University of Miami Social Media Analysis Project Paper

Directions:

1. First, you must choose an artifact to focus on. This should be one online account of one organization linked to a social movement. Examples might include the Twitter account of the Women’s March; the Instagram account of your local chapter of Black Lives Matter; or the Facebook account of your local Sierra Club chapter. This should be a communicative account, posting at least once per day. You should have plenty of data to be able to study the last two weeks of correspondence on a singular platform.
2. Once you choose your artifact, you will conduct an informal critical discourse analysis (see RSM Chapter 10 by Satchel and Bush and the Week 3 lecture) to ultimately respond to the discussion prompts, below. You will need to address concepts from Satchel and Bush, class lectures, and Tufekci’s Twitter and Tear Gas, plus any other texts you find relevant, so you should cite sources as needed.
3. Finally, you will creatively share your findings with the class through a 5-7 minute Kaltura presentation (I only need the slides completed). You will also submit a written report of your findings.

Crick, N. (2020). The rhetoric of social movements. Taylor & Francis.
10
Social Movements, Media, and Discourse
Using Social Media to Challenge Racist Policing Practices and
Mainstream Media Representations
Roslyn M. Satchel and Nicole V. Bush
On the evening of February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin walked into a 7-Eleven in
Sanford, Florida. The 7-Eleven surveillance video shows the 17-year-old African
American boy wearing a hooded sweatshirt and purchasing a bag of Skittles and a
can of Arizona Iced tea. This footage captures Martin’s last moments before he
encountered a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman
spotted Martin, started following him, and called 911. He reported Martin, claiming he
was a “real suspicious guy” (Botelho, 2012, para 10) and was on drugs. The 911
dispatcher told Zimmerman it was not necessary for him to pursue Martin, but
Zimmerman continued to do so anyway.
We are not certain what happened after Zimmerman called 911 or what led him to
fire a bullet from his 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun into Martin’s chest. On July
13, 2013, an all-female jury, consisting of five White women and one member of a
nondominant racial group, found Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder or
of the lesser charge of manslaughter, despite the evidence the prosecution had
presented to the jury, such as that investigators found only Zimmerman’s fingerprints
on his gun and Zimmerman’s racial-epithet-filled call to 911. In addition, the Sanford
police did not find Zimmerman’s DNA under Martin’s nails, which is atypical when a
physical altercation takes place (Botelho & Yan, 2013).
The failure of the court to bring George Zimmerman to justice was the catalyst for
Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi’s creation of the
#BLACKLIVESMATTER hashtag, and for the subsequent movement. Alicia Garza
made the first post that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement on Facebook in
July 2013. It read, “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our Lives Matter” (Langford &
Speight, 2015, p. 78). Patrisse Cullors reposted Garza’s status and added the
hashtag #BLACKLIVESMATTER. Cullors maintained that she created the hashtag
out of grief for the Black community and to affirm the significance of Black
community matters (Langford & Speight, 2015).
On December 23, 2015, Black Lives Matters chapters protested throughout the
United States (Pearse, 2015). These protests garnered a great deal of media
attention and activist arrests. A press release from Black Lives Matter stated the
purpose of the demonstrations:
Black Xmas is here, and there will be no business as usual until we get
accountability for our dead, and justice for the living. Instead of buying gifts to fuel
this system, Black Xmas is a day of action to reject the degradation of Black families
and communities by police, politicians, and predatory companies, and declare our
inherent worth. We will disrupt business as usual until city, state, and federal budgets
stop funding Black death and start funding Black futures.
(“Black Lives Matter Statement,” 2015, para 3)
Tweets such as this illustrate the power to speak to millions of people, and function
as a call of action, outside of the scope of traditional news media, and also avoid the
mainstream news media’s priming and framing information about the movement. By
priming news, giving certain stories more coverage, and including some details while
omitting others, the news media influence how the public thinks about issues such as
the Ferguson protests, and reinforce harmful stereotypes about Black people in the
minds of audiences (Holt, 2013; Miller, 2005). The news media’s framing of the Black
Lives Matter movement also affects the way the public views the movement and its
supporters, especially those of the public who don’t have firsthand knowledge of the
movement (Kuypers, 2009). Audiences use media frames to make sense of and
comprehend the news, as facts are neutral and have no meaning on their own
(Gamson, 1989). Through this process, both media priming and framing can
negatively influence the way individuals think about the Black Lives Matter
movement and its supporters.
Mainstream news media priming and framing are particularly dangerous because
newsmakers can use them to reinforce racial stereotypes and the systems they
represent. Stereotyping plays upon binary distinctions such as black and white, good
and bad, and us and them, and essentializes people by just a few basic traits based
on their natures (Hall, 2013a). Furthermore, stereotyping is one of the ways the
majority preserves its power and dominance over nondominant groups (Kay & Jost,
2003). Mainstream media functions as a discursive structure. At its most basic level,
media as a discursive structure is a space in which institutions form a shared way of
talking about matters or symbols that gives those matters or symbols meaning
(Satchel, 2016). In turn, the shared interpretation of the discourse creates a way of
knowing that, when socially shared, can perpetuate ideologies through stereotypical
representations that reinforce hegemony through institutions such as legacy news
media and their parent corporations, subsidiaries, and related conglomerates
(Satchel, 2016). This power imbalance is what makes it essential for use to further
understand Black Lives Matter use of social media, and how the movements use of
Twitter create an online discursive structure that undermines stereotypical
representations of Black people, and also introduce the opportunity for social
change, and can possibly save lives (Del Felice, 2014).
In this chapter, we examine tweets appearing on the Black Lives Matter’s
Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Chicago chapters’ Twitter accounts throughout the
month of December 2015. We analyzed messages from this period because the
organizers of the 2015 Black Xmas protests promoted and organized the protests on
Twitter during this period. Black Lives Matter activists organized protests throughout
the country on December 23, 2015 to interrupt the commercial activity associated
with the Christmas holiday.
To better understand this representation, we focused our analysis on messages
appearing on the Twitter accounts of the Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis
chapters because these were the most visible Black Lives Matter chapters during the
2015 Black Xmas protests. Qualitative approaches animate our analysis of these
chapters’ Twitter activities in December 2015. We identified patterns and trends in
the sources, subjects, and validity of the three chapters’ Twitter activities. In addition
to descriptive frequencies, we incorporated critical discourse analysis (CDA) in light
of van Dijk’s (1985a) argument that critical discourse studies (CDS) are necessarily
interdisciplinary ventures that require multiple methods such as content analysis,
discourse analysis, textual analysis, ethnography, and participant action research.
The frequency distributions in our research allowed us to categorize the tweets, and
by doing so, to code in greater depth.
We used van Dijk’s (1983, 1985a, 1985b, 1991, 1995, 2000, 2001) CDS approach to
understand how the chapters’ Twitter pages constitute a discursive structure that
counters the Black criminality stereotypes prevalent in mainstream media. This
approach enabled us to “[study] the way social power abuse, dominance, and
inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and
political context” (van Dijk, 2001, p. 352). Van Dijk (1995) defined critical discourse
analysis as “a special approach to the study of talk and text, emerging from critical
linguistics, critical semiotics and in general from a socio-politically conscious and
oppositional way of investigating language, discourse, and communication” (p. 17).
This critical method of understanding text and talk avails researchers of ways to
identify “relations of power, dominance, and inequality and the ways these are
reproduced or resisted by social group members through text and talk” (van Dijk,
1995, p. 18). CDS also enables us to describe complex discourse structures and
interpret strategies in relation to the contexts where they occur (van Dijk, 2000).
To understand how the discourse on Twitter constitutes a discursive structure and
whether the discourse within that structure challenges Black criminality stereotypes,
we examined (a) validity, (b) subjects, and (c) sources as the units of analysis for this
study.
Validity is how well a tweet’s comprehensibility, truth, legitimacy, and sincerity fulfill
Habermas’s criterion of communicative action. This criterion is pertinent to this study
because a message’s validity establishes the discourse’s ability to aid the creation of
meaning and knowledge while avoiding potential distortions. The validity of the
discourse aids in the creation of a new discursive structure, which creates original
meaning and knowledge about Black people.
A subject is a single concept that stands for a larger complex issue (van Dijk, 1991).
We analyzed the subjects of the tweets to gain further understanding of the subjects
on which the local Black Lives Matter activists most frequently posted. By
understanding which subjects the activists most often included in their discourse, we
were able to see how the discourse represented Black people beyond the subject of
Black crime. By identifying the number of subjects in the discourse, we demonstrate
how the discourse of Black Lives Matter Twitter accounts represents Black people in
varying circumstances, and in doing so, contradicts the Black criminality stereotype.
We used Van Dijk’s (1991) list of subjects, as it encompasses a wide range of topics
news media present (e.g., politics, immigration, employment/unemployment, and
education).
A source is the media type, organization, and author on which the information in the
tweet is based. Identifying the sources enabled us to determine which sources Black
Lives Matter activists used the most. Being referenced is a form of social power, and
therefore, in this context, referenced sources have more power than unreferenced
sources. A tweet’s source of information also affects the subject matter and its
potential impact. Understanding the sources of the tweets allowed us to see what
forms of media activists use to propagate knowledge, ideologies and worldviews. By
showing the sources of the information in the tweets, we demonstrate how the
discourse includes sources that traditional news media omit and how the inclusion of
these alternative sources and authors results in a novel representation of Black
people that contradicts the Black criminality stereotype. Examples include journalists,
public radio, community organizers, Black Lives Matter press releases, and
alternative news sites such as telesurTV.
We collected data from Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter Chicago,
and Black Lives Matter Los Angeles from December 2015, using Twitter’s advanced
search function. In this period, there were 113 tweets from Black Lives Matter
Minneapolis, 63 from Black Lives Matter Chicago, and 58 from Black Lives Matter
Los Angeles. We included all 234 tweets in our analysis.
We used two different types of coding. First, we coded the tweets by validity, as
determined by how well they fulfilled the criteria of comprehensibility, truth,
legitimacy, and sincerity. We open-coded the tweets for validity using Shirazi’s (2013)
guiding questions and used these criteria to identify potential distortions. A full list of
the guiding questions appears in Appendix B. Next, we coded for the tweets’
subjects and sources using QDA Miner to establish frequencies. We used the
software to code the subject of the tweets in accordance with van Dijk’s (1991) list of
subjects, as relevant to our analysis and encompassing topics that appear frequently
in current American media. We used the same software to code for the tweets’
sources. We coded for the following sources: mainstream traditional online news
sites, alternative online news sites, blogs, social media, press releases, and Black
Lives Matter chapters. In addition, we scrutinized sources to ascertain the authors,
corporations, or other entities behind the material used by Black Lives Matter
activists on Twitter. As with the subjects, we established frequencies for the
information sources the Black Lives Matter organizers referenced most often.
Results
In this chapter, we present the results of our study in three parts. In the first part of
our results, we discuss the meaning-making process that occurs in the Black Lives
Matter chapters’ discourse. Using Satchel’s (2016) definition of discursive structure,
we provide a thick description of how the Black Lives Matter discourse creates
meaning and knowledge. By doing so, we demonstrate through our findings that the
Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles Twitter pages constitute
a discursive structure in terms of validity, subjects, and sources. Then, we
cross-reference the literature on social movements. Using this literature, we show
how the activists’ inclusion of subjects and sources reframe the Black Lives Matter
movement in a way that generates a new way of thinking about the movement and
its supporters amid its controverted government classification as a terrorist
organization.
Analysis of Data
A discursive structure is a space in which institutions form a shared way of talking
about things, which gives these things meaning and creates a way of knowing, and
this knowledge is socially shared through the contextual map of mass media
(Satchel, 2016). The Black Lives Matter chapters we included in our analysis create
a discursive structure that generates shared meaning and knowledge among its
participants. The chapters’ Twitter pages are conceptual maps and socially shared
cognitive mechanisms through which Black Lives Matter activists and supporters
display and share knowledge about the movement. In the analysis that follows, we
decode the tweets using CDA and a priori reasoning to understand how talk and text
work together to create meaning and establish a discursive structure that upholds
the criterion of validity outlined in the methodology. The discourse on the Black Lives
Matter Twitter pages generates shared meaning and a way of knowing among those
most likely to engage in the discourse, primarily by using shared figurative codes via
language. The use of hashtags further generates shared meaning and a way of
knowing. Finally, Black Lives Matter activists share images and videos as conceptual
maps to generate further knowledge and a way of understanding, which they share
socially on Twitter via these visual media.
First, the three Black Lives Matter chapters produce meaning and a way of knowing
through the use of a simple, concise language that contemporary Black Americans
easily understand. This tweet, from BLMChicago (2015d), is a concise call to action:
“Show up tonight at 6:30 at 53rd and King Drive, the site of Ronald Johnson’s killing.
#NoJusticeNoPeace #Justice4Ronnieman #Alvarezgottago.” Concisely, this tweet
contains only enough detail for readers to understand where and when to meet to
protest Ronald Johnson’s murder. To convey urgency, the tweet invokes Johnson’s
name and killing sufficiently to galvanize Black Lives Matter supporters. The author
did not explain who Ronald Johnson is; instead, she assumed that readers knew this
and were familiar with the Chicago area. The use of hashtags also creates urgency,
meaning, and connection by quoting a recognizable protest chant: no justice, no
peace. This familiar call for justice allows readers to associate Johnson’s death with
other unjust killings of Black Americans. The tweet also contains
“#Justice4Ronnieman,” which is the hashtag the Chicago Black Lives Matter chapter
uses on all its tweets about Ronald Johnson. This hashtag uses a nickname for
Johnson, which further suggests familiarity, connection, and relationship with
Johnson, as well as the cause his death embodies. Last, “#Alvarezgottago” is
another common hashtag in the Chicago Black Lives Matters chapter’s discourse to
convey that the problem is systemic rather than episodic. The author uses this
expecting readers know of State Attorney Anita Alvarez and prior calls for Alvarez’
resignation/firing because they would be familiar with Johnson’s killing and city
politics. The tweet, as such, functions as a concise representation of Black Lives
Matter Chicago’s demand for justice. These hashtags create a shared language and
meaning, and the author framed the tweet using these hashtags to cue a call to
action for supporters who were already familiar with the Chicago Black Lives Matter
movement. The hashtags allow the Black Lives Matter activists to connect their
tweets and demands in a simple, easily understood format.
The use of figurative language is another way this discourse generates shared
meaning that the discourse’s contemporary Black American audience can easily
understand. Black authors write tweets on the Black Lives Matter accounts for Black
audiences using language and references they are likely to comprehend. As
hashtags in the previous example, the Black Lives Matter tweets contain metaphors
and connotative words that help readers identify with familiar cultural references
alluded. For example, #BlackLivesMatter-LA (2015c) shared the following tweet:
“ ‘We are no longer dying in, we are rising up.’ @DocMellyMel Stand with us and call
on Sheriff Jim McDonell to release #BlackXMas activists.” This tweet contains
connotative phrases such as rising up and stand with us. These words, in this
context, transcend their literal meaning, and the author was evoking their figurative
meaning as a call to action. The author did not literally mean for people to stand or
rise up; the phrases represent the need for unified action to get BlackXMas
protestors released. The tweet also contains “#BlackXmas,” as a way to connect it to
other tweets about the BlackXMas protests throughout the entire Black Lives Matter
network. The use of Xmas instead of Christmas draws on the specific language of
the national movement. In turn, the language of the tweet generates a shared way of
talking and meaning-making not only for Los Angeles activists and supporters, but
also for activists throughout the entire Black Lives Matter movement’s network. This
allows the meaning and knowledge of the discursive structure to propagate a shared
understanding among Black Lives Matter audiences on a national level.
The tweets in the Black Lives Matter discursive structure propagate meaning and
knowledge by framing the immediate present in a manner easily understood by
Black audiences. All three Black Lives Matter chapters provided firsthand accounts,
in real time, of the movement’s demonstrations and other events it was involved in,
such as the state attorney’s press conference on Ronald Johnson’s death. The Black
Lives Matter Chicago Twitter page provided a play-by-play account of the press
conference, and this allowed the chapter to prime audiences, frame its posts, and
shape the media representation of the immediate moment. The following tweet from
BLMChicago (2015e) provided details of the press conference: “States Attny
assistant said the 911 calls help explain why Hernandez believed #Ronnieman had a
gun. Again, this is irrelevant. He had no gun!” The author provided a paraphrased
quote from State Attorney Anita Alvarez’s assistant. By not containing a direct
quotation, the tweet could frame the remark to emphasize some details while
omitting others. Moreover, the phrase at the end, “This is irrelevant. He had no gun!”
further allowed the author to frame the discourse by including information not
presented by the state attorney’s assistant. They referred to Ronald Johnson using
“#Ronnieman” again, which creates a shared way of talking about him and his death
as one who others loved enough to give a nickname. This humanizes victims.
Furthermore, this hashtag reflects familiarity and helps readers connect this specific
discourse with the overall discourse about Johnson and other victims of
state-sanctioned violence.
In another tweet from the press conference, BLMChicago (2015f) stated, “State’s
Attny says a mythical struggle occurred but of course is not captured on video. So
we are supposed to just take them at their word.” Again, the tweet provides an
indirect quotation from the state attorney and then adds the additional information
that the mythical struggle was not on the video of Johnson’s death. The author
framed the information provided by Alvarez by including other information she
omitted and undermining the idea that a mythical struggle occurred. This reframing
allowed the author to include new information and knowledge in the Black Lives
Matter discursive structure. The tweet also says, we are supposed to take them at
their word, which cues the historic abuses of police in Black communities and their
distrust of police officers. The phrase, among its target audience, highlights and
mocks the oxymoronic reasoning that Black folks are supposed to believe the police
who generally do not serve or protect them. Black audiences understand this irony
most commonly. This shared meaning among the Black audience participating in the
Black Lives Matter discursive structure activates participation.
BLM’s discourse frames the immediate present circumstances and generates
meaning through conceptual maps that include visual media and tweets. The authors
produce socially shared language and a way of knowing through the use of
conceptual maps, which are illustrative tools that represent knowledge. The visual
media the author includes in the discursive structure allows the discourse to
represent and share knowledge socially and selectively. Visual media and tweets
feature selected aspects of images and events while omitting others. This allows the
discourse to represent the immediate present in ways that cue histories or prime
audiences.
In Figure 10.1, BLMChicago provided visual evidence of the protests. Through its
use of a woman holding a simple sign, the chapter was able to frame the
demonstration as peaceful.
Furthermore, the subject being a White woman suggests unity and illustrates the
support of White allies in an allegedly racist movement. The single subject is one
among many supporters, which suggests large groups were participating in the
movement and shares the supporters’ demand for change in the Chicago city
government.
In another example, BLM MPLS frames the immediate present via a socially shared
conceptual map of visual media tweeted from a budget hearing in which the city
council attempted to pass a budget that included $605,000 to fortify the police
department in the fourth precinct. One tweet from the meeting provided information
about the budget hearing, saying, “over 100 packed the #blongnbetsysfortress
budget hearing on 2 hours notice. Our democracy will not be subverted” (Black Lives
MPLS, 2015d). This tweet is another call to action, and it includes a description of
the number in attendance and uses the strong verb subverted, which suggests the
activists in attendance would not let the government undermine the power of the
movement.
To illustrate further the strength of the activists, the tweet includes visual
representation of the size of the group, shown in Figure 10.2, which reinforces the
force of the activists by representing them as a large group with a significant physical
presence. Further demonstrating how the movement used visual images to frame
the immediate present, the Los Angeles chapter live-streamed its Black Xmas
protests at the Grove. These streams allowed audiences to watch the protests live
and unedited, which helped them avoid potential distortion of the videos by
mainstream news. By including visual media in their tweets, the Black Lives Matter
chapters share meaning/knowledge discourses and generate a shared way of
knowing about the movement that is distinct from mainstream news discourses.
FIGURE 10.1 Black Lives Matter Chicago protesters on Clark Street (BLMChicago,
2015i).
Subjects
The Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis BLM chapters’ Twitter discourse
constitutes a discursive structure because its selective subjects and sources reframe
and attempt to debunk the Black criminality stereotypes prevalent in mainstream
media discourse. By comparing the authors’ inclusion of certain sources and
subjects, we identify ways in which BLM chapters are creating opportunities for
discursive challenge and change. For example, a wide range of subjects appeared in
the Black Lives Matter Twitter discursive structure in December 2015. Figure 10.3
represents these subjects and how often they appeared. The authors’ inclusion of
these subjects let them use the discursive structure to counter and reframe social
issues through hashtag activism. Activists also engage in self-representation of the
movement.
FIGURE 10.2 Fourth Precinct Budget Hearing (Black Lives MPLS, 2015d).
Source: Black Lives MPLS (2015d) Twitter.
Demonstrations and protests are the subject of 78 tweets analyzed. The inclusion of
this subject allows the authors to represent Black Lives Matter demonstrations
without the influence of the mainstream media discourse. A representative tweet
from BLM MPLS (2015a) read: “Protestors led by clergy have taken over city hall to
demand an end to the #taleof2cities and #justice4jamar.” Toft (2014) argued that
self-representation allows social movements to reframe issues. Furthermore, he
maintained it is an influential way to counter pejorative stereotyping. BLM MPLS
represented itself in this tweet (and others) in the discourse and framed the
demonstration in a manner that might refute negative mainstream media discourse.
Another demonstration tweet read, “Reminder: We are on high alert for a raid on
#4thPrecinctShutDown by @MayorHodges. Make sure to text @blacklives to 23559
for raid alerts” (Black Lives MPLS, 2015b). Tweets such as this provide descriptions
and firsthand accounts of the demonstration in which Black Lives Matter supporters
protested the fatal police shooting of Jamal Clark. The tweet includes the hashtag
“#4thPrecinctShutDown,” which is an instance of hashtag activism (Clark, 2016).
Clark argued that hashtag activism is a form of discursive activism that promotes
collective activism, and she maintained that this type of activism creates discursive
spaces that have the potential to enact social change (Clark, 2016). Moreover, the
tweet links to Mayor Hodges’s Twitter page, allowing the discourse potentially to
transcend the Black Lives Matter movement’s discursive structure and influence
government discourse.
Sources
Next, we provide the sources of tweets in the Black Lives Matter discursive structure
in December 2015. The discourse uses sources that let it function as its own media
source and operate as an agent of knowledge. Moreover, retweeting and quoting of
other Black Lives Matter activists allows the discourse to link personal action frames
and engage in collective discursive activism. Table 10.1 shows the media sources
used in the discourse and how often the tweets from each chapter cited them in
December 2015.
Table 10.1 indicates that Black Lives Matter chapters are the main information
source. The tweets rarely reference outside sources: Black Lives Matter is the
information source in 182 of the 234 tweets we analyzed. Tweets such as “Watching
Anita Alvarez lie about #Ronnieman. A [Department of Justice] investigation means
nothing if killer cops continue to go free. #Justice4Ronnieman” provide firsthand
accounts of demonstrations, city council hearings, and legal matters affecting the
Black Lives Matter movement (BLMChicago, 2015g). The chapters’ Twitter pages
functioned as a principal source of information for people who wanted to know about
the movement in December 2015. Moreover, this allowed the chapters to function as
agents of knowledge and their discourse to frame the news about the movement
(Gabriel, 2016; Toft, 2014). These tweets let activists share their daily experiences
participating in the movement.
Second in number of tweets are the three chapters references to social media
accounts. In December 2015, 26 tweets referenced outside social media accounts
through Twitter’s retweet function. The tweets in this study referenced social media
accounts of Black individuals who were closely involved with the Black Lives Matter
movement. For example, the Los Angeles chapter frequently retweeted the personal
account of Dr. Melina Abdullah, the Black Lives Matter Los Angeles lead organizer,
scholar-activist, and the then Chair of Pan-African Studies at California State
University, Los Angeles. These retweets include “We’re dreaming of & working for a
#BlackXmas! In the names of #EzellFord #RedelJones #BrotherAfrica
#KendrecMcDade #MeaganHockaday” (Abdullah, 2015a) and “These fools really
tried to block our ability to raise funds! But our CrowdRise is back up! Please
contribute” (Abdullah, 2015b). In this tweet, Abdullah frames the Black Xmas
protests and the fundraising efforts of the movement by using hashtags, which Clark
(2016) maintained is a form of activism in its own right. These tweets support Black
Lives Matter’s ideology by using hashtag activism to demand justice for Black
individuals killed by the police and call to action donors who support the movement
financially. Furthermore, the use of hashtags that evoke the names of Black people
killed by the police is a form of discourse activism, which according to Clark (2016)
can trigger social change by linking personal action frames together. Reference to
the Twitter discourses of other Black Lives Matter supporters and chapters and the
use of hashtag activism contribute to the creation of a collective discourse, which
Clark maintained could cause a shift in mainstream news discourses.
TABLE 10.1 Sources of Tweets in December 2015
# of Tweets
BLM Chapters
183
Social Media 23
Mainstream News 18
Alternative News 7
Blogs 2
Source: Press Release/Press Conference 1
Chapter accounts also occasionally reference mainstream news media and
alternative media. In this period, they cited mainstream media 18 times and
alternative media only 7 times. When the tweets reference mainstream media
sources such as the Star Tribune, FOX 9 News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los
Angeles Times, they use the sources in a way that provides further insight into news
affecting the Black Lives Matter movement: “Take note, trolls. | Man Fired After
Posting Racist Comment [to] BLM Facebook CBS Minnesota,
https://t.co/o8xiUh3Wi0 #BlackXmas” (Black Lives MPLS, 2015i). In this tweet, Black
Lives MPLS cites CBS to bring attention to the possible negative consequences of
attacking the Black Lives Matter Minneapolis chapter. By including news from some
mainstream stories and omitting others, the activists frame news about the Black
Lives Matter movement according to its salience. They use both mainstream and
alternative news in a way that includes additional details of Black Lives Matter news,
as here: “Johnson’s mom Dorothy Holmes is now speaking. Watch live:
https://t.co/pFQxTRukvG” (BLMChicago, 2015c). In this tweet, BLMChicago provides
a link to CBS 7 News, where Dorothy Holmes speaks about her son Ronald
Johnson. Similarly, #BlackLivesMatter-LA reposted an article from a journalist,
Jasmyne Cannick, that discussed the L.A. Police Union’s plan to raise money for a
police officer accused of assault. The content of the article and its placement within
the tweet, which says, “We will not forget #AlesiaThomas” (#BlackLivesMatter-LA,
2015a) frames #BlackLivesMatter-LA’s message and adds emphasis.
In several tweets, the chapters responded to mainstream news articles, and in some
instances they corrected information in those articles. In the tweet in Figure 10.4,
Black Lives MPLS corrected Reuters coverage and provided more accurate
information about the protest. In this and other tweets where chapters corrected
news coverage, they reframed information about the movement. This
self-representation provided mainstream news journalists with a distinct framework
for reporting on the Black Lives Matter movement. As a result, activists functioned as
agents of knowledge by becoming as an information source for mainstream news
media. This could result in less biased representations of the movement and its
supporters in mainstream media discourses (Molaei, 2015).
Discussion and Implications for Research and Practice
In this section, we discuss the results and implications for research/practice, outline
the limitations of our study, and provide suggestions for future research. The data
indicate that the rhetoric from the three BLM chapters’ Twitter pages establishes a
discursive structure that counters the Black criminality stereotypes prevalent in
mainstream media. Through the authors’ inclusion of varying subjects and their
function as their own primary information source, these chapters create the potential
for their counter discourse to destabilize hegemonic news discourses that perpetuate
the Black criminality stereotype, and therefore, create the opportunity for social
change. We discuss how we came to this conclusion in the following section.
Discussion of Findings
The Chicago, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis Black Lives Matter chapters’ Twitter
pages constitute a discursive structure because their discourse forms a shared way
of knowing/talking about the movement and its supporters. This shared way of
talking generates new meaning and creates a new way of knowing (Satchel, 2016).
As already demonstrated, the Black Lives Matter activists did this by using a simple,
concise language that anticipated members of their target audience could easily
understand: written not only by Black authors for Black audiences, but also by queer,
differently abled, and low SES authors/audiences. Authors used language that
contemporary Black intersectional audiences would likely understand, and through
this use of language they created a shared way of talking about the movement.
Moreover, to propagate shared knowledge among their audience, they created a
shared way of talking about the movement that generates knowledge through the
use of metaphors, hashtags, irony, and other figurative language. The use of
hashtags allowed the activists to be concise while also using key phrases that
represent the movement as a whole and promote familiarity with the issues the
movement addressed. The tweets did not contain unnecessary details, but instead
used metaphors that Black audiences would understand. This shared way of talking
about the movement generated knowledge and functioned as a call to action for the
audience.
Furthermore, by using shared knowledge and ways of talking about the movement,
the authors framed their immediate present by tweeting in real time about Black
Lives Matter events and demonstrations. In the tweets, they employed irony to
highlight the absurdity of the injustices the movement seeks to combat. The authors
used figurative language to frame the immediate present, which further generated
shared meaning. The BLM activists shared this meaning through tweets, which map
concepts for audiences in plain language to convey knowledge. The activists further
illustrated knowledge through the use of visual media such as photographs and
videos. These conceptual maps allowed the chapters to provide visual
representations of meaning within the discursive structure.
The discourse is valid because it generated shared meaning and a way of talking
about Black lives, resulting in the creation of knowledge that Black Lives Matter
activists shared through conceptual maps on Twitter. Our results suggest that the
tweets are comprehensible, truthful, legitimate, and sincere, and they create a
discourse that aids in the production of knowledge about BLM and Black Americans.
In regard to comprehensibility, the discourse allowed readers to understand the
tweets but did not burden them with unnecessary details. The chapters cued and
framed discourses through socially shared images and videos as events occurred,
which generated a discursive structure where groups shared uniquely encoded
meanings.
By framing the immediate in a way that emphasizes the legitimacy of Black people
and the movement, the chapters used the discursive structure to offer a unique
shared way of knowing and speaking about Black Lives in a particular historic
moment. Finally, that the discourse is sincere, as with its comprehensibility, further
generates shared understanding and knowledge among its audiences. Unlike
mainstream news discourses, the tweets in the Black Lives Matter discursive
structure represent Black people through a shared style of language that is specific
to Black audiences.
Subjects and Sources
Next, we discuss the subjects and sources the Chicago, Los Angeles, and
Minneapolis chapters included in the discursive structure. We also explore how the
activists’ inclusion of these subjects and sources creates a discursive opportunity
that might challenge mainstream news discourses that reinforce the Black criminality
stereotype. First, as aforementioned, the subjects of the discourse were primarily
demonstrations and protests (78 tweets). Through the inclusion of media that show
the protestors as peaceful and demanding the end of unnecessary violence, the
discourse framed individuals as protesting in a positive, noncriminal manner. The
people demonstrating were mostly Black, and the media and textual descriptions
painted them as individuals fighting for equality, not as dangerous criminals.
According to Clark (2016), reframing allows the discourse to offer “new definitional
claims” (p. 797) that could positively affect mainstream news discourses and function
as a point of reference for future news.
Moreover, the tweets on the subject of court action and police action framed judges
and police officers as the opposition to these Black Lives Matter chapters’ quest for
justice. The tweets included details of specific incidents in which the police unfairly
targeted Black Lives Matter activists and supporters. These tweets reinforced the “us
versus them” binary but reframed Black people as victims and the courts and police
as oppressors. Strategic inclusion and framing of these subjects enables the
chapters to represent Black people as good and those who oppose the movement as
bad. This challenged mainstream news discourse by offering an alternative to the
dominant representations of crime and justice, which Gabriel (2016) argued is an
influential way to counter negative stereotypes reinforced by mainstream media.
The discursive structure’s sources, the BLM chapters in Minneapolis, Chicago, and
Los Angeles, seldom used outside news media articles except to reinforce their
ideologies; in doing so, these three chapter’s organizers control their own media
representation. By offering firsthand accounts and functioning as their own primary
information source, these chapters countered mainstream news narratives through
the creation and circulation of their own narratives within their discursive structure.
Gabriel (2016) argued that self-representation such as this is instrumental in
countering pejorative mainstream news stereotyping. In BLM’s structure, Black
people represent themselves and control of the flow of information.
The tweets in this study cited social media accounts of Black individuals who were
very much involved with the Black Lives Matter movement, which reinforces the
ideology that Black lives do matter irrespective of the mainstream discourse that may
suggest otherwise. By primarily referencing themselves and their supporters, the
chapters were able to frame their stories in a positive, self-affirming way that
challenges the Black criminality stereotype. Moreover, this allows the activists to link
personal actions to historic cues or frames that galvanize their target audiences’
support. This Black Lives Matter discursive structure allows the chapters to “talk
back” against mainstream media discourse, which they do more than reference
alternative media. To correct and comment on mainstream media coverage, the
three chapters reframed the news and became agents of knowledge by working as a
source for mainstream news, which could also affect the agenda of mainstream
news (Molaei, 2015). If BLM’s counter discourse influences mainstream news
discourses, then they potentially can modify hegemonic media constructions by
offering an opposing frame that contains new information and definitions that would
suggest that there are numerous ways of seeing the world (Lievrouw, 2011).
The Black Lives Matter chapters’ use of these sources is significant because by
functioning as the principal source of information about the movement, they were
able to frame and shape the immediate present and act as their own news
source—a source that frames Black people as innocent victims instead of dangerous
criminals (Bailey & Leonard, 2015). The chapters’ use of Twitter supports Bailey and
Leonard’s (2015) argument that the Black Lives Matter movement’s supporters’ use
of Twitter creates space for a “discursive intervention” (p. 76) that challenges and
circumvents hegemonic news narratives that equate blackness with criminality.
Moreover, the Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles Black Lives Matter chapters’
ability to function as a discursive structure, one that also operates as a new source,
allows the chapters to define their own images, engage in a horizontal deliberative
process, and interrupt traditional news media’s historical function as gatekeepers
between the public and social movements (Owens & Palmer, 2003).
Furthermore, the discursive structure’s ability to allow alternative ideologies to
circulate enhances the “emancipatory potential” (Fraser, 1990, p. 68) of Black Lives
Matter’s discursive structure. Fraser’s argument that the Internet has disrupted the
traditional flow of information supports our argument. Social media allow activists to
control the flow of information and represent themselves in a way that contradicts
mainstream news discourses and creates the opportunity for social change.
Moreover, Owens and Palmer’s (2003) argument that social networking sites allow
social movements to define their own images also supports our findings.
Significance of Findings
The findings of this study are significant for a number of reasons. The first is that our
study expands upon the body of research, which suggests that activists’ use of social
media has a potential for a positive impact on social movements. This study fills a
gap in the literature highlighted by Comunello and Anzera (2012), who argued that
there is a need for additional research to clarify the impact of social networking sites
on social movements. Moreover, Langford and Speight (2015) contended that there
is a need for studies that detail the way social movements can challenge derogatory
stereotypes of Black individuals, such as the Black criminality stereotype. This study
expands the limited body of research on the Black Lives Matter movement, and more
specifically, the way the contemporary movement uses social media to create the
opportunity to challenge stereotypes and alter the systemic power imbalances in
American society.
Brock (2012) argued that Black Twitter is an understudied public. This study
investigates a particular public within Black Twitter and expands on Brock’s
argument: understanding the Chicago, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis Black Lives
Matter Twitter pages as a discursive structure through which the chapters develop a
shared way of talking about the movement and produce and socially share
knowledge (Brock, 2012; Satchel, 2016). Our study’s significance increases as the
dangers of priming, othering, and stereotyping increase with growing media
fragmentation. Nonetheless, by showing how these Black Lives Matter chapters are
a discursive structure that could influence mainstream news discourses and counter
the Black criminality stereotype, this study offers a new way of understanding the
potential influence of media segmentation, alternative discursive structures, and the
impact of social movements. We hope our study makes people rethink how
stereotyping functions, question how mainstream news media represents Black
people and other marginalized groups, and imagine how technologies may assist in
challenging common assumptions (and perhaps, the status quo).
Using a ground-up process of reasoning, we conclude that Black Lives Matter’s
discourse as well as their discursive structure is valid. We determined this by
considering how well a tweet’s comprehensibility, truth, legitimacy, and sincerity fulfill
Habermas’s criterion of communicative action. The validity of the Black Lives Matter
discourse creates original meaning and knowledge about Black people. As we
demonstrated, the tweets were comprehensible, by using a shared language, and
are intelligible by contemporary, Black audiences targeted for mobilization. The
discourse is truthful, as the activists used photos, videos, and news articles to
provide evidence for their arguments. Moreover, the discourse was legitimate and
sincere, as it represented the interests of Black Lives Matter activists and supporters
and used figurative language that promotes the reader’s understanding and the
consistency of the discourse.
Limitations
The most notable limitation of this study is that we did not have an exact
methodological blueprint to replicate because little previous research uses critical
discourse analysis on newer technologies, such as Twitter or other social media
networks. As a result, expanding critical discourse analysis to include the study of
social media avails the discipline of opportunities for debate and development:
Shirazi’s (2013) method to increase our study’s validity and reliability despite our
unique approach to the critical discourse analysis of social media. Accompanying
studies also helped us better understand how and when rhetoric on social
networking sites such as Twitter constitute a discursive structure that can create the
opportunity for discursive change.
Suggestions for Future Research
Subsequent studies should include more Black Lives Matter chapters and additional
social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram; and responses of targeted
audiences warrant examination. Future studies may also examine how the Black
Lives Matter discursive structure specifically challenges the Black criminality
stereotype and other pejorative stereotypes. Longitudinal studies wherein
researchers can explore longer time frames may result in more extensive
conclusions about how the discursive structure functions. Moreover, performing
comparative analyses on mainstream news discursive structures as well as the
Black Lives Matter discursive structure may offer new insights that future social
movements can utilize. If subsequent studies explore specific strategies of the Black
Lives Matter movement chapters (or those of other movements), then activists can
develop and employ more effective tactics to influence policing practices, public
opinion, public policy, and perhaps even mainstream news discursive structures.
Conclusion
Black lives matter. The Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Chicago chapters’ use of
Twitter emphasizes this fact in challenging political, social, and media practices that
often appear to trivialize Black life (and death). Criminalizing, infantilizing,
sexualizing, essentializing, and othering Black people as stereotypes lead to their
dehumanization. In other words, their lives matter less than their counterparts, if at
all, when those representations go unchecked or unchallenged. By challenging these
tactics through humanizing aesthetics depicting Black people’s beauty, pain, love,
and brilliance, the movement is helping media audiences think about Black people in
a new way.
Black Lives Matter chapters’ Twitter discourse challenges the status quo that
teaches that blackness is always bad, dirty, and negative. The counter discourse
calls for a change in the way all Americans and citizens of other countries perceive
and treat Black people. The murdering and maiming of innocent Black children,
women, and men should elicit the same compassion and mourning that compels
change in public opinion and public policy when the victims are European
descendants. Journalists and their audiences can look to the discursive structure
that the movements for Black lives offer for novel representations of Black people
that trigger new questions and media frames. Ultimately, the Black Lives Matter
movement’s Twitter discourse functions as a counter-hegemonic force that creates
counter-narratives for challenging media homogeneity on the value of Black life.
Let’s imagine how the world would be if Black life mattered more than property. Sure,
this idea raises many historical issues resulting from the Western chattelization of
Black people as merely the enslaved property of Whites or, at best, three-fifths of a
White person. Beyond the hyperbolic, we conclude that the chapters focus
adamantly on humanizing African descendants because in reality, today and
historically, police often kill Black people alleged to participate in property crimes
rather than apprehend and afford them the fair trial constitutionally guaranteed to
American citizens. In effect, this means that the property is valued higher than their
Black lives.
US history and laws confirm our speculation. In what legal scholars widely regard,
“the worst Supreme Court opinion ever” (Magnusson, 2007), Chief Justice Roger
Taney, on March 6, 1857, wrote in the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford decision in
abjectly racist language:
African Americans] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of
an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social
or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man
was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to
slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of
merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it.
So, what if society could break from such a barbaric pathological orientation? What if
our laws and law enforcement actually valued people of African descent as human?
This is the radical imagination to which the movements for Black life call us. If we
lived in a country where the media did not perpetuate the idea that Black people are
merely property or dangerous criminals, then perhaps Emmitt Till, Trayvon Martin,
Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and so many others would still be alive.
Perhaps Black women, like Charleena Lyles in Seattle, who were pregnant when
killed by police, could birth, love, and raise their children. Perhaps, women
experiencing mental health crises, like Shukri Ali in Georgia and Deborah Danner in
New York, could actually get the help they needed. Maybe those hanging out with
friends, like Rekia Boyd in Chicago, or merely taken a wrong turn while driving, like
Miriam Carey in Washington, DC, Sandra Bland in Texas, and Mya Hall in Maryland,
would live to see another day. Imagine what life would be like for little Black girls, like
Aiyana Stanley-Jones in Detroit, or, in Los Angeles, young adults like Kisha Michael,
a single mother of three sons, and Marquintan Sandlin, a single father of four
daughters, who were doing nothing more than sleeping when killed by police.
Mainstream media outlets hardly covered most of these deaths, which punctuates
the fact that Black lives do not matter for far too many journalists, editors, news
directors, and content creators.
This study matters because Black lives matter. As long as we live in a country where
the police unfairly target Black people, citizens will fight to change the way the news
media represent Black people. This fight is crucial because the devaluation of and
assaults on Black lives in the United States perpetuate “genocide against Black
people” (Garza, 2014) that began in epistemological justifications for slavery. In spite
of this, the Black Lives Matter movement operates from a place of hope in a country
where many have lost faith. This is not an issue limited to Black people, because as
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Many of our white brothers [and sisters] … have
come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and they have come to
realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom” (King, 1963). Garza
(2014), a founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, echoed Dr. King’s sentiment:
“When black people get free, everybody gets free” (p. 3). All people have a vital
stake in making Black lives matter. By creating a space to challenge stereotypical
representations and affirm Black joy, love, and humanity, this movement continues
the prodigious legacy of the abolitionist, civil rights, and human rights movements
that came before it; and as such, the movement for Black lives moves the world one
step closer to realizing the dream of freedom and justice for all people.
References
Abdullah, M. [DocMellyMel]. (2015a, December 22). We’re dreaming of & working for
a #BlackXmas! In the names of #EzellFord #RedelJones #BrotherAfrica
#KendrecMcDade #MeaganHockaday… [Tweet]. Retrieved from

We're dreaming of & working for a #BlackXmas! In the names of #EzellFord #RedelJones #BrotherAfrica #KendrecMcDade #MeaganHockaday…

— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) December 22, 2015

Abdullah, M. [DocMellyMel]. (2015b, December 29). These fools really tried to block
our ability to raise funds! But our CrowdRise is back up! Please contribute:
https://t.co/L0l4qXdNcZ [Tweet]. Retrieved from

These fools really tried to block our ability to raise funds! But our CrowdRise is back up! Please contribute: https://t.co/L0l4qXdNcZ

— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) December 29, 2015

Bailey, J., & Leonard, D. J. (2015). Black lives matter: Post-nihilistic freedom dreams.
Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 5(3–4), 67–77.
Black Lives Matter statement no business as usual: Black Xmas is here. (2015).
Retrieved from
http://blacklivesmatter.com/black-lives-matter-statement-no-business-as-usual-blackxmas-is-here/
#BlackLivesMatter-LA [BLMLA]. (2015a, December 3). We will not forget
#AlesiaThomas. https://t.co/aCuyUVgjjC [Tweet]. Retrieved from
https://twitter.com/BLMLA/status/672449601438265344″>https://t.co/aCuyUVgjjC
[Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/BLMLA/status/672449601438265344
#BlackLivesMatter-LA [BLMLA]. (2015c, December 24). “We are no longer dying in,
we are rising up.” @DocMellyMel Stand with us, and call on Sheriff Jim McDonell to
release #BlackXMas activists [Tweet]. Retrieved from

“We are no longer dying in, we are rising up.” @DocMellyMel Stand with us, and call on Sheriff Jim McDonell to release #BlackXMas activists

— #BlackLivesMatter-LA (@BLMLA) December 24, 2015

Black Lives MPLS [BlackLivesMpls]. (2015a, December 1). Protestors led by clergy
have taken over city hall to demand an end to the #taleof2cities and #justice4jamar
https://t.co/j9n9zgxCGY [Tweet]. Retrieved from

Protestors led by clergy have taken over city hall to demand an end to the #taleof2cities and #justice4jamar pic.twitter.com/j9n9zgxCGY

— Black Visions (@BlackVisionsMN) December 1, 2015

Black Lives MPLS [BlackLivesMpls]. (2015b, December 1). Reminder: We are on
high alert for a raid on #4thPrecinctShutDown by @MayorHodges. Make sure to text
@blacklives to 23559 for raid alerts. [Tweet]. Retrieved from

Reminder: We are on high alert for a raid on #4thPrecinctShutDown by @MayorHodges. Make sure to text @blacklives to 23559 for raid alerts.

— Black Visions (@BlackVisionsMN) December 1, 2015

Black Lives MPLS [BlackLivesMpls]. (2015d, December 10). Over 100 packed the
#blongnbetsysfortress budget hearing on 2 hours notice. Our democracy will not be
subverted. https://t.co/ugq4muCfyv [Tweet]. Retrieved from

Over 100 packed the #blongnbetsysfortress budget hearing on 2 hours notice. Our democracy will not be subverted. pic.twitter.com/ugq4muCfyv

— Black Visions (@BlackVisionsMN) December 10, 2015

Black Lives MPLS [BlackLivesMpls]. (2015g, December 23). @Reuters This
headline is very misleading. We did not disperse the mall because police broke up
the protest. It was pre-planned [Tweet]. Retrieved from

@Reuters This headline is very misleading. We did not disperse the mall because police broke up the protest. It was pre-planned.

— Black Visions (@BlackVisionsMN) December 23, 2015

Black Lives MPLS [BlackLivesMpls]. (2015i, December 29). Take note, trolls. | Man
fired after posting racist comment to BLM Facebook. CBS Minnesota
https://t.co/o8xiUh3Wi0 #BlackXmas [Tweet]. Retrieved from

Take note, trolls. | Man Fired After Posting Racist Comment To BLM Facebook « CBS Minnesota https://t.co/o8xiUh3Wi0 #BlackXmas

— Black Visions (@BlackVisionsMN) December 29, 2015

BLMChicago [BLMChi]. (2015c, December 7). Johnson’s mom Dorothy Holmes is
now speaking. Watch live: https://t.co/pFQxTRukvG [Tweet]. Retrieved from

Johnson's mom Dorothy Holmes is now speaking. Watch live: https://t.co/pFQxTRukvG

— BLMChicago (@BLMChi) December 7, 2015

BLMChicago [BLMChi]. (2015d, December 7). Show up tonight at 6:30 at 53rd and
King Drive, the site of Ronald Johnson’s killing. #NoJusticeNoPeace
#Justice4Ronnieman #Alvarezgottago [Tweet]. Retrieved from

Show up tonight at 6:30 at 53rd and King Drive, the site of Ronald Johnson's killing.#NoJusticeNoPeace#Justice4Ronnieman#Alvarezgottago

— BLMChicago (@BLMChi) December 7, 2015

BLMChicago [BLMChi]. (2015e, December 7). States Attny assistant said the 911
calls help explain why Hernandez believed #Ronnieman had a gun. Again, this is
irrelevant.He had no gun! [Tweet]. Retrieved from

States Attny assistant said the 911 calls help explain why Hernandez believed #Ronnieman had a gun. Again, this is irrelevant.He had no gun!

— BLMChicago (@BLMChi) December 7, 2015

BLMChicago [BLMChi]. (2015f, December 7). State’s Attny says a mythical struggle
occurred but of course is not captured on video. So we are supposed to just take
them at their word [Tweet]. Retrieved from

State's Attny says a mythical struggle occurred but of course is not captured on video. So we are supposed to just take them at their word.

— BLMChicago (@BLMChi) December 7, 2015

BLMChicago [BLMChi]. (2015g, December 7). Watching Anita Alvarez lie about
#Ronnieman. A DOJ investigation means nothing if killer cops continue to go free.
#Justice4Ronnieman [Tweet]. Retrieved from

Watching Anita Alvarez lie about #Ronnieman. A DOJ investigation means nothing if killer cops continue to go free. #Justice4Ronnieman

— BLMChicago (@BLMChi) December 7, 2015

BLMChicago [BLMChi]. (2015i, December 9). Protesters now chanting
#RahmResign marching north on Clark Street. https://t.co/rEnajkWdQD [Tweet].
Retrieved from https://twitter.com/BLMChi/status/674662466048028674
Botelho, G. (2012, May 23). What happened the night Trayvon Martin died. CNN.
Retrieved from www.cnn.com/2012/05/18/justice/florida-teen-shooting-details/
Botelho, G., & Yan, H. (2013, July 24). George Zimmerman found not guilty of
murder in Trayvon Martin’s death. CNN. Retrieved from
www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-trial/
Clark, R. (2016). “Hope in a hashtag”: The discursive activism of #WhyIStayed.
Feminist Media Studies, 16(5), 788–804. doi:10.1080/14680777.2016.1138335
Comunello, F., & Anzera, G. (2012). Will the revolution be tweeted? A conceptual
framework for understanding the social media and the Arab Spring. Islam and
Christian—Muslim Relations, 23(4), 453–470.
Del Felice, C. (2014). Power in discursive practices: The case of the STOP EPAs
campaign. European Journal of International Relations, 20(1), 145–167.
Ferguson protests: What we know about Michael Brown’s last minutes. (2014,
November 25). BBC. Retrieved from www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28841715
Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of
actually existing democracy. Social text, (25–26), 56–80.
Gabriel, D. (2016). Blogging while Black, British and female: A critical study on
discursive activism. Information, Communication & Society, 19(11), 1622–1635.
Gamson, W. A. (1989). News as framing: Comments on Graber. American
Behavioral Scientist, 33, 157–166.
Garza, A. (2014, October 7). A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.
Retrieved from http://thefeministwire.com/2014/10/blacklivesmatter-2/
Langford, C. L., & Speight, M. (2015). #BlackLivesMatter: Epistemic positioning,
challenges, and possibilities. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 5(3–4), 78–89.
Lievrouw, L. A. (2011). Alternative and Activist New Media. Cambridge, UK: Polity
Press.
Magnusson, M. (March 19, 2007). No Rights Which the White Man Was Bound to
Respect. American Constitution Society. Retrieved from
www.acslaw.org/acsblog/no-rights-which-the-white-man-was-bound-to-respect/
Miller, K. (2005). Communication Theories: Perspectives, Processes, and Contexts
(2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Molaei, H. (2015). Discursive opportunity structure and the contribution of social
media to the success of social movements in Indonesia. Information, Communication
& Society, 18(1), 94–108.
Owens, L., & Palmer, K. (2003). Making the news: Anarchist counter-public relations
on the world wide web. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 20(4), 335–361.
doi:10.1080/0739318032000142007
Pearse, M. (2015, December 24). Just before Christmas, Black Lives Matter protests
roil cities across the U.S. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from
www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-black-lives-matter-20151225-story.html
Satchel, R. M. (2016). What Movies Teach About Race: Exceptionalism, Erasure,
and Entitlement. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Shirazi, F. (2013). Social media and the social movements in the Middle East and
North Africa: A critical discourse analysis. Information Technology & People, 26(1),
28–49. doi:10.1108/09593841311307123
Toft, A. (2014). Contesting the deviant other: Discursive strategies for the production
on homeless subjectivities. Discourse & Society, 25(6), 783–809.
doi:10.1177/0957926514536839
van Dijk, T. A. (1983). Discourse analysis: Its development and application to the
structure of news. Journal of Communication, 33(2), 20–43.