Black Lives Matter: Protesting in the hybrid media system

 the pandemic, activists joined together to protest against police brutality in light of the death of George Floyd, online and offline. It is exactly this online activism that shows us both the merits and downsides of the hybrid media system. What is the hybrid media system and how did it benefit last summer’s protests?

Social media is part of the hybrid media system (Chadwick et al., 2016). This system allows organisations, groups and individuals to connect with one andother, albeit through a complex relationship. It has the advantage that information can be shared quickly yet makes it virtually impossible to completely control online spaces, such as Twitter and Instagram (Thompson, 2020). We do not control who sees our tweet, so in a sense, there are multiple audiences to account for.

In the case of Black Lives Matter, it is more than just a hashtag but also a call-to-action, leading to protests as well as offline. Although we have no control over who sees what we post, mediated online interaction allows users to bypass any framing done by mainstream media (Thompson, 2020). Mediated online interaction is created by computer-mediated communication, such as a smartphone or a laptop. What is key here is that this type of interaction goes two ways: from and to the receiver and “broadcaster”. An example would be Twitter, yet the relationship between different users and how they can and will interact differs per media platform.

Research would suggest that online activism can be more persuasive than simply engaging with the public offline. Modern activism has the potential to provide an unimaginable reach and has the benefit that there is a sense of intimacy and personalisation. In other words, people may listen more to this information when it comes from a source they know and trust, such as a friend or relative (Bugeja, 2019). The downside is that social media has the potential for filter bubbles or echo chambers, which leads people to understand only part of the story.

During the summer of this year, all over the world, people joined together to raise awareness towards a problem that has been around for decades. “There have been years, decades, and centuries of state-justified and perpetuated violence against the Black community with police brutality and killing of innocent Black lives as an obvious example – at least to some of us.” (Chun, 2020) Activists decided that enough was enough when a man by the name of George Floyd was unfortunately killed when he was being arrested by policemen in the US. Within no time, videos and photos were shared of Floyd in his last moments in which he called out to his mother and was heard saying “I can’t breathe”. This was as police officers held him down on the ground.

Black Lives Matter: a worldwide call-to-action

The death of George Floyd caused worldwide outrage and was the catalyst to many Black Lives Matter protests. As Castells puts it, this type of activism is “usually triggered by a spark of indignation either related to a specific event or a peak of disgust with the actions of the rulers” (Castells, 2015). It was not just George Floyd but also the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery that sparked outrage amongst protesters. Throughout many protests, Instagram and Twitter were being utilised as the most important places to gather information about the cause but it would soon turn out this was less than ideal:

“The Black Lives Matter hashtag is being used on Instagram and Twitter to share footage from protests, links to organizations where people can donate money, and information and resources for people to either educate themselves or access help. It’s harder to get this out to people en masse if the feed is broken up with black squares.”

Blackout Tuesday started as an initiative, spearheaded by music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang (Gonzalez, 2020). “We will not continue to conduct business as usual without regard for Black lives. Tuesday, June 2, is meant to intentionally disrupt the workweek.” Artists such as Quincy Jones, urged others, presumably other musicians, to set aside their work for one day to reconnect with their community. Jones wrote: “Due to recent events please join us as we take an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change”. Brands, such as Spotify and Apple said they too would cease most operations that day, in light of everything that was going on after the death of George Floyd.

The problem here is not that people didn’t join the movement but rather that perhaps it gained a bit too much exposure. For one, the posts started showing up, not only under the Blackout Tuesday hashtag but also #BlackLivesMatter. Without meaning to, as the hashtag took over the Internet. Paradoxically, this meant that a 'data void was created' by providing too much 'empty content'. Where there should’ve been key information, there was only a black square. And not everyone who posted a black square was seemingly willing to do more than that.

“Visibility for different groups and activist projects are key right now."

Now of course, with Blackout Tuesday it is difficult to predict exactly why people posted about the hashtag or, more cynically, joined the bandwagon. “What began as a proposed day of reflection after the death of George Floyd morphed into something broader, leading some to complain that #BlackLivesMatter posts were being silenced.” (Coscarelli, 2020) In the case of Blackout Tuesday, a data void was created by the masses of people who decided to post the black square on their social media feeds. The affordance that both Twitter and Instagram have of being able to use hashtags to link to content, in this case, proved to be to the cause’s detriment.

Utilising hashtags on social media can be a helpful tool for protesters to find each otherbut of course, an online space is not mediated so anyone can add to the hashtag whenever they want. Although spreading the hashtag #blacklivesmatters was assumingly done with the best of intentions, in reality, the black squares slowly started to obscure relevant information that may help protesters, such as links to bail funds and posts that were trying to create awareness about Black victims of police brutality. “Visibility for different groups and activist projects are key right now. And one of the most common ways to keep track of all of this is by monitoring or searching tags.” (Willingham, 2020).

Black squares everywhere

The incredible amount of black squares all over social media led to many activists asking people to stop using the hashtag. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted an urgent message on her Instagram, asking her followers to delete the hashtags from their black square.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urging followers to remove the hashtags from their posts 2sao.vn

Writer Anthony James Williams also addressed anyone who would listen to stop posting content under the Black Lives Matter hashtag (though the account has since been deleted):

Anthony James Williams urges followers to stop posting the black squares kenh14.vn

Williams went on to say that a black square doesn’t do much for Black people in the first place. He urged people to donate or deliver resources instead. The effectiveness of online activism has long since been questioned. For instance, a reporter pointed out the common theme she encountered when she followed the protests in the US. Many  were in honour of George Floyd when the intention was to raise more awareness of the structural racism Black people face, especially when they come into contact with law enforcement. Fondren pointed out that other victims, such as Breonna Taylor had been forgotten.

“The march lasted about two hours, but it hit me about 20 minutes in that not a single chant had been created to honor the life of Breonna Taylor. In fact, it wasn’t until the tail end of the protest that her name was ever mentioned, and at that point, there was no enraged chant to commemorate her last words on earth like there had been for Floyd.” (Fondren, 2020) In the example of Fondren, we see that people only focused on George Floyd, which could be explained by the formerly mentioned filter bubbles.

The cost of online activism

Online activism, and the use of social media, may come at a cost. The Internet was once considered as a potential remedy for the decline in political participation (Christensen, 2011). Although social networks increase participation, they also lessen motivation, which results in “slacktivism”. Slacktivism is a derogatory term which refers to “the practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions, characterized as involving very little effort or no commitment” (Van der Veen, 2018). Of course, Black Lives Matter as a movementis not an example of slacktivism but rather  people that post the hashtags without much thought or helping in any other way.

We do not control who sees our tweet, so in a sense, there are multiple audiences to account for.

This ties in with the idea that simply posting the hashtag won’t benefit people as much as donating or delivering resources, as suggested by Williams. “The concept generally refers to activities that are easily performed, but they are considered more effective in making the participants feel good about themselves than to achieve the stated political goals (Morozov, 2009)” (Christensen, 2011). Christensen argues that slacktivism by itself can  awareness created information. He suggests that the problem is the lack of desire to do more, even though there is a intention to affect political goals.

AOC calling out the Washington Football Team yannews.vn

Besides slacktivism, there is also brand activism. “Brand Activism consists of business efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to promote or impede improvements in society.” (Sarkar & Kotler, 2018) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out the Washington Redskins, after they also shared a black square in support of Black Lives Matters. This led to the football team to finally change their name . This ties in with the idea that the hybrid media system approach has changed what it means to be politically engaged or what could be considered political participation (Chadwick et al., 2016).

Brand activism is an effective way to gain more exposure as a company, as a 2018 survey showed that 64% of consumers would reward a business that showed any type of activism. (Duarte, 2020) Aside from monetary gain, companies called out for their brand activism because adopting a hashtag while simultaneously having little to no black board members comes across as inauthentic. (Ritson, 2020) The suggestion here would then be that to make a difference, a company would have to go as far a change its entire infrastructure and make long-term plans for social inclusion and racial equality. (Duarte, 2020)

AOC is seen buying shoes, after an event. © commentsbycelebs

Besides monetary gain, it is also a question of power. “Even the most powerful must cooperate with those who are less powerful, in the pursuit of collective goals.” (Chadwick et al., 2016) A clear example of this is of course that the Washington Football Team had to change their name to something less culturally insensitive because they were . It could be argued that as a congresswoman, Cortez has more power than a football team. “Those who have the resources and expertise to intervene in the hybrid flows of political information are more able to be powerful.” (Chadwick et al., 2016) Cortez has something else that works in her favour. It is found that mediated online presence can lead followers to perceive a person as more authentic. (Thompson, 2020) This leads to people being more willing to accept what a person is saying. Cortez has made a point of showing herself as just another person, making her appear more personable. She has cleverly used her Instagram to not only share her political thoughts but also glimpses into her personal life.

Think before you tweet

The Black Lives Matter protests all across the world were certainly impressive, most of all due to how organisers managed to coordinate everything by utilising all the affordances of social media platforms such as Twitter. e can see that the hybrid media system allows for worldwide outrage to be turned into worldwide action Whether this means that  share their encounters of racism, useful resources to donate to those in need or use their platform to potentially change things for the better (e.g. Cortez vs. the Redskins).

Online activism has its merits in that it increases political participation but we have now also seen that it can result in an overload of information, such as what happened with Blackout Tuesday. It is virtually impossible to control online spaces such as Twitter and Instagram, so all we as users can do is listen to those in the know. A case such as Blackout Tuesday shows us the consequences of filter bubbles, brand activism and slacktivism. In all instances, it shows us that a lack of information can cause people to feel they are doing the right thing when in actuality they are doing quite the opposite.

Arguably, it is easier to press a retweet button than it is to go outside and join a protest. Or to change your company’s entire infrastructure. Continuing to share the necessary resources is a good place to start. #BlackLivesMatter perhaps already had the right information present but was overrun by good intentions.  If anything, what we can learn from #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackoutTuesday is that we should be careful what we tweet.

References

Bugeja, P. (2019). #BTM – Black Tweets Matter.

Castells, M. (2015). Networks of Outrage and Hope. In BMC Public Health (Vol. 5).

Chadwick, A., Dennis, J., Smith, A. P., Bruns, I. A., Enli, G., Skogerbø, E., … Christensen, C. (2016). Politics in the Age of Hybrid Media: Power, Systems, and Media Logics Andrew Chadwick, James Dennis, and Amy P. Smith * In Axel Bruns, Gunn Enli, Eli Skogerbø, Anders Olof Larsson, and Christian Christensen (eds) (2016).

Christensen, H. S. (2011). Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means? First Monday, 16.

Chun, C. (2020). Black Lives Matter and the right to protest? Diggit Magazine.

Coscarelli, J. (2020). #BlackoutTuesday: A Music Industry Protest Becomes a Social Media Moment. The New York Times.

Duarte, F. (2020). Black Lives Matter: Do companies really support the cause? BBC.

Fondren, P. (2020). The ‘Say Her Name’ Movement Started for a Reason: We Forget Black Women Killed by Police. Teen Vogue.

Gonzalez, S. (2020). Music industry leaders vow to pause business for a day in observation of Blackout Tuesday. CNN. Retrieved from

Ritson, M. (2020). If ‘Black Lives Matter’ to brands, where are your black board members? MarketingWeek. 

Sarkar, C., & Kotler, P. (2018). What is Brand Activism?A

Thompson, J. B. (2020). Mediated Interaction in the Digital Age. Theory, Culture and Society, 37, 3–28.

Van der Veen, E. (2018). AfD’s online movements: activism or slacktivism?

Willingham, A. (2020). Why posting a black image with the “Black Lives Matter” hashtag could be doing more harm than good. CNN.