our siblings, friends, and other allies. When the camera men went in circles, photographing and videoing non-stop, it felt like they just wanted to capture as much of it as they could, though I suspect they did not feel equal to the job. Yes, for some of them we could have been ‘‘freaks’’ worth a few seconds of satellite time, but I am sure they were a bit staggered by the enormousness of the ‘‘freakishness.’’ This was echoed by CrazySam (July 6), and a commenter named flygye12 narrated a second-hand experience of how the reality of the pride-marches differed from the media coverage: ‘‘you have managed to put the feelings i was having when i read that exact article in ‘The Hindustan Times’ : : : our frens went tho’ and reported that there were more families there than these sparkly people.’’ This outburst brings into sharp focus the issue of representation: who is authorized to represent the queer Indian community, who does the media think represents queer Indians, and who do the queer Indian blogs represent? Interestingly, it is not just mainstream media that are blamed for enhancing stereotypes: Queeristan (July 10) criticized an alternative media forum called Toward Freedom (see http://www.towardfreedom.com) for featuring a placard from the Kolkata march that seemed to reinforce gender norms. However, rather than presenting its own conclusions on the subject, the blog invited reader/commenter discussion on it. Resistance against mainstream news coverage also is seen through the queer bloggers’ emphasis on political issues, which the media allegedly ignored. OutInMyHead posts, 174 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/March 2010 And what’s with using inverted commas when speaking about Gay Pride? Does the media not acknowledge that Pride is an actual event? Next time, why don’t the[y] do the same when talking about our ‘Independence Day’? (July 7) Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 Additionally, BengaluruPride has several sections devoted to the political aspect of the pride-marches. While Stonewall and Western Gay Pride parades are referenced, its main theme is the applicability of queer rights in the Indian context, and the blog lists five key ‘‘political demands,’’ such as amendment of Section 377, allowing sex-change surgery, preventing homophobic violence/extortion, welfare for transgenders, and social entitlements for sexual minorities. A ‘‘denaturalization of the media frame’’ (Couldry, 2000) is evident in pictures of the march posted on BengaluruPride, which predominantly show protesters demonstrating on the steps of City Hall—focusing on the protest side of Pride, clearly resisting mainstream media interpretation of the event. However, in some other cases, there seems to not have been any particular dissonance between lived and mediated reality. A readercontribution on Queeristan by Kolkata marcher Pawan reports that the media frame was almost totally representative of reality: : : : media interest was reasonably good with some channels beaming the walk live, and it was good that there were at least a few new situations that they covered : : : I also found questions asked at a TV talk show later in the evening well thought out and with background research done. (July 7) There are several undercurrents hinting at the legitimization of mainstream media. For instance, despite the criticism against the media’s stereotypical depictions, several bloggers/readers showed an appreciation for its compulsions. Monkie commented that ‘‘Media doesn’t exist to enlighten the public, it exists to sell itself. Throw in a sparkly sari or two and you’ve got yourself ad sales : : : ’’ (on CrazySam, July 7); SoulSearedDreamer said, ‘‘whilst the media might twist everything – it is a huge step forward’’ (on CrazySam, July 6); UnsungPsalm blamed the lack of ‘‘successful, visible queers in Indian society : : : So all that is left eventually are hijras and cross-dressers, fighting the battle for equal rights, all alone; and then we feel that the media neglects us ‘normal’ beings and focuses on them’’ (July 7, italics in original). Another strain of legitimization is apparent in UnsungPsalm’s acknowledgement that the Indian state and media have ‘‘other matters to deal with such as feeding the poor, furthering agriculture, economy, politics, female infanticide, urban development and so on’’ (July 7). While the urgency of humanitarian issues such as poverty alleviation cannot be denied, it is also true that this has often been used by those against queer rights to perpetuate a cycle of invisibility and hegemony (Narrain, 2007; Reddy, 2005), and UnsungPsalm’s post signals a widespread acceptance of this view. Conclusion Though the focus here is on a specific community of queer Indian bloggers, many of their strategies are transferable to other virtual communities; prior research (Alexander, Mitra/QUEER INDIAN BLOGGERS AS INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITIES 175 2002; Heinz et al., 2002; Rak, 2005; Williams, 2007) has found some of them at work in varying socio-cyber contexts. Thus, this study extends previous research by viewing online/offline groups through the lens of interpretive communities (Fish, 1980; Lindlof, 1988, 2002), and queering their relationship to the mainstream media surrounding them. Importantly, none of the blogs studied used either/or of the multiple strategies, and usually employed a combination of them. BengaluruPride, for instance, had links to personal blogs, links to more formal queer groups, lengthy explanations on the legality of Section 377 and other queer issues in India, custom-made YouTube videos, pictures of the Bengaluru march, letters from readers, and mainstream media coverage. In his feedback to this study, UnsungPsalm elaborated on how his blogger-circle formed: I simply used some Blog Directories, specifically Indian ones, to come across about 4–5 gay bloggers who had listed themselves on it. These, in turn, were connected to other gay blogs that weren’t listed. So we got in touch with each other through the common blog (that I’d found in the directory). Then onwards, it just carried on, and pretty soon, I had some 30 blogs on my blogroll, and a new one comes up now and then. Downloaded By: [Mitra, Rahul] At: 04:12 6 March 2010 In fact, a couple of the bloggers who responded to the study’s verification e-mail suggested some of the other blogs that were actually examined here. (The bloggers were not told which other blogs were included in the study, only that theirs’ was part of the corpus.) This further justifies the consideration of the seven blogs studied here as part of a cohesive interpretive community. Moreover, the bloggers actively reach out to others beyond this community, to both straight and queer visitors. In a response to the email, ReluctantObserver highlighted that ‘‘the queer blogs have been esp[ecial]l[y] useful in establishing queer people as regular chaps with families and lives much beyond their sexuality with the non-queer sections : : : and that has helped non-queer readers understand sexuality as ‘one’ dimension of many.’’ By thus noting the role of alternative media that blogs play (Atton, 2004; Bailey et al., 2007; Downing, 2003; Mitra & Gajjala, 2008), this article extends the theory of interpretive communities to situations where the community is both a producer and an audience/consumer of media. This research has implications for the appropriation of mainstream themes while producing alternative streams of interpretation, and the constant renegotiation involved within interpretive communities (Machis & Carrithers, 1996; Schroder, 1994). The interactivity of the medium, via comments and hyperlinks, plays an important role in ensuring that even the so-called ‘‘canonical version,’’ or the most plausible meaning of the text (Lindlof, 1988), is fluid. For instance, the delineation of spectacle/protest was particularly tricky for the bloggers. While they were indignant at mainstream media focus on the performance (rather than political) aspect of the pride-marches, and the perpetuation of the queer as hijra plank (Reddy, 2005), the bloggers also affirmed the importance of celebration/spectacle. In a response, UnsungPsalm said, ‘‘Gay Pride is a celebration and not a protest. Bloggers were happy that the protest was shown to be the celebration that it was supposed to be,’’ thus clearly problematizing the notions of both ‘‘protest’’ and ‘‘celebration.’’ On 176 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/March 2010 the one hand, ReluctantObserver averred that ‘‘stereotypes are not *bad*,’’ while on the other, OutInMyHead complained that ‘‘the entire event [was] just treated as a joke and hence not worthy of ‘real’ news coverage.’’ Accordingly, a simplistic in-group/out-group stance may not be useful to decipher the meanings of spectacle and protest, testifying to the self-reflexivity of the interpretive community (Raval, 1998). Instead, there is the upsurge of an urban queer Indian consciousness (Khan, 2001) that appropriates internationalization of queer themes (Altman, 1996; Gross, 2003), such as pride/celebration, and re-interprets them in the Indian context. Self-reflexivity and renegotiation also play out in the ‘‘denaturalization’’ of the media frame (Couldry, 2000) for bloggers who participated in the pride-marches. The disparity in blogger-reactions (some experienced dissonance, while others did not) may be a manifestation of the ‘‘local mode of interpretation’’ (Zelizer, 1993) by the virtual community. Since this study focused on blog posts and comments timed around the actual event, a more distant ‘‘durational mode’’ could not be examined. Accordingly, if the bloggers are interviewed a year or two down the line their durational mode of interpretation might reveal a more uniform denaturalization of the mainstream media frame. Thus, a limitation of this paper is that it looks at the interpretation surrounding a particular event, so that the community’s reactions may be different for other situations/contexts. Finally, this study holds implications for understanding resistance and queer rights. As noted by Crampton (2003), blogging/self-writing involves a dialectic of resistance and legitimization of the status quo. While the blogger-community resists mainstream media stereotypes of queer, there are instances that undermine this resistance: disbarring transgenders as authentic representatives of the gay movement, resignation to media compulsions/motives, and an uncritical reliance on a global gay identity. What comes to the fore here is the simultaneous privileging of certain forms of queer (urban, middle-to-upper class, English speaking) and access (Internet connectivity, Western media channels, contact with the media-world), while Othering others. As Roy notes, ‘‘the concern is not whether the internet is a tool for a global homogenized gay movement; rather, the question that should be raised is whether the internet is becoming the only tool (or the most convenient one) for building a gay movement’’ (2003, p. 196). 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