iSchool Research Symposium: Meredith Clark
Talk title: Keystrokes & Controlled Rage: Measuring the Limits of Black Digital Resistance
Abstract: Twitter is credited as an essential tool in promoting 21st-century social movements, but questions remain about the limits of its efficacy. This talk focuses on how Black Twitter created a venue for critical discussions on the way we think about and act on race-related issues in the United States. Through a review of key cases, including the Movement for Black Lives, pivotal elections, and a series of call-outs and “cancellations,” Clark encourages us to consider how we position Twitter and other social media technologies in liberation struggles and offers a warning about over-reliance on technology as a tool in anti-racist work.
Speaker Bio: Meredith D. Clark, Ph.D. (@MeredithDClark; she/her/hers), is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and the Department of Communication Studies, and Director of the Center for Communication, Media Innovation and Social Change. Her research focuses on the intersections of race, media, and power. Her first book, “We Tried to Tell Y’all: Black Twitter and Digital Counternarratives” is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Her research has been published in Communication & the Public, Communication, Culture & Critique, Electronic News, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Journal of Social Media in Society, New Media & Society, and Social Movement Studies.