BLM presentation

Card 7

A potential solution is to create a connection with the offline and online world. Digital activism cannot replace real-world activism but together they can complete each other. Social media is useful for spreading a message and keeping a conversation alive. When added to real-world protest, BLM could grow much stronger. This also means creating a stronger base of supporters who will be activists both on and offline.

Card 5

With social media, activism has had major shifts. Edward Kessler explains in Social Media and the Movement of Ideas, that there are many disadvantages to pushing movements primarily online.

card 13

With the use of social media as a main news source for Black Lives Matter, the issue of the spread of false information has become a major concern. Edward Kessler explains user-generated content also make it easier for misinformation and negative content to proliferate online.

Card 4

A Letter from Birmingham Jail provides insight into the hard work and meticulous steps used by Martin Luther King to prepare people for protests.

Card 9

As you can see in the graph, in the years 1994 and 2004 social media had yet to be introduced and the split of political ideas was small. Opposed to what is shown in the year 2014 where online activism was fully in motion the divide of opinions in the US grew.

card 11

It became clear to the researchers that ALM was trying to adopt the hashtag of BLM in order to inject their ideological beliefs. With further analysis of the sources, it can be seen that ALM was created to purposely oppose the original BLM movement.

Card 3

This represents a major shift from earlier Civil Rights movements. These early movements orchestrated carefully planned protests through meetings, letters, flyers and other physical communication.

card 14

One aspect of social media activism is that it is easier to find a website that supports your way of thinking, no matter how extreme it is.

Card 2

Since the first tweet in 2013, #BLM has been used over 30 million times

Card 10

The Black Lives Matter movement is no exception to polarization which is seen in All Lives Matter. A recent study that randomly selected tweets that included the hashtags Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter found these groups to be oppositional in their views.

Card 1

The Black Lives Matter movement was started with a tweet. It was posted by Alicia Garza, who tweeted out against the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teenager shot by a fake security guard in Florida. From this tweet #BlackLivesMatter began.

Card 8

The first issue caused by social media is a highly polarized political environment and there is a creation of "echo chambers". Echo chambers are patterns of information sharing that reinforce beliefs by limiting exposure to opposing political views. With many people now listing social media as their primary news source, getting a variety of opinions and different perspectives have become alarmingly small.

card 15

The issue of false information coincides with polarization. This link is due to the fact that users want self-confirmation, even if the information they are using to do so is false or just a rumor.

Card

The question we must ask is Has the use of social media activism prevented BLM from achieving real change? Answering this question requires that we study how the supporters of the organization are changing and how the organization's leaders and social media sites are handling this shift.