Social Media and Opportunities for Research in African American History and Culture
Channel: DocNow
Date: 2016-09-12

Dr. Jessica Johnson, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Dr. Sarah Jackson

African Americans and other marginalized people are some of the earliest adopters and heaviest users of social media platforms. From #Ferguson to #BlackLivesMatter, they use these platforms to come together around shared culture, to generate new narratives, to engage with the public without filters, and to consume content on their own terms. Social media has been a powerful tool for the further democratization of information sharing and consumption. What new opportunities do social media platforms, their users, and the records they generate, present for research on marginalized people in academic fields such as history, sociology, communications studies, journalism, etc? Panelists will draw on their own work and also offer perspectives on new opportunities in social media research in their respective fields.