“You Don't Mess With Black Twitter!”: An Ubuntu Approach to Understanding “Militant” Twitter Discourse

Exploring the Virtual Culture of Reality Television Communities: Lessons From #Date My Family

“…The self is downplayed so that the community may flourish within this context. This pattern seems conversant with the moral ethic of "otherness" espoused in most African and Southern African societies known as Ubuntu (Mboti 2015;Metz 2007;Metz and Gaie 2010;Molefe and Ngcongo 2021;Sesanti 2010). The value of Ubuntu is usually summed up in the phrase "I am because you are," and is commonly associated with an emphasis on the communal taking precedence over the individual.…”

“…It is also important to note that these attitudes were more often harmonious than showing a tone of baseless and judgmental criticism. Thus, the virtual culture emphasizes harmony and positivity rather than the often cliché assumption that Twitter is overwhelmingly a toxic space (Molefe and Ngcongo 2021).…”

International Youth Movements for Climate Change: The #FridaysForFuture Case on Twitter

“…Twitter ranks fifteenth, with approximately 436 million users worldwide, but it is still considered the social network of political activism par excellence. Communication studies describe it as the network that democratizes political communication and makes the citizen agenda become the political agenda and the agenda of the media [19][20][21][22].…”

“…Hashtags allow this viralization and their author does not have to have a large community of followers to achieve penetration and engagement [27][28][29]. Twitter activism has also democratized and expanded the concept of opinion leaders, who can transmit information and messages that will influence others [21,30]. Similarly, Twitter and social networks include an important affective dimension, as their spaces allow for parasocial interaction with large-scale emotional contagion [31].…”