In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement made history as one of the largest grassroots protest events in the United States. Members made frequent use of social media tools, like Twitter, to share information and mobil...In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement made history as one of the largest grassroots protest events in the United States. Members made frequent use of social media tools, like Twitter, to share information and mobilize participants. This study uses content analysis to examine the way that Twitter is used to incite, organize, and perpetuate protest movements. 1500 tweets in total were coded for content and linguistic features to provide insight into how Twitter is used to achieve different goals surrounding protest movements, the tonality of the tweets, and the purpose of distributed messages. Our findings indicate that Twitter is a tool primarily used for sharing objective, logistical information, along with opinions, to create a unified community and mobilize individuals to participate in a physical space of protest.展开更多
文摘In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement made history as one of the largest grassroots protest events in the United States. Members made frequent use of social media tools, like Twitter, to share information and mobilize participants. This study uses content analysis to examine the way that Twitter is used to incite, organize, and perpetuate protest movements. 1500 tweets in total were coded for content and linguistic features to provide insight into how Twitter is used to achieve different goals surrounding protest movements, the tonality of the tweets, and the purpose of distributed messages. Our findings indicate that Twitter is a tool primarily used for sharing objective, logistical information, along with opinions, to create a unified community and mobilize individuals to participate in a physical space of protest.
