Narrating Authority: A Comparative Analysis of Police Twitter use During the 2020-2021 Social Justice Protests

• In Event: Social Media and Public Image Construction

Abstract

This exploratory research builds on previous work that examines Twitter (now X) use by police during the 2020-21 social justice protests. This work provides a comparative analysis of Tweets from eight mid-sized, police departments that experienced multiple nights of protests involving significant police presence. This work also examines and pushes forward the study of police social media use as a tool to both manage their public facing identity and institutional legitimacy. Qualitative content analysis (Altheide & Schneider 2012) was used to identify and thematically categorize (N=140) protest-related tweets from police departments. Comments posted to police twitter pages were also thematically analyzed. Applying Denef et al.’s (2013) categorization, nearly all protest-related police tweets were instrumental, using largely formal and authoritative language that acted to inform, threaten, and thank viewers. Tweets communicated threats and consequences of potential rule violations as well as support for general equality principles and non-violent protest. Drawing from these results and the extant literature, we argue police protest-related Tweets function to attempt to take narrative control of events, broadly uphold police authority and legitimacy, justify police behavior occurring during protests, and further delineate the limits “acceptable” protest.

Author

• Ophir Sefiha, Western Carolina University