Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

When dealing with social media platforms as spaces of activism these sites can be innovative, powerful, and fast-moving at best, and at its worst chaotic and unfocused. The line between these two distinctions is actually slighter than one might realize. This understanding of cyber activism became clearer when faced with the question “What is contemporary ‘blacktivism’ according to Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram?”

Being a avid user of the popular blogging platform, Tumblr, and as such well-versed in the language and etiquette of the site, I sought my answer through my dashboard. Tumblr is composed of a endless scroll, comparable to Facebook’s newsfeed, that displays every user you ‘follow”s posts that can consist of either a link, photo, video, mp3, or text file that can be organized by ‘tags’. Like Twitter, there is a give and take between control: you cannot control what users post, but you can control who you follow. You ultimately build up the queue of information displayed on your dashboard.

This rule of thumb on Tumblr already an issue in itself, as it’s not only necessary to have an account to view such information, but it also requires stock knowledge of which users promote social activism the most. Already in this way, Tumblr blacktivism is exclusive in the broader sense of the term.  However because I am an established user of 5 years, this constraint only appeared in my thoughts after my study.

Taking into account the formatting and style of the website (and the advantage of 5 years of knowledge), I began my study of 30 minutes scrolling down my dashboard sure that out of my selected 500 some users one would surely post something under the activism tree. After about a minute of scrolling I saw a linked post that described the new case of Ebola in Liberia as an STD. The random post was one centered on awareness, not truly giving a solution to a possible rebirth of the Ebola crisis. And for a while this was the only post I saw. Because Tumblr is composed as a live feed, the minutes I scrolled down the dashboard before I encountered another post for social justice felt like eons.

It wasn’t until I encountered a post by a rather prominent Tumblr user in both the black and activist circles that my research progressed. This individual posted a series of inforgraphics that described the various levels of Israeli settlement on Palestinian territory, the fraught Palestinian citizenship across Israel and Palestine, and general problematic restriction of Palestinian people. The post was significantly informative as most portrayals of Palestine capitalize on the destruction of the Gaza Strip rather than the conditions that provide for this kind of environment, and the surrounding oppressions widespread through out the country. I then opened up another tab in my web browser to later peruse the user’s account, sure of the rich content in store, simultaneously still looking for another possible user to study. Right underneath their post Micdotcom, an active news source, posted GIFs of Porsha Olayiwola’s  poem that criticizes the misogynoir latent in police brutality discourse and the general dismissal of the pain black women face at the hands of black men.

Having at least two users under my belt and just ten minutes left of study, I decided to quickly delve deeper into each site. The first user’s activism centered mostly on the personal: crowdfunding for a poor black transwoman, a black family nearing homelessness, and written text posts that criticize various tangents of their multiple jeopardies as a queer transman of color. The text posts all had a least a thousand ‘notes’, which consisted of either likes or ‘reblogs’ (when users repost the content to their blogs). Furthermore you could see a constant rapport developing on these text posts that pursued discourse or fermented friendships. On this given users page the queer community of color was strong and accounted for. Switching tabs to Micdotcom, the website served as a curated collection of black internet activism across platforms. Screenshots of tweets raising awareness against recent police brutalities (#JusticeforJason, #SayHerName to name a couple), gifs of award shows and videos, news clips, and original Tumblr user posts decorated the page. Micdotcom served as a hub of generalized activism rather than specific black communal activist space.

It is in this way that Tumblr both triumphs and fails as a platform for social change. On one hand the site is a space for endless possibilities that allow for news sources and user-created online ‘zines to provide a constant stream of information crucial for social justice. These carefully curated hubs of information are a great start for both users and visitors of Tumblr. One does not need membership to view or message the copious amount of blogs present on the site. However their existence does not necessitate the existence of black community on Tumblr, individual users do. One would need to follow both prominent and random bloggers in the black community on Tumblr. These bloggers, your chosen informants, brothers, and sisters dictate your involvement with blacktivism. They raise causes for “Black Tumblr” to rally against, to raise money for, or even formally petition against on “Change.org”. These bloggers can help you through your journey of understanding matrices of oppression in your daily life, as well as navigate questions of gender/sexual/racial identity through direct messages, text posts, photos and videos open for commentary…..provided that you follow them. In addition to this slight oversight black users cannot be streamlined in the fighting of antiblackness. Some users are a part of “Queer Tumblr” or “Transgender Tumblr”or the dreaded “Barbershop Tumblr” (a part of Tumblr which is characterized by pro-black homophobic misogynoiristic users). Various pockets of Tumblr wholesale ignore some oppressions, such as colorism, to maintain their privilege and membership to the black community simultaneously. Tumblr can be a place rife with the schisms that plague physical activist spaces.

Ethical issues aside, in this sort of research Tumblr even fails in organization. Like Twitter it employs the hashtag system to organize posts, in order to make searches easier for users and non-users, however unlike Twitter, these tags are hardly agreed upon and are used liberally. Users sometimes use the tag system to input their commentary to protect the aesthetic integrity of a post. This so-called ‘talking in the tags’ makes for a chaotic black hole of information that can only be retrieved if you search that particular blogger’s archive. Tumblr has the potential to be a mess of epic proportion.

Ultimately Tumblr as a space for cyber black activism continuously toes the line of innovation and chaos. The ample opportunity for commentary and grassroot movement give Tumblr the chance to make virtual spaces of social justice bleed into the real world. However this is constantly mired by the disorganization, petty squabbles between users, and randomization of posts that is present on the site.

Word Count: 1138

 

Tags: ,

76,754 Responses to “Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources”

  1. Slotv9 says:

    Slotv9 ผู้ ให้บริการ เกมสล็อตออนไลน์ ลำดับที่หนึ่ง เกมสล็อตออนไลน์ มาแรง 2022 สล็อตออนไลน์ น่าเล่น เกมใหม่ มาแรง ที่พวกเรา ได้คัดสรร มารวมไว้ ที่เดียวให้ท่าน ได้สัมผัส พีจี

  2. If you are looking for the best Delhi Escorts Girls, then you are in the right place. We at Provide High Profile Delhi Escort Call Girls with a wide variety of services. Our service is open 24/7.

  3. Learn How to Play 토토커뮤니티 for Beginners with Tips & Tricks (in Hindi) | Step by Step

  4. Hello, thank you for sharing your article with us, and I truly value your information, which I really appreciate, and I would visit your website again.Cyberpunk 2077 Merchandise

  5. Nice blog. Thank you for sharing.
    Essay Help

  6. missy says:

    EVOPLAY เสือมังกรออนไลน์ เกมที่ตัดสินด้วยไพ่เพียง 1 ใบ ซึ่งเป็นเกมฮิตที่ไม่แพ้กับบาคาร่าเลย ทั้งเล่นง่ายและทำเงินได้อย่างรวดเร็ว ไม่ต้องใช้เทคนิคอะไรมากมายเพียงทายให้ถูก แค่นั้นก็ได้รับเงินรางวัลไปเลย เข้าสู่ระบบ

  7. Assignment help can increase the value of your academic thriving. The vast pool of amazingly talented and immensely qualified experts are PhD holders in their own domains. Our experts furnish only custom made and non-plagiarized compositions of premium grades; and are quite affordable too. Our endeavour lies in supporting you with unique and non-plagiarized Chemical Engineering Assignment Help compositions of premium quality that match the expectations of your faculty. https://greatassignmenthelper.com/chemical-engineering-assignment-help/

  8. push pods
    push carts vape
    lemon drizzle cake cart
    Push Disposables
    Cake She Hits Different
    Cake She Hits Different
    Blueberry Cake Cart
    runtz cake cart
    push pods

  9. xo says:

    xo สมัคร slotxo เล่นสล็อตออนไลน์ แจกฟรีเครดิตทุกเมื่อรับโบนัสโดยทันที 100% ตั้งแต่ทีแรกที่สมาชิกสมาชิก พีจี โดยทางพวกเราได้เตรียมโปรโมชั่นมากมายพร้อมดูแลนักเสี่ยงดวงทุกคน

  10. https://gusevblog.ru/

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  11. Nice post thanks for sharing with Us. Among all the crypto wallets that exist, MetaMask log in account in your browser is known to be the best in the entire Ethereum blockchain network and has quite the reputation when it comes to storing Ether and other Ethereum-based tokens (like ERC20).

  12. online dogecoin payment option

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  13. bennett says:

    놀다 바카라 지금 온라인으로 라이브하고 놀라운 보너스를 받으세요

  14. Parking Lot Paving Concrete Contractor Service

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  15. kina and tam ethical

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  16. jadaup says:

    I hope you write more articles like this. I’m your biggest fan.

    ข่าวกีฬาล่าสุด

  17. empresa fontaneria

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  18. instalacion calderas

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  19. instalaciones fontaneria

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  20. jonej5129 says:

    Free Fire on Now.gg: Hello, frinds! Are you trying to find Free Fire through gg online right now? You may play free fire online in your browser through now, and this is the correct location to learn about it.

    Now.gg Free Fire

  21. stopping smoking

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  22. 바카라바카라 says:

    놀다 바카라 지금 온라인으로 라이브하고 놀라운 보너스를 받으세요

  23. ac duct cleaning equipment for sale

    blog topic

  24. I appreciate your quality stuff, that was really so useful and informative.

  25. junk removal weston fl

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  26. prestashop payment plugin

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  27. http://Futafantasy.Net/community/profile/reggiesheehan5/

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  28. 콘텐츠이용료현금화

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  29. alexponting says:

    Avast Antivirus for Windows is security software that prevents viruses, spyware, and malicious threats from infecting your PC. Here the topic includes instructions to download and install Avast Free Antivirus software.Make sure no other application or Avast offline installer software is running on your PC. Visit Avast Antivirus’s official site and click on the download link to download the Avast Free Antivirus setup file, and save it on the local drive destination on your PC, by default downloaded files are saved to your user’s Downloads folder.

  30. Digital Media Sources seokk

  31. 15รับ100 wallet seokk

  32. thomas says:

    Quickbooks elavon integration is one of the widely accepted payment gateway solution software platform. It is widely used in more than 30 countries with over 2 million customers worldwide. This smartly conceived software platform has the ability to process all in-house transactions and offers a wide range of quality proprietary services and products.
    https://quicklybookonline.com/quickbooks-elavon-integration/

  33. https://tondog.net/

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  34. gusevlife.com

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  35. billing.headouph.co.zw

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  36. me today. I hope you’ll carry on to do so!I agree with your Blog and I will be back to inspect it more in the future so please keep up yoYou place extremely very instrumental information. Keep

  37. ทดลอง เล่น pg เกมสล็อตค่ายออกใหม่ พร้อมให้ผู้เล่น ทุกคนได้ ทดสอบเล่นสล็อต pg ฟรี 2022 แล้ววันนี้ ที่นี้ ที่เดียว ทดสอบ เล่นสล็อต ฟรีทุกค่าย ยิ่งกว่า 1,000 เกมส์ 

  38. fsdfdsf says:

    Thanks for the tips guys. They were all great. I have been having issues with being fat both mentally and physically. Thanks to you guys i have been showing improvements. Do post more.
    แทงบอลออนไลน์UFA800
    เว็บแทงบอลออนไลน์UFA800บนมือถือ
    เว็บแทงบอลออนไลน์UFA800เว็บตรง

  39. You won’t have to worry about any of these issues if you submit your application using the Nadra Card Renewal UK System. We are committed to our job and will never disappoint you. Because we are legitimate and well-known, we are one of the best service providers in the current day.

  40. happy157 says:

    Going elsewhere is always being deceived. But come here and get it, really, really, don’t have to wait for the balance, immediately withdraw, can choose to play in every game camp, if you want to know if it’s true, deposit-withdraw with an automatic system Easy to break, pay for sure Guarantees about finance. Good website. Easy to tell. Easy to break. Fast broken. Like giving away. pg slot game vip

  41. High-end online gaming Sexy Games , often known as seduction, is a concept in which attractive girls deal the games and an automatic savings mechanism operates every 10 seconds with no waiting required. We restate our commitment to providing players with the opportunity to engage with new and classic experiences.

  42. Royal Suite says:

    Royal Suite Get the warmth, love and pamper from the nature that is gifted to Dehradun at resort-like a Grandma’s love for her grandchildren only at Granny’s Den Resort! We assure you, should you wisely decide to visit us, the sojourn of a lifetime.

  43. tegro.io says:

    tegro.io

    like water for chocolate » Blog Archive » Methodologies V: Using and Analyzing Digital Media Sources

  44. pat12 says:

    who got stuck Poke me with a direct website like us.
    pd99auto

  45. MetaMask Extension is a type of Ethereum wallet that bridges the gap between the user interfaces for Ethereum

  46. Metamask sign in account is designed with premium security features and promises protection.

  47. 작성자 says:

    다 벗고 하는 섹스보다 반쯤 입고 하는게 더 야한 것 같지 않나요 ?
    ㅋ ㅏ톡:yoozz58
    #일탈 #섹트 #보지 #오프

  48. 작성자 says:

    입에 싸줘 내가 다 먹을게 ㅋ ㅏ톡:yoozz58
    #일탈 #섹트 #보지 #오프

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.