Oct 31, 2016
Part of the problem of engaging in hashtag ethnography, then, is that it is difficult to assess the context of social media utterances. Moreover, a simple statement of fact—for example, that there were eight million Ferguson tweets— tells us very little. How many were critical of the police? How many were critical of the protestors? How many were posted by journalists (both professional and amateur)?
Bonilla and Rosa, #Ferguson
This is interesting to think about. Just because there are eight million tweets about Ferguson or ten million tweets with #blacklivesmatter, we still don’t get the context of those tweets or what kind of sentiment they house