Hijacking #myNYPD: Social Media Dissent and Networked Publics

• In Event: Public Spheres Concepts in Social Media Contexts

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the hijacking of the Twitter hashtag #myNYPD. Using counterpublic sphere theory as a guiding framework, we examine how Twitter was used as a platform to organize, generate, and promote counterpublic narratives about racial profiling, police misconduct and police violence. Through a combination of large-scale network analysis and qualitative discourse analysis, we offer insight on emergent counterpublic structure and leadership, the specific discursive strategies deployed by crowdsourced elites within communities of resistance, and the reception of online counterpublic activism in the mainstream media. We conclude with implications for understanding the evolving nature of counterpublics in the second decade of the 21st-century with particular consideration to the roles of new and old media in (re)shaping public debates around marginalization, profiling, and policing.

Authors

• Sarah Janel Jackson, Northeastern U

• Brooke Foucault Welles, Northeastern U