Hope in a Hashtag


Clark writes about the #WhyIStayed movement and discusses how that movement has contributed to feminism discourse and feminism in social media. She also highlights other studies done about that she terms “hashtag feminism” and social media activism including:

Higgs, Eleanor T. 2015. “#JusticeforLiz: Power and Privilege in Digital Transnational Women’s Rights Activism.” Feminist Media Studies 15 (2): 344–347

Bennett, W. Lance, and Alexandra Segerberg. 2013. The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

‘Hottest 100 Women’: Cross-Platform Discursive Activism in Feminist Blogging Networks.” Australian Feminist Studies 27 (74): 373–387.

All these articles may also be of some use to the insights of my paper.

 However Clark’s study, which analyzed randomly selected #WhyIStayed tweets published between September 8 and September 30, 2014 using the Annenberg Twitter Project at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication is of particular relevance to the efficacy of hashtag activism. Of relevance to our discussion of legal advocacy organizations, Clark concludes that hashtag feminism is a form of social drama that creates a narrative that can drive political change. She further states that “The narrative approach used here highlights the political nature of discursive activist networks like the growing sphere of hashtag feminism by illustrating the conditions under which online interactions can initiate offline sociopolitical change.” Pg. 14.

Clark, Rosemary. “‘Hope in a Hashtag": the Discursive Activism of #WhyIStayed, Feminist Media Studies.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 16, no. 5, 2016, pp. 788–804., doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1138235.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advocacy Organizations in the US Political Process

Andrews and Edwards write in their literature review about advocacy organizations that about the role of networks in legal advocacy organizations. This scholarship is relevant to our understanding of how social media can impact legal advocacy organizations. “There is an inverse relationship between social homophily and networked access to resources whereby the like-attracts-like principle of homophily leads advocacy groups over time to develop more homogeneous memberships that leave them relatively isolated from the surrounding social structure. Network relations can also provide access to key resources needed to sustain advocacy (Lin 2001). Advocacy groups that choose to have organizational members formalize network ties and create institutionalized ties through which resources can be shared. Diverse organizational leaders or participants can provide connections beyond the advocacy organization, thus establishing weak ties that broaden the movement’s capacity (Ganz 2000
Read more

Twitter and Legal Activism in China

Benney quotes  Jonathan Zittrain at the beginning of his article: "The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what make it so powerful." In discussing his year (2009-2010) of quantitative and qualitative analysis of Twitter posts he states that he came to two conclusions: “One is that the Chinese language and the nature of the Chinese Internet make Twitter a substantially different method of communication in China  than it is in the West. The other is that Twitter has provided Chinese legal activists with new ways of disseminating their messages, and that these new forms of communication are broadening the scope of legal activism, both conceptually and geographically.” His discussion of how the Chinese language impacts twitter is interesting but superfluous to my analysis. However, his analysis of the impact of Twitter on legal activists work is incredibly interesting. Benny  makes the point that doing a full analysis of all Twitter
Read more