TITLE:
#Occupywallstreet: An Analysis of Twitter Usage during a Protest Movement
AUTHORS:
Zuoming Wang, Kara Caskey
KEYWORDS:
Content Analysis, Discursive Resistance Online, Occupy Wall Street, Twitter, Social Media, Community Formation
JOURNAL NAME:
Social Networking,
Vol.5 No.4,
October
27,
2016
ABSTRACT: In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement made history as one of the largest grassroots
protest events in the United States. Members made frequent use of social media
tools, like Twitter, to share information and mobilize participants. This study
uses content analysis to examine the way that Twitter is used to incite, organize, and
perpetuate protest movements. 1500 tweets in total were coded for content and linguistic
features to provide insight into how Twitter is used to achieve different goals
surrounding protest movements, the tonality of the tweets, and the purpose of distributed
messages. Our findings indicate that Twitter is a tool primarily used for
sharing objective, logistical information, along with opinions, to create a unified
community and mobilize individuals to participate in a physical space of protest.