Activating the past in the Ferguson protests: Memory work, digital activism and the politics of platforms

Abstract

This article analyzes the Facebook page Justice for Mike Brown—set up during the 2014 Ferguson protests—in order to rethink the role of memory work within contemporary digital activism. We argue that, as a particular type of discursive practice, memory work on the page bridged personal and collective action frames. This occurred in four overlapping ways. First, the page allowed for affective commemorative engagement that helped shape Brown’s public image. Second, Brown’s death was contextualized as part of systematic injustice against African Americans. Third, the past was used to legitimize present action, wherein the present was continually connected to the past and future. And fourth, particular discursive units became recognizable symbolic markers during the protests and for future recall. Based on this typology, we show that memory work, although multidirectional and in flux, is stabilized by the interactions between the page administrator, users, and Facebook’s operational logic.

The rhythms of social movement memories: the mobilization of Silvio Meier’s activist remembrance across platforms

“…More recently arrhythmic remembrance has been indicated by Meier's faltering remembrance on Facebook pages. The three Facebook pages connected to Meier reflect the fragmented mnemonic activity often associated with the platform as well as its importance to social movements as a dissemination and mobilization channel (see Cammaerts, 2015;Kavada, 2012;Smit, Heinrich, & Broersma, 2018). The first of these pages was launched in October 2011 and sought to spread awareness of the forthcoming demonstration.…”

Posttraumatic Stress Related to the Killing of Michael Brown and Resulting Civil Unrest in Ferguson, Missouri: Roles of Protest Engagement, Media Use, Race, and Resilience

“…These reactions may also result from exposure to images and video of the killing of Michael Brown and civil unrest in Ferguson. Social media may be a place where historical racism and current experiences meet, as coverage of real-time events interact with discussions of the past (Smit et al, 2017). Much more research in this area is needed, but our results indicate that protest engagement offline and online was associated with stress reactions to the events in Ferguson in important ways.…”

Repertoires of Remembering: A Conceptual Approach for Studying Memory Practices in the Digital Ecosystem

“…This requires new reflection on the ways these digital technologies are reshaping how we consider the past and what memory practices are in the new media landscape. Some scholars have turned a focus to the connectivity of digital, mobile, and social media networks, and their subsequent capacity for both sharing more experiences and creating more shared memories (Brockmeier, 2010; Crownshaw, Kilby, & Rowland, 2010; Erll, 2011; Frith & Kalin, 2016; Garde-Hansen, Hoskins, & Reading, 2009; Hoskins, 2009; Sá, 2009; Sommer, 2012).…”

“…Nonetheless, any interaction with the same digital content among networked users poses the potential for collective remembering of those activities and experiences because they are being shared across a multiplicity of screens, devices, social platforms, and networks. People can thus use these digital interfaces and multimodal platforms to document and distribute their digitally shared pasts in ways that position the networked public as participatory producers of meaning in the construction of collective memory, which presents a whole new ecology of memory practice (Hoskins, 2015; Schwarz, 2014; Smit, Heinrich, & Broersma, 2017; Sommer, 2012).…”