THE HASHTAGS

BEYOND THE

HASHTAGS

DEEN FREELON CHARLTON D. MCILWAIN MEREDITH D. CLARK

About the authors: Deen Freelon is an assistant professor of communication at American University. Charlton D. McIlwain is an associate professor of media, culture and communication and Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity at New York University. Meredith D. Clark is an assistant professor of digital and print news at the University of North Texas.

Please send any questions or comments about this report to Deen Freelon at freelon@american.edu.

About the Center For Media & Social Impact: The Center for Media & Social Impact at American University's School of Communication, based in Washington, D.C., is an innovation lab and research center that creates, studies, and showcases media for social impact. Focusing on independent, documentary, entertainment and public media, the Center bridges boundaries between scholars, producers and communication practitioners across media production, media impact, public policy, and audience engagement. The Center produces resources for the field and academic research; convenes conferences and events; and works collaboratively to understand and design media that matters.

Internal photos: Philip Montgomery Graphic design and layout: openbox9

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the Spencer Foundation, without which this project would not have been possible. We also thank Ryan Blocher, Frank Franco, Cate Jackson, and Sedale McCall for transcribing participant interviews; David Proper and Kate Sheppard for copyediting; and Mitra Arthur, Caty Borum Chattoo, Brigid Maher, and Vincent Terlizzi for assisting with the report's web presence and PR.

The views expressed in this report are the authors' alone and are not necessarily shared by the Spencer Foundation or the Center for Media and Social Impact.

Creative Commons: BY-NC-SA

First published February 2016

5 SUMMARY

7 INTRODUCTION

13 #FERGUSON, #BLACKLIVESMATTER, AND ONLINE MEDIA

14

The Web

21

Twitter

36

TWITTER PERIOD 1: The Calm Before the Storm

37

TWITTER PERIOD 2: Eric Garner

42

TWITTER PERIOD 3: Michael Brown and the Birth of a Movement

50

TWITTER PERIOD 4: Ferguson's Aftermath

55

TWITTER PERIOD 5: Wilson's Non-Indictment

59

TWITTER PERIOD 6: Pantaleo's Non-Indictment

63

TWITTER PERIOD 7: Under the Radar, the Movement Expands

67

TWITTER PERIOD 8: Walter Scott

70

TWITTER PERIOD 9: Freddie Gray

74 CONCLUSIONS

75

The "Who": Voices, Victims, and Youth

78

The "What": Digital Tools and their Consequences

84

Closing remarks

85

APPENDIX A: Twitter methods

88

APPENDIX B: Hyperlink network analysis methods

92

APPENDIX C: Interview methods

Baltimore, Maryland - MAY 1, 2015 - Protesters march in support of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's announcement that charges would be filed against Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. Gray died in police custody after being arrested on April 12, 2015.

" "PHOTO: GETTYIMAGES/ANDREWBURTON SUMMARY

Getting something trending on Twitter means that people are talking, they are conscious. And that consciousness can lead to action.

--SHREE

SUMMARY

IN 2014, A DEDICATED ACTIVIST MOVEMENT--Black Lives Matter (BLM)--ignited an urgent national conversation about police killings of unarmed Black citizens. Online tools have been anecdotally credited as critical in this effort, but researchers are only beginning to evaluate this claim. This research report examines the movement's uses of online media in 2014 and 2015. To do so, we analyze three types of data: 40.8 million tweets, over 100,000 web links, and 40 interviews of BLM activists and allies. Most of the report is devoted to detailing our findings, which include: ?? Although the #Blacklivesmatter hashtag was created in July 2013, it was rarely used

through the summer of 2014 and did not come to signify a movement until the months after the Ferguson protests. ?? Social media posts by activists were essential in spreading Michael Brown's story nationally. ?? Protesters and their supporters were generally able to circulate their own narratives on Twitter without relying on mainstream news outlets. ?? There are six major communities that consistently discussed police brutality on Twitter in 2014 and 2015: Black Lives Matter, Anonymous/Bipartisan Report, Black Entertainers, Conservatives, Mainstream News, and Young Black Twitter. ?? The vast majority of the communities we observed supported justice for the victims and decisively denounced police brutality. ?? Black youth discussed police brutality frequently on Twitter, but in ways that differed substantially from how activists discussed it. ?? Evidence that activists succeeded in educating casual observers on Twitter came in two main forms: expressions of awe and disbelief at the violent police reactions to the Ferguson protests, and conservative admissions of police brutality in the Eric Garner and Walter Scott cases. ?? The primary goals of social media use among our interviewees were education, amplification of marginalized voices, and structural police reform. In our concluding section, we reflect on the practical importance and implications of our findings. We hope this report contributes to the specific conversation about how Black Lives Matter and related movements have used online tools as well as to broader conversations about the general capacity of such tools to facilitate social and political change.

5 / BEYOND THE HASHTAGS

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