#Ferguson - Response

#Ferguson - Yarimar Bonilla and Jonathan Rosa

Area 1:

   This weeks reading, #Ferguson: Digital Protest, Hashtag Ethnography, and the Racial Politics of Social Media in the United States, explores social media's capabilities in documenting social issues as well as creating a new level of engagement with them. Through characteristics exclusive to digital platforms (namely hashtags), protests and other political movements are able to garner mass participation and create an identity of their own online. In particular, this article applies these principles to the Ferguson Unrest and other racial-justice events.

Area 2:

   As I was reading this article, I was intrigued by the idea of social media platforms like Twitter being an active media platform rather than a passive one that solely consists of a one-sided conversation. The text mentions a homemade VHS tape of Rodney King being beaten by four police officers and the national outrage following it. While I wasn't previously familiar with this situation, I can't help but think about how this is both similar and dissimilar to social justice movements we see on Twitter today. On one hand, it shares the grassroots quality of social media movements today. However, I still equate this VHS form of media distribution to the passive qualities of watching news on the TV or listening to the radio- there is no conversation inherent in the media itself afterwards. Twitter and other social media platforms are unique in that the conversation is easily accessible to become a part of, and that conversation inherently ingrains itself into the coverage; whereas on television or radio, one must hold some sort of title to join the conversation (and even that conversation isn't guaranteed). I think the reason we have seen social media become the catalyst for so many social movements today is this assurance that a conversation will unfold in some way.