Interpretative repertoires and subject positions used in the context of the motherhood identity in social media

This study aims to analyze the construction of motherhood identity by women in Turkey using critical discursive psychology's approach and its concepts such as interpretative repertoires and subject positions. For this, firstly, the messages that were shared on profiles of mothers who have become famous through their posts on social media hence called as "phenomena mothers" and of maternity groups on Facebook and Instagram as well as their followers' comments were analyzed. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five mothers with different socio-demografic characteristics. Voice recordings of the interviews were collected then these recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed as well. As a result of the analysis of the data consisting of social media posts, four interpretative repertoires; "individual motherhood", "maternity through equality between men and women", "sufficient sacrifice" and "inadequacy" were obtained. In terms of subject positions, the "phenomena mothers" was determined positioning themselves as "persons who can train, instruct, enlighten, guide, advise others and act as role models". For the followers of these mothers on social media, the subject positions were determined as "persons who accept these characteristics described above and role model positions of "phenomena mothers".The results of the analysis of the interviews revealed three interpretative repertoires, "unpredictable motherhood", "motherhood as maintaining equilibrium" and "motherhood as personal change". The identified subject positions were "the person who take great pains" and "the person becoming her ought self". In the study, it was determined that women continued to construct their motherhood identity through the repertoires determined by their interactions in the social media. The interpretative repertoires in construction of the motherhood identity used by participants who were interviewed compared to the interpretative repertoires used in the social media data were both similar on some aspects and different on other aspects. However, the subject positions used in both contexts didn't differ. The results were discussed in relation to previous studies on motherhood, self-presentation on social media.