What Can a Hashtag Do.? Introduction and Analysis
- 1. “What Can a Hashtag Do? Sloganeering, Incitement, Solidarity, and So Much More” -Elizabeth Losh
- 2. Hashtags • Powerful tools on social media that can facilitate sloganeering, incite action, foster solidarity, and serve numerous other purposes like increasing engagement, categorizing content, and boosting brand awareness. • Hashtags can be used to create catchy slogans or phrases that capture a specific message or cause, like #LoveIsLove or #NotInMyName. • Hashtags can bring people together around a shared cause or issue, creating a sense of community and solidarity. • Hashtags can help track and participate in trending topics, increasing the reach of posts and sparking conversations.
- 3. • Hashtags can be used to promote a brand, product, or event, increasing brand awareness and engagement. • Hashtags are a valuable tool for social media marketing campaigns, helping to track engagement, run contests, and promote products or services. • Hashtags can also play a role in SEO(Search Engine Optimization), helping to optimize content for search engines. • Hashtags can be used to monitor conversations and track the performance of social media campaigns.
- 4. The power of hashtag #
- 5. What Can a Hashtag Do? • A hashtag can tell people what to do. It can present an order, request, or instruction. • #StopSeparatingFamilies commands immigration officials to respect the kinship units • #DisruptAging encourages the elderly to challenge stereotypes. • #DemandVoterID directs citizens to perform gatekeeping at polling places. • #SaveTheNHS begs British citizens to preserve the National Health System.
- 6. • A hashtag can tell people seemingly reasonable way to think and feel about the world. • A hashtag can assure people that they are connected to other people. • This is why expressions of solidarity are often so important for hashtag slogans. • #DressLikeAWoman—paraphrased from a comment by Donald Trump about preferred workplace attire for women—was paired with pictures of female astronauts, surgeons, and legislators
- 7. Clicktivism or Slacktivism • Refers to activism that is primarily or solely conducted online, often through social media platforms and the internet • Advocates for social causes, often through actions like liking, sharing, or signing online petitions, which some view as a superficial form of activism • It can be effective in raising awareness, spreading messages, and mobilizing large groups of people. • It isn't necessarily inherently good or bad; its effectiveness depends on the specific context and the goals of the campaign.
- 8. Speech act theory • Pioneered by J.L. Austin and further developed by John Searle • Explores how language not only conveys information but also performs actions, such as promising or ordering, by examining the different types of speech acts and their functions • Locutionary Act: The act of saying something, the actual words uttered. • Illocutionary Act: The intended function or purpose of the utterance, such as promising, asking, or commanding. • Perlocutionary Act: The effect or outcome of the utterance on the listener, such as persuading or convincing.
- 9. • Hashtags with slogans are speech acts that use language to attempt to bring a new order into existence. • Academics use the term “speech act theory” to explain the power of words to perform actions. • According to the speech act theorist J. L. Austin, “illocutionary” draws attention to the speaker’s deeds, and the “perlocutionary” refers to the activity of the audience. • Judith Butler uses the example of a doctor announcing “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl” upon a baby’s birth as a speech act with profound consequences. • Butler insists that gender is not a fixed biological category; rather it is social construct
- 10. • Expressions of solidarity are often so important for hashtag slogans. • A few hashtags explicitly take the form of a question, such as #WhereAreTheChildren or #AreWeEurope. • Hashtag slogans may contain speech acts similar to the chants heard at live protests • They are created for searching and browsing in online environments. They have a quantitative as well as qualitative existence. • In the 1960 Stanley Kubrick movie Spartacus, the hero is at risk of being crucified by the Roman authorities. One by one, the whole, men rise to declare, “I am Spartacus.” This hides the identity of their leader in a display of mass allegiance. • Users of the hashtag #IAmCharlie assume the identity of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo to demonstrate solidarity with the 12 people killed in the magazine’s office by Islamic radicals.
- 11. • The #MeToo campaign has encouraged women from different walks of life to share their experiences of harassment, assault, discrimination, and marginalization. • US news organizations began publishing accounts in 2017 about how Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein routinely sexually terrorized would-be starlets, female personnel, and potential employees of his studio. These stories that had long been silenced by nondisclosure agreements and a culture of complicity were aired, and dozens came forward to accuse Weinstein of abusing his position. • In October 2017, to shift attention from perpetrators to victims, actress Alyssa Milano posted “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet” above an image that read: Me Too.
- 12. • Overnight #MeToo messages flooded Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram in response to Milano’s call. • In 2006 Tarana Burke, an Afro-American, had founded a “Me Too” campaign against sexual assault based on bearing witness to the repetition of individual experiences of violence against women. • Burke had used an older social network platform, MySpace, as her main vehicle for spreading the word and building community. • Burke can legitimately claim to be an inventor of the “me too” slogan long before #MeToo was born
- 13. Thank you Aswathy G. Babu