Argument
Nikita Carney, doctoral student of sociology, asserts the same thing in an article she published in a Humanity & Society journal. Carney argues that the movement was started in 2012 with the murder of Trayvon Martin and gained prominence again in 2014 after the brutal murder of Michael Brown (para 2). “The debates on Twitter following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner indicate a struggle for power in controlling discourse about the state-sanctioned killings of Black men in the United States, particularly following tragedies and lack of accountability for the police officers responsible, as was the case in the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice” (Carney, para 3). Carney is arguing that Twitter, one of the few social media platforms that the BLM movement stands on, started the movement due to police brutality. She also states that the uprising of this anti-police brutality movement alongside social media is so crucial because the audience plays a huge role in the functioning of the public sphere, according to Habermas’ theory (para 8). Whether the movement started in 2012 or 2014, it started with Twitter and it’s main purpose at the beginning was to end police brutality.
Some may wonder if the hash tag “#BlackLivesMatter” is something the the BLM movement started or if the movement is based off the hash tag itself. Niraj Chokshi, author and assignment reporter for The Washington Post, published an article describing how the hash tag got defined. He talks about the impact that the hash tag has made since its 2013 debut has grown tremendously. The hash tag appeared on Twitter 172,772 times daily in 2014 in regards to the death of Tamir Rice and the failure to indict the officer who killed him(para 10). The hash tag was also mentioned on Twitter 189,210 times in regards to the death of Eric Garner and 160,810 times the following day (para 11). By July 8th, the hash tag soared to over 1.1 million tweets in a single day (para 18). Without these social media platforms the information regarding these deaths would not spread as fast as they do or may not even spread at all. "It really shows you where current events can drive the conversation on social media and also change the tenor of conversation there, as well” (Chokshi, para 24). Whether good or bad, conversation is what drives the BLM movement, this movement would not exists if it were not for the constant engagement in conversation. Which gets the movement to craft ideas on how to end racism and oppression as well as how to create equity.
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There are researchers who believe the BLM movement had the possibility to rise without social, but would have had a short-lived life without it. Sara Sidner, award-winning journalist for CNN, wrote an article regarding the movement and it would have fell if it were not for social media. Sidner physically witnessed of the backlash of one of the most publicized African-American killings by a police officer; the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. Sidner’s main point of writing this article was to explain to critics how the BLM movement could actually function and does not fall apart like they imaged it would. She believes that the main reason it did not fall apart was due to the social media aspect of the movement. Sidner explains that social media is one of the greatest factors of the movement (para 5). “Because of social media we reach people in the smallest corners of America. We are plucking at a cord that has not been plucked forever” (Sidner para 5). Sidner is saying that since the BLM movement has incorporated social media into their movement they have opened the door to expand their beliefs to others who would have not known what was going on due to the lack of media coverage. Besides sharing their beliefs, the BLM movement also can easily spread evidence of brutality through social media. Sidner believes that without the movement being able to do that, it would not have been as successful as it is today.