Empowering women of color – one hashtag at a time
Research has shown that the most influential hashtags were predominantly started by women after traditional news sources failed to provide the appropriate coverage of culturally significant issues (Bailey et al., 2020).
African American women, in particular, have considerable influence on issues regarding race and gender.
Having been essentially disregarded by mainstream media outlets, women, African Americans, Indigenous people, the LGBTQ community, and others are using hashtags within the social media landscape to succinctly connect and convey their experiences with users around the world (Cumberbatch & Trujillo-Pagan, 2016).
Politically inspired hashtags
The collective efforts of hashtag activism campaigns such as #blacklivesmatter and the #metoo movement, have inspired societal change by spreading awareness, starting conversations, and allowing a global audience to voice their shared experience through targeted hashtag campaigns (Lindgren, 2019).
Politically inspired hashtags have been analyzed by scholars in numerous studies to measure the effectiveness of such campaigns and to determine the quantifiable impacts they have on political engagement and social advocacy.
The #Metoo movement, as an example, compelled many states to modify sexual-harassment legislation (Nenoff, 2020) and inspired an unprecedented number of women to run for political positions in 2018 (Bailey et al., 2020). Researchers have determined that because of the accessibility, global reach, affordability, and limited risk, hashtag activism is considered an effective way to contribute to political discourse and debates and can unify the public to create meaningful and measurable social change (Reynolds & Mayweather, 2017).
The use of hashtags to circumvent ordinary media channels provides an opportunity for the systemically silenced voices of society to communicate struggles, raise awareness, and influence public interest. Digital activism removes inherently bias barriers of participation by allowing anyone to participate in and contribute to viral moments of civil dissonance. Hashtags have allowed real people to call attention to the prevalence of racial injustice, gender inequality, and homophobia. Each hashtag of significance is the embodiment of a real person’s unique perspective and experience. Every contribution empowers the cause further, allowing individuals to collectively become a large network of supporters promoting public awareness.
