How Black Twitter and other social media communities interact with mainstream news

Abstract

People have been forming communities using digital communication technologies since long before the web as we know it today. Social media are only the latest in a long series of digital forums that have enabled global conversations and connections around nearly any topic imaginable. With its emphasis on public accessibility and real-time content production, Twitter has become a major hub for communities of all types and sizes. The issues and voices of people of color and women have attracted much attention from professional journalists over the past few years. Yet many such individuals have criticized journalists’ portrayals and coverage of issues that are important to them. In response, some participants have assumed the role of news creators and distributors, focusing on their communities’ particular concerns. Understanding these emerging social subcultures will allow more accurate portrayals of diverse communities and yield insights for better journalistic engagement in the digital age.

Disinformation creep: ADOS and the strategic weapon-ization of breaking news

“…The leading users of the #ADOS hashtag come from Black American communities, and so, unlike foreign actors and out-group members, they are fluent in African American Vernacular English (Luu, 2020) and Black American culture (Freelon et al, 2018), and they personally understand the pain associated with living with structural racism and intergenerational trauma. But it is also a nativist and populist movement, putting a focus on immigrants for supposedly taking away scarce resources, rather than looking at power structures that allocate those resources in the first place.…”

Activism in the time of COVID-19

“…Because shelter-in-place orders limit social opportunities, the pandemic emphasizes how important social media is for people to find others who share similar views and emotional reactions. In their analysis of 44,620,175 tweets associated with the Black Lives Matter hashtag, Freelon et al (2018) show that single events of police brutality did not always lead to increased social media attention. Instead, it required different "influencers" and activists to post and signal the event's significance.…”

Women Tweet on Violence: From #YesAllWomen to #MeToo

“…The #YesAllWomen network and the others we examine herein are part of what has come to be known as 'Feminist Twitter' (Freelon et al 2018). Feminist Twitter is diverse, influenced heavily -like the hashtags we examine herein -by women of color.…”