Hashtags in online meaning making and political participation – the perceived advantages of hashtags in the fight against gender discrimination and other activism (original) (raw)
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Digital Methods for hashtag engagement research
This article seeks to contribute to the field of digital research by critically accounting for the relationship between hashtags and their forms of grammatization—the platform techno-materialization process of online activity. We approach hashtags as sociotechnical formations that serve social media research not only as criteria in corpus selection but also displaying the complexity of the online engagement and its entanglement with the technicity of web platforms. Therefore, the study of hashtag engagement requires a grasping of the functioning of the platform itself (technicity) along with the platform grammatization. In this respect, we propose the three-layered (3L) perspective for addressing hashtag engagement. The first contemplates potential differences between high-visibility and ordinary hashtag usage culture, its related actors, and content. The second focuses on hashtagging activity and the repurposing of how hashtags can be differently embedded into social media databases. The last layer looks particularly into the images and texts to which hashtags are brought to relation. To operationalize the 3L framework, we draw on the case of the “impeachment-cum-coup” of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. When cross-read, the three layers add value to one another, providing also difference visions of the high-visibility and ordinary groups.
Advocacy and Political Potential at The Convergence of Hashtag Activism and Commerce
Feminist Media Studies, 2014
On Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, the other f-word appears to be in the middle of a resurgence. In September 2014, Emma Watson spoke at the UN and kicked off the #HeForShe campaign on social media, which explains why men need to become feminists and advocate for women's rights just as much as their female counterparts. Popular YouTube clips show Beyonce, Jennifer Lawrence, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Aziz Ansari specifically embracing the term to define feminism as a belief in gender equality. Examples abound because in our contemporary, technologically mediated society, messages about feminism are frequently delivered in the form of hashtags, memes, and video clips via social media sites. In this brief article, I discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of feminist hashtag activism, with an emphasis on the convergence of advocacy and commerce. The reach of social media makes it a potentially valuable tool for feminist activists. An online space allows for "intertextuality, or cross-reference between social context, public events and developments, and the political scene" (Barbara Warnick and David S. Heineman 2012, ix). Hashtags in particular continue the conversation beyond the originating dialogue by creating an identifier or tag for fellow activists, as well as a way to track multiple uses of the same phrase. For example, the hashtag campaign, #NotBuyingIt, was started by the RepresentationProject.org (2014), "to call-out sexism in the media." When a Twitter user sees sexism or gender stereotypes in the media, they tweet about it using the #NotBuyingIt hashtag. In this way, the activist's hashtag works as a cue in the public sphere to "continually predicate renewed attention" (Michael Warner 2002, 61) for messages of social justice. This potential for a more expansive reach of communication is a positive attribute of the hashtag for social advocates. One prominent example of commerce-led hashtag activism is Gap Inc.'s, #LetsDoMore campaign. In a society where women continue to earn 0.77forevery0.77 for every 0.77forevery1 a man makes, it is important that companies recognize the power and responsibility they have to close the pay gap, and the campaign by Gap Inc. reminds us to do more. All Gap Inc. employees are paid the same wages based on the work they do, regardless of gender (Clare O'Connor 2014). 1 Via their social media sites, Gap Inc. has also championed the #HeForShe campaign, spotlighting the complimentary messages between Watson's campaign and #LetsDoMore. Hashtag activism is a potentially beneficial method for increasing awareness
Coming Together Around Hashtags: Exploring the Formation of Digital Emergent Citizen Groups
The Journal of Public Interest Communications
It has been well established that during and after crisis or emergency events, groups of citizens come together to help one another, solve problems, and manage recovery or cleanup. These groups are called emergent citizen groups. They form organically and often disband when the emergency is managed. This study proposes that similar types of groups now form in digital spaces during and after crises. The authors studied conversation on Twitter that used the hashtag “#PrayforUSC” after the murder-suicide that took place at the University of South Carolina in 2015. Initial results indicate that hashtags can function as focal points or catalysts for digital emergent citizen groups. More research should be done to determine whether and how these groups form, function, and disperse.
Digital Activism and Democracy: An Analysis of Select Hashtags on Twitter (2016-2020)
Communicator (ISSN: 0588-8093), 2021
This study tries to analyze the popular narratives, created and sustained via hashtags, on social media platforms, including those related to online activism. It looks at how digital activism has shaped up in India over the last few years. It analyzes tweets and hashtag trends of the last five years to understand people's engagement with the Twitter as a site of 'New Public Sphere'. It delves into the theory to understand the phenomenon of digital activism and hashtags. It looks at, if participation of people in digital activism has increased over the years and what were the major issues that people engaged with in 2020.
#AdvocatingForChange: The Strategic Use of Hashtags in Social Media Advocacy
Social media continues to change how advocacy organizations mobilize, educate, and connect with their constituents. One of the most unique yet understudied tools available on social media platforms is the hashtag. Little research exists on how social work and advocacy organizations use hashtags, much less on how such use can be effective. This study examines the hashtag use by 105 constituent members of the National Health Council, a national US-based patient/health advocacy coalition. The study presents an inductive coding scheme of the types of hashtags employed, analyzes inter-sectoral differences in hashtag usage, and examines the relationship between hashtag use and measures of the effectiveness of social media messages.
MedieKultur. Journal of Media and Communication Research 30 (56) - http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/mediekultur/article/view/8951/15174
Published version available free at http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/mediekultur/article/view/8951/15174 "As research has indicated that what is sometimes described as traditional forms of politicalparliamentary participation are dwindling in most western democracies, the role of the Internet has often been pointed to as harboring the means to hinder these developments. While empirical studies on these matters have at best provided mixed results, social media services, like Twitter, has yet again fanned the flames of the most enthusiastic debaters. This paper moves beyond the often-studied context of parliamentary elections and instead offers a structural study of everyday political discussions on Twitter. Specifically, tweets from political contexts in Sweden and Norway are collected and analyzed with a specific focus on the top users and their activities. Results indicate that while thematic Twitter discussion can indeed serve as a potential channel for citizens, the influence of established as well as political extremist actors is also clearly discerned."
Feminist Online Identity: Analyzing the Presence of Hashtag Feminism
Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2014
Available Online July 2014 In theory, the concept of hashtag feminism has created a virtual space where victims of inequality can coexist together in a space that acknowledges their pain, narrative, and isolation. As social scientists Susan Herring, Kirk Job-Sluder, Rebecca Scheckles, & Sasha Barab (2002) state, these properties make online forums appeal favorable to vulnerable populations seeking support from 'disease or abuse, and to members of minority, social and political groups such as homosexuals, racial minorities, and feminists' (p. 371). However, in identifying online communities such as Twitter and Facebook as safe spaces for expressing feminism views and politics, its ramifications present dire consequences which lead to online harassment, hate speech, disagreements, and a miscommunication in rhetoric. It is with these consequences that the academic discourse becomes lost in transmitting the message of what feminism is and how feminists are identified. Using the ongoing debate that feminism does not acknowledge real life experience outside of the academic terrain, this paper explores how hashtag feminists identify in redefining feminism in their generation. Using the public platform of Twitter and Facebook (less specifically), this paper will explore the online following of women who identify as hashtag feminists and how their dialogue has set the tone for the era of internet activism.
Communication Through Hashtags in Social Movements: A Systematic Literature Review
Journal of World Science
The hashtag #MeToo was launched by activist Tarana Burke in 2006 to create "empowerment through empathy," expressed on Twitter in response to various allegations of sexual harassment. The use of hashtags in social movements is an approach to initiate connecting actions. This research aimed to examine the development and interconnectedness of communication through hashtags in social movements. The methodology employed was a literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines across sixty selected journals. The findings of this study indicate that hashtags have become a significant means of communication in various social movements, discussing a wide range of topics and fields. The research from 60 selected journals emphasizes the crucial role of hashtags in modern social movements, enabling communication and expression on social media platforms. Hashtags empower support, protests, and discussions on various s...
2020
In recent years hashtag studies have increased their numbers. The role of hashtags becomes increasingly predominant in social media studies. Many researchers wonder how to study them, ending up treating them in an aggregate way and turning to big data and static-mathematical modeling. This type of studies seem to consider hashtags as tools, favoring a single analysis perspective. In fact, The studies and the research carried out in the field of social media deal with what users do with hashtags. This paper wishes to propose a different perspective. The question raised here is not "what users do with hashtags," but "what they do to hashtags." This theoretical approach presupposes a change in the perspective based on the reading of hashtags as speech acts, which impacts the construction of social reality and identifies hashtags as cultural products. This interpretative path of cultural nature seems to be necessary in order to be able to look at the hashtag as a concept that changes its meaning through human interaction. The consequence of inserting this perspective is that the hashtag becomes a multidimensional concept, which in order to be analyzed must be decomposed and analyzed in all its possible dimensions. If the aim of the research is to reconstruct the sense and meaning of the hashtag.