ALC 215: Understanding Hashtag Activism in Global Media Culture

This essay examines the evolution and impact of hashtag activism on global media and culture. It begins by defining hashtag activism as a form of internet activism, highlighting its role in raising awareness and supporting social causes through online platforms. The essay then delves into prominent examples such as #BlackLivesMatter, which addresses police brutality against African Americans, and #MeToo, which combats sexual assault against women. It analyzes how these movements leverage digital media to challenge prevailing cultural norms, promote human rights, and foster social change. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of hashtag culture in providing a platform for individuals to share personal stories and drive societal awareness, ultimately leading to necessary transformations.

Running head: HASHTAG ACTIVISM
Hashtag Activism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Digital media has gained a strong foot hold within the contemporary world order. People
have taken recourse to this platform in order to voice out their opinions and viewpoints. This is
important as the digital media allows people to stay connected with the individuals who live in
even the most remote parts of the world (Yang 2016). The purpose of this paper is to understand
the growth and evolution of the hashtag culture and how it grew in to an activist movement. To
this extent, the paper tries to analyze the impact of hashtag activism on global media and culture.
Slide 1
The idea of hashtag activism was first coined by a several media outlets. It aimed to
signify the issue of Internet activism. The terminology is mainly used to show the support for a
particular cause of the society by the way of liking the post shared on the online platform or
sharing it with the other individuals of the society through Facebook, Twitter and so on
(Williams 2015). The main objective is to make the people aware of the incidents occurring with
regard to the issue and to make the individuals of the society aware of the need to bring about a
change.
Slide 2
One of the most notable example of the hashtag activism is that of #BlackLivesMatter.
The main agenda of the starting of the movement of Black Lives Matter was to call for the end of
the brutality imposed by the police on the lives of the African Americans who were residing
within the United States of America (Jackson 2016). The movement first started by an activist by
the name of Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors. They were furious about the

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acquittal that was granted to George Zimmerman who was charged with the killing of a
seventeen year old African American, Trayvon Martin.
Slide 3
The #BlackLivesMatter gained momentum in the year of 2014 when Michael Brown was
shot dead in Missouri in Ferguson. Furthermore, the grand jury failed to indict the concerned
police officer, Daniel Pantaloe who was responsible for the death of Eric Garner (Khoja-Moolji
2015).
This hashtag was mainly aimed to bring in to the global limelight the social evil of
racism. Even in the twenty first century, where there is a need for the establishment of an equal
society, the ‘black’ population of the world are treated in a subservient manner. They are not
given their due respect and are usually considered to be the people who are secondary to the
‘white’ racially superior population of the world. The hashtag activism started to order to bring
about a change in this social evil, seeking its eradication.
Slide 4
Another famous hashtag movement which gained wide spread support within the
contemporary social order is that of the #MeToo campaign. This campaign was first started on
the platform of Twitter which aimed to raise social awareness of the various sexual assault which
were occurring in the context of the female population of the world (Mendes, Ringrose and
Keller 2018). The campaign encouraged the survivors of such a social evil to share their stories,
in order to motivate the other people of the society to undertake appropriate actions.
The hashtag was first started by Tarana Burke in the year of 2007. However, it only
gained popularity amongst the mainstream population on 2017 when Alyssa Milano, who

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through her consorted efforts, encouraged the survivors of sexual assault to share their
experience by adding the words #MeToo (Gersen 2017).
Slide 5
The movement changed its orientation from 2017 onwards. It was initially started in
order to only raise awareness of the issue. However, by 2017, it changed to actively fight against
the issue of suppression of women (Rodino-Colocino 2018). Women have always been accorded
a subordinate position in the society. The gender discrimination that exists between the male
gender and that of the female gender stems from the perspective that the males are more
physically stronger and hence, they have the ability to undertake the work as existing in the
public sphere.
The issue of gender equality was sought to be established since the twentieth century.
However, it can be seen that even in the twenty first century, the women are not allowed to work
in a safe and secure environment. They are often assaulted by their male counterparts in the
office workplace and also within their homes. The #MeToo campaign tried to bring about a
change in this perception (Wood 2018). It encouraged the women of the society to come out with
their incidents so as to make the society aware that it has failed to bring about a climate of
equality as it had initially intended.
Slide 6
The purpose of the hashtag form of activism is to bring about a change in the prevailing
culture of the globe. Each society of the world have their own form of traditions and values with
which the people are expected to abide by. However, often times it can be seen that such cultures
and traditions are not in sync with the intention of protection of human rights (Mendes, Ringrose

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and Keller 2018). Many cultures have normalized the issue of sexual assault while many have
tried to use the issue of racial superiority in order to suppress the black lives of the community.
The hashtag is a digital movement aimed to bring about social awareness in this regard.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be observed that the aspect of hashtag culture has assumed a
significant position in the society. The idea us relatively new in the context of the human
civilization. It has provided a suitable forum to the people of the world to use the hashtag and to
come out with their own personal stories. The individual reflection of the entire movement has
personalized the issue and has given it more of a human touch. This has allowed the society to
understand the severity of the issue and bring about the requisite changes accordingly.

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References:
Gersen, C., 2017. Tagging onto# MeToo. Masters of Media.
Jackson, S.J., 2016. (Re) imagining intersectional democracy from Black feminism to hashtag
activism. Women's Studies in Communication, 39(4), pp.375-379.
Khoja-Moolji, S., 2015. Becoming an “intimate publics”: Exploring the affective intensities of
hashtag feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), pp.347-350.
Mendes, K., Ringrose, J. and Keller, J., 2018. # MeToo and the promise and pitfalls of
challenging rape culture through digital feminist activism. European Journal of Women's
Studies, 25(2), pp.236-246.
Rodino-Colocino, M., 2018. Me too,# MeToo: Countering cruelty with
empathy. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 15(1), pp.96-100.
Williams, S., 2015. Digital defense: Black feminists resist violence with hashtag
activism. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), pp.341-344.
Wood, M.K., 2018. Language in digital activism: exploring the performative functions of#
MeToo Tweets. Diggitmagazine. com.
Yang, G., 2016. Narrative agency in hashtag activism: The case of# BlackLivesMatter. Media
and Communication, 4(4), p.13.

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References for images:
BBC Three. (2019). Men are using #HowIWillChange to back the #MeToo Twitter campaign -
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8209-f22b7f633744 [Accessed 19 Dec. 2019].
Critical Media Project. (2019). #metoo (Alyssa Milano on Twitter) - Critical Media Project.
[online] Available at: https://criticalmediaproject.org/metoo/ [Accessed 19 Dec. 2019].
Fox6now.com. (2019). Sorry, this content is not available in your region.. [online] Available at:
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emoji/ [Accessed 19 Dec. 2019].
McPherson (2019). Hashtag activism must be paired. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/susanmcp1/how-hashtag-activism-is-becoming-a-womens-game/3-
Hashtag_activism_must_be_pairedwith [Accessed 19 Dec. 2019].
Patterson, B., Murphy, T., Murphy, T., Lee, J., Lee, J., Corn, D., Weinberg, A. and Cohen, M.
(2019). Black Lives Matter is killing it on Twitter. [online] Mother Jones. Available at:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/study-shows-how-black-lives-matter-controls-
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media-age/ [Accessed 19 Dec. 2019].

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The New Times | Rwanda. (2019). Hashtag activism: Powerful or pointless?. [online] Available
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Dec. 2019].

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