Critical Theory in a Digital Age, CCU, ENGL 483 2017

#BlackLivesMatter and the Public Sphere

Social Media plays a huge role in the public sphere nowadays. Before Facebook and Twitter, the public sphere could be described as a group of friends hanging out on the stoop in front of their homes but now as technology evolves the public sphere continues to grow. But now, the public sphere is worldwide. It connects many people from different cultures, ages and demographics. Social media has pushed the public sphere's description into a whole new dimension because it now includes opinions, facts and history to drive its features. Specifically in this piece of the chapter we will be discussing the affects of the hashtag Black Live Matter campaign's purpose due to the public sphere of social media.
The Black Lives Matter hashtag was originally created by three African American women named Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. These women are Black organizers that felt it necessary for the world to see and understand in depth the problems with the mistreatment of African Americans worldwide. In the #Blacklivesmatter piece by Bijan Stephen the article explains how the hashtag is being used to bring attention to a national problem that has been ignored for years.. The hashtag's organizers mention that the phenomenon had to have a name to make it a movement. Social media as a means of communication was created for the precise reason to allow people the opportunity to not only communicate with others but display their own personal opinions of ideas or events. The hashtag of Black Lives Matter was meant to be used as a communicate as social media's purpose is meant to be intended. Instead the hashtag has taken such a turn for the worst in some eyes of social media users because of the opinions of the uneducated or racist people that are also apart of social media. If there is a dispute between a police officer and a young black man is involved with there will already be discussion of who is right or wrong and nine times out of ten the majority of people will believe the black man is wrong without even paying attention to the details of the story. This is a view that is seen as a majority because of the majority of people involved on social media carry this opinion, making the opinion more effective than the facts which is the connection between the public sphere and the hashtag Black Lives Matter.
 

 

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