Description
Book SynopsisHow black Americans use digital networks to organize and cultivate solidarity
Unrest gripped Ferguson, Missouri, after Mike Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in August 2014. Many black Americans turned to their digital and social media networks to circulate information, cultivate solidarity, and organize during that tumultuous moment. While Ferguson and the subsequent protests made black digital networks visible to mainstream media, these networks did not coalesce overnight. They were built and maintained over years through common, everyday use.
Beyond Hashtags explores these everyday practices and their relationship to larger social issues through an in-depth analysis of a trans-platform network of black American digital and social media users and content creators. In the crucial years leading up to the emergence of the Movement for Black Lives, black Americans used digital networks not only to cope with day-to-da
Trade Review
A masterwork of ethical, nuanced research on race and new media. Skillfully assembling analyses of multiple online media platforms, users, and practices, Florini examines how the 'interstitial hustle' of Black podcasters engaging audience across Facebook, Twitter, Patreon, and merchandising sites enables safety, political activism, and innovative content. -- André Brock, Jr., Georgia Tech
Ranging across a host of new media, Beyond Hashtags places blackness at center of our understanding of digital distribution. In expanding what we think about politics, journalism, and society, Florini honors the expansive network of people working across media platforms to produce discourses around black identity and culture. -- Aymar Jean Christian, Northwestern University
Well suited for myriad human communication contexts… This is an engaging and accessible look into an often ignored yet painfully important element of the networked century. * Choice *
