Framing Processes and Social Movements: Qualitative Analysis of #Ferguson on Twitter

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 23. Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

On August 9, 2014, Darren Wilson, a white police officer shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. This case is a pivotal event in the language used to discuss structural and individual racism. This project’s aim is to analyze the narratives people use to explain a privileged group member’s actions towards an outgroup member. In this case, Twitter provides a unique opportunity to discuss a person’s view on race and racism because people use it to post opinions they would not normally say in an interview. Twitter content discussing the case exemplifies the attitudes, ideas and patterns of how race is constructed and discussed. Content analysis will include an examination of the use of metaphors, analogies and connotations of words. The sample was restricted to the first 500 relevant tweets from the time of the shooting of Brown to August 9. Five themes emerged from the data which included: (1) criticism of the media, (2) comparison to historical events (3) reference to recent shootings of unarmed black men and women (4) remorse for the family and witnesses (5) statements that Brown would have gone on to college. The company Gnip provided the data. This analysis found hat users recognized the shooting of Brown by Wilson as part of systemic racism.

Author

• Josephine Nummi, Texas A&M University