Using WordPress to queery (not a typo) data and generate statistics based on the entire history of television and understand the impact of fictional death in the media on real life people. As seen on https://lezwatchtv.com

Overview

This presentation will discuss the complications of using WordPress to manage a site filled with cross-related data, in order to understand the social and psychological impact of the Bury Your Gays trope on TV. By using WordPress, we were able to easily output the data, but building out a site without planning what data will be captured leads to headaches. There were difficulties in the growth of data, including handling multiple actors and shows, with separate roles, characters who changed names and genders, and the death and revival of another character (does she count as dead)? Through it all, we prioritized open data and open discovery of the data to allow people to take the content and use it for their own purposes.

Aspects

– The dead lesbian / bury your queers trope (see also: The Lexa Effect of 2016)
– Rest API for data promulgation and distribution
– Confirming theories with data
– How WordPress makes it ‘easier’ for people to find themselves reflected in media