Impact Of Social Media On Black Lives Matter

Since January 1st of last year, 1,502 people were shot and killed by a police officer on duty in America. Of those deaths, 381 were African American. Although that number doesn’t seem very large at first glance, the African American population only makes up 13% of the overall U.S population, making this statistic quite alarming (Lowery, 2016). Police brutality towards African American’s has been a prevalent issue in recent years, which in-turn has created a movement referred to as Black Lives Matter. The message behind Black Lives Matter is that every person deserves equal rights and treatment, no matter their skin color or race. It is an activist operation campaigning against the violence and racism towards the black community. Social media …show more content…
Making goals in movements in crucial in knowing if the movement is successful or not. The ultimate goal for Black Lives Matter is to put an end to unequal treatment for blacks. This incorporates police brutalities, unequal treatment in the workplace, and any other situation where an African American isn’t given the same respect, freedom, or right as someone with white skin. Social media is an essential component in meeting this goal because it allows for word to travel fast and to reach everyone. As Jenkins writes in By Any Media Necessary (2016), “in a networked society, people can monitor specific concerns and then use social media to alert each other to issues requiring greater attention or collective action. One person’s tweet, Instagram photo, or Facebook status, could reach millions of people if it is shared enough times. This is how sharing issues and taking action together create social movements. This is different then protest because protests usually just reach the people that see the protests or hear about them on the news. It seems as though this movement has multiple goals and ways of achieving these goals both on and off social media. As Cover (2014) writes in Becoming and Belonging, “there is real, essential self and a voluntarily constructed fluid self that one can create …show more content…
The point behind social movements is to inform the society of a situation and use each other’s support to aim towards a common goal of putting an end to whatever the issue is. Three women who had hopes of a common goal, unity for all, established Black Lives Matter in 2013. Rickford states (2015), “Black Lives Matter has evolved into a potent alternative to the political paralysis and isolation that racial justice proponents have faced since the election of Obama (p. 2). This is the basic idea behind the movement and issue our society is being faced with. For several years now, African Americans have been faced with unfair challenges simply because of the color of their skin. This movement is aiming to achieve the goal of equality for all as well as “wanting to bring about changes on a cultural level through educating the public” (Jenkins & Shresthova 2016). Since it began in 2013, there have been over a million shares and posts about the topic. This shows the true importance that social media has on making a change in society. The social media platform, Twitter, has given the Black Lives Matter movement a running start with its ability to put forth a strong message, overcome limitations, and help the movement achieve its goals. Black Lives Matter is still incredibly important today, and hopefully it will one day help to completely put an end to unequal