Mapping Public Opinion of Police Shootings: An Analysis of Tweets about Ferguson, MO

• In Event: Social Media's Role in Activism

Abstract

Social media is a powerful tool for expressing public opinion about criminal justice events and topics that potentially shape public policy, yet “big data” analyses have not made their way into mainstream criminal justice research. Sociospatial characteristics of four Twitter hashtags are analyzed during a one-month window from the day of the Mike Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, including #handsup, #dontshoot, #handsupdontshoot and #iftheygunnedmedown, as well as #fergusondecision for a week before and after the decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in order to understand how the digital world reflects current events. We conduct spatial analyses of the clustering of these tweets combined with Census data in order to gain insights into which communities are most engaged in discussions on this topic and, equally important, which are not. We discuss the challenges of analyzing big data related to criminal justice topics, but ultimately conclude social media is an important part of the contemporary lifeworld that should not be ignored by researchers despite methodological challenges.

Authors

• Janet P. Stamatel, University of Kentucky

• Amanda Bunting, University of Kentucky