عنوان

The Technology of Hope: Twitter and the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign

Number

TL48458

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

The Technology of Hope: Twitter and the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Chelsey Smith

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Black, David

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Royal Roads University (Canada)

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

64

Text of Note

Committee members: Merlyna, Lim; Remillard, Chasten

Text of Note

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-06195-5

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

M.A.

Discipline of degree

Communication and Culture

Body granting the degree

Royal Roads University (Canada)

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

On April 14, 2014 Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group, abducted 274 girls from a secondary school in the Chibok region of northeastern Nigeria. The mass abduction of the Chibok girls shook Nigerians and spurred a social movement where citizens took to the streets of Abuja in protest and demanded the return of the girls. The movement quickly infiltrated online spaces, and splashed throughout social media where celebrities like First Lady Michelle Obama and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres held up signs with the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Using semantic network analysis in following the "#BringBackOurGirls" hashtag after the one-year anniversary of the abduction, and in-depth interviews with activists and influencers in Nigeria and North America, this thesis explores how technology, expressly Twitter, can influence the progression of a new social movement like #BringBackOurGirls. It finds Twitter serves as a powerful public space for minorities and marginalized voices to circumvent traditional media; once there, these actors can express opinion and opposition in a succinct format, as well as unite and organize swiftly in their capacity as new social movements. The case study also reveals important intersections between technology, radical Islam, gender, the tension between the Global North and the Global South, and online versus offline activism.

Social research; Communication; Mass communications

Subject Term

Social sciences;Communication and the arts;Boko haram;Bring back our girls;Gender;New social movements;Transnational movements;Twitter

Stamper, Aaron Jeffrey

Black, David

Subdivision

Communication and Culture

Royal Roads University (Canada)

Call Number

1728918675; 1599385

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y