{"542681":{"#nid":"542681","#data":{"type":"news","title":"The Social Media Profile of the Black Lives Matter Movement","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology looked at nearly 29 million tweets surrounding four recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) events to identify the social media patterns of its activists. They found that the community is unlike many other social movements because of its ability to bond over the course of many months. More\u0026nbsp;than a third of those who participated via social media for the first time continued their participation during the next BLM event. The study also found being from a state with historically high rates of black victimization due to police violence, especially in the South and Midwest, was linked to peoples\u2019 response on social media even if the state wasn\u2019t the scene of the current BLM event. The researchers also found a change in tone on Twitter the day before protests sprung up around the nation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Tech study is among the first to examine the online language of the BLM movement. It collected tweets surrounding four major events: the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (August 2014); the decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson (November 2014); protests and the shooting deaths of two New York City police officers (December 2014); and the death of Freddie Gray while in custody of Baltimore police officers (April 2015).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team also plugged in data of more than 10,000 deaths due to police shootings since 2000. From that, it outlined which states, based on their African-American population, had the highest rates of deaths. Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico were among the highest in the mainland United States.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese were the same states where we found very negative language on Twitter during Black Lives Matter events,\u201d said Munmun De Choudhury, the Georgia Tech assistant professor who led the study. \u201cOther areas, especially in the South and Midwest, used words about death to express their feelings. Potentially, Twitter users in states with historically higher rates of fatal police shootings of blacks tend to interact with others to seek and provide psychosocial support around issues of racial inequality.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, much of that negativity disappeared on the immediate eve of protests. Language changed. The researchers noticed that tweets about death, anger and first person singular nouns transformed into more posts about family, friends and first person plural pronouns.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe saw more sadness but lower anger and anxiety the day before protests,\u201d said Benjamin Sugar, a Georgia Tech master\u2019s student who co-authored the study. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean they weren\u2019t angry or anxious. But in 140 characters, people showed thoughts of moving forward and making a difference.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBLM was born on Facebook in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Florida\u2019s Trayvon Martin. During each subsequent event, the movement has contradicted typical Twitter stereotypes. The study found that on average 36 percent of first-time BLM users participated again.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOther hashtag movements have helped spread awareness about important issues, but many of them quickly lose their momentum,\u201d said Shagun Jhaver, a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student and co-author. \u201cThe Black Lives Matter movement realizes it\u2019s part of a long-term social transformation and shows continual engagement. And it continues despite having no formal hierarchal structure.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research, \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.munmund.net\/pubs\/BLM_ICWSM16.pdf\u0022\u003ESocial Media Participation in an Activist Movement for Racial Equality\u003C\/a\u003E,\u201d \u0026nbsp;won best paper when it was presented last month at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media in Germany. It was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (#1R01GM11269701). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institutes of Health.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Study identifies online indicators of upcoming protests"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology looked at nearly 29 million tweets surrounding four recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) events to identify the social media patterns of its activists. They found that the community is unlike many other social movements because of its ability to bond over the course of many months. More\u0026nbsp;than a third of those who participated via social media for the first time continued their participation during the next BLM event.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Study examines 29 million tweets surrounding four recent Black Lives Matter events."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2016-06-07 16:00:45","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:21:49","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-06-07T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-06-07T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"542691":{"id":"542691","type":"image","title":"Protest","body":null,"created":"1465412400","gmt_created":"2016-06-08 19:00:00","changed":"1475895333","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:33","alt":"Protest","file":{"fid":"90756","name":"istock_27701158_medium.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/istock_27701158_medium.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/istock_27701158_medium.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5455530,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/istock_27701158_medium.jpeg?itok=OwRVAf_E"}}},"media_ids":["542691"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.munmund.net\/pubs\/BLM_ICWSM16.pdf","title":"Read the Study"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"172107","name":"Black Lives Matter"},{"id":"89321","name":"Munmun De Choudhury"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003ENational Media Relations \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}