Hashtag as Publics: Transnational Environmental Movement Twitter Framing Practices

• In Event: Media, Social Media, and Environmental Action

Abstract

Most research on social movement uses of the social media platform has examined large-scale movements. In the case of movements that do not reach a wider tipping point, I argue Twitter functions as a performative, identity-building space, more than a means to reach external audiences. I examine a two-week window into an environmental movement trying to gain traction in the public sphere, centered on a transnational day of action calling for a ban on the drilling technology hydraulic fracturing, Global Frackdown. Findings show that Global Frackdown tweeters engage in framing practices of: movement convergence and solidarity, declarative and targeted engagement, prefabricated messaging, and multilingual tweeting. The episodic, loosely-coordinated and often personalized, transnational framing practices of Global Frackdown tweeters support core organizers’ goal of promoting the globalness of activism to ban fracking.

Author

• Jill Elizabeth Hopke, U of Wisconsin-Madison