TY - JOUR
T1 - #Aboriginallivesmatter
T2 - Mapping Black Lives Matter discourse in Australia
AU - Dejmanee, Tisha
AU - Millar, Jeffrey
AU - Lorenz, Marni
AU - Weber, Kirsten
AU - Zaher, Zulfia
N1 - Funding Information:
This article was produced through the support of a Research Cultivation Grant from the National Communication Association. The authors would like to acknowledge Bradley Madsen, Brionna Poole and Alexandra Cole for their research support on this project. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers and editors for their assistance with this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - This paper explores the hashtag #AboriginalLivesMatter on Instagram which was widely used in Australia as part of a global Black Lives Matter (BLM) response in 2020. We map the participants and themes of #AboriginalLivesMatter through the quantitative coding and qualitative thematic analysis of 603 Instagram posts published with this hashtag in June 2020. We find that this conversation is largely driven by celebrities and non-Indigenous participants and framed by themes including expressing the problem as first-person experience, offering solutions, reporting, performing empty statements, and expressing US-centrism. Drawing on critiques of connective action and our analysis of the Instagram platform, we suggest that these findings are indicative of the tensions negotiated between incorporating allies on platforms that prioritise sharing first-person experiences; balancing the communicative capacities of Instagram with its inherently commercialised digital cultures; and, drawing on the spreadability of global digital movements while maintaining cultural specificity for local activists.
AB - This paper explores the hashtag #AboriginalLivesMatter on Instagram which was widely used in Australia as part of a global Black Lives Matter (BLM) response in 2020. We map the participants and themes of #AboriginalLivesMatter through the quantitative coding and qualitative thematic analysis of 603 Instagram posts published with this hashtag in June 2020. We find that this conversation is largely driven by celebrities and non-Indigenous participants and framed by themes including expressing the problem as first-person experience, offering solutions, reporting, performing empty statements, and expressing US-centrism. Drawing on critiques of connective action and our analysis of the Instagram platform, we suggest that these findings are indicative of the tensions negotiated between incorporating allies on platforms that prioritise sharing first-person experiences; balancing the communicative capacities of Instagram with its inherently commercialised digital cultures; and, drawing on the spreadability of global digital movements while maintaining cultural specificity for local activists.
KW - #AboriginalLivesMatter
KW - Black Lives Matter
KW - Indigenous Australians
KW - connective action
KW - hashtag activism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126817916&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1329878X221088053
DO - 10.1177/1329878X221088053
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126817916
SN - 1329-878X
VL - 184
SP - 6
EP - 20
JO - Media International Australia
JF - Media International Australia
IS - 1
ER -