On Thursdays We Watch Scandal: Communal Viewing and Black Twitter

• In Event: 283 - Regular Session. Collective Behavior: Modeling Participation and Action

Abstract

Social media, especially Twitter, disrupt traditional boundaries on interactions; blurring the distinction between public and private spheres and broadening the lines of communication between various cultures and subcultures. Trending topics give voice to those that have been otherwise unheard while simultaneously providing community. One of the most powerful and unified communities to emerge on social media is “Black Twitter.” Empirically, we know that African Americans use Twitter in higher proportions than other racial groups. Pew’s 2013 social media report found that one in four Twitter users is African American. Beyond demography, Black Twitter participants perform racial identity, mitigate identity claims, and challenge outsider groups’ perceptions of blackness. Not only does Black Twitter seem to have all of the makings of a community but it also produces significant discourse and organizes resistance both online and offline; much like black community organizers have done throughout black cultural history. Thus the aim of this paper is to contextualize Black Twitter as a community that engenders purposeful social action. Evaluating tweets, hashtags, and trends associated with the television show Scandal, I use a qualitative, grounded theory approach to analyze tweets from several thousand users who have interacted with Black Twitter. I also present portions of in-person interviews that were conducted in order to gain a better understanding of the way black users conceptualize Black Twitter. Finally, I will argue that as a meaningful community, Black Twitter has the capacity to cause impactful change both on- and offline.

Author

• Apryl A. Williams, Texas A&M University