Networked Framing: Twitter and Ferguson Protests

• In Event: Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: The Role of Digital Platforms in the Practice and Study of Movements: The Case of the U.S.

Abstract

This paper adapts and further develops networked framing by Meraz and Papacharissi (2013) in the context of Twitter and Ferguson protests in 2014. Protest is part of legitimate political participation in representative democracies and enables social movements to affect the legal process through indirect persuasion (Morris 1986; della Porta and Diani 1999). To mobilize public opinion, protests enter into an ideological struggle with news media and the state to determine the meaning of the protests, their goals, and the legitimacy of protesters. Collective framing processes occur when participants in social movements determine the movement’s purpose and claims of injustice. This process includes determining important narratives, language, and images, which are part of their interpretative schemata. These collective action frames are analyzed as part of the process of networked framing. The IIR Report (2015), news media coverage, and 13,280 tweets are analyzed to improve the documentation on use of force, videos of arrests, injuries endured by residents and framing by state officials. Networked framing is part of counter-framing common in black liberation and black feminist movements. In this case study Twitter was a tool for engaging bystanders, motivating possible participants to attend events, and documenting state repression, referred to as networked framing.

Author

• Josephine Nummi, Purdue University Northwest