Who Controls the Narrative? The Dual Role of Contributors and Amplifiers in Online Activism
Soo Young Bae¹, David DeFranza²
DOI : 10.65701/r8z1p3t6c9
Corresponding authors:
sooyoungbae@umass.edu • david.defranza@ucd.ie
Abstract
Hashtag activism has fundamentally transformed how social movements are organized and expressed through online social networks. Yet, as social movements gain visibility in digital platforms, they also become susceptible to politicization and discursive contestation. Our study focuses on this potential of social movements to be politicized and investigates how different types of participants contribute to the trajectory and meaning of hashtag-based activism in social media. Drawing on a large dataset of over one million tweets in the United States collected during the peak months of the #MeToo movement, we examine how users of different types utilize the hashtag #MeToo over time. In addition, we conduct a semantic network analysis to understand communities that reflect divergent framing strategies. Our results show that users who contribute original content to the #MeToo discourse show different patterns of hashtag usage in comparison to users who primarily amplify existing content. Additional semantic network analyses of user communities also suggest that reframing of the movement within broader ide-ological battles occur. We discuss the implications of these discursive dynamics in shaping the narrative of social movements.
