When it comes to Internet news, arguably no force is more galvanizing than trending hashtags. What the existence of the hashtag has done is fundamentally alter the way news is generated, consumed and analyzed. Whereas in years past the top headlines were decided by people in a newsroom, now the power of the press lies with anyone and everyone. A single hashtag, well applied, can spark a tidal wave of public thought. It's happened before, and it's likely to only gain steam in the future.
In Saint Louis County, Missouri, an 18-year-old named Michael Brown was walking home with a friend. As that friend, 22-year-old Dorian Johnson, later told NBC News, the two young men were approached by a police officer in what Johnson called a completely unprompted move. The officer reportedly cursed at the two men and then, in another act of inexplicable aggression, grabbed Brown around the neck. According to Johnson, Brown attempted to surrender to the officer – again, without ever knowing why – but the officer proceeded to take his gun out of its holster and fatally shoot the 18-year-old.
By any reasonable account this is a situation of unconscionable brutality carried out by the one kind of person – an officer of the law – who should have known better. But thankfully, this incident has been thrust into the national spotlight in a way that similar occurrences haven't been – thanks, in large part, to social media. Brown was black, and most people discussing the situation argued that his shooting points to a much broader and more pervasive problem with racial profiling by police and misrepresentations of African-Americans in the media.
With regard to this latter problem, a new hashtag arose, called "IfTheyGunnedMeDown." What the hashtag refers to is the tendency among news outlets to publish menacing photos of young black men – including those who were victims of violence – instead of photos that actually represent who they are. People have been taking to Twitter in droves, using the hashtag and accompanying it with two photos, asking some variation of "Which one would the media use?," a question that's meant to be rhetorical. Here's one such example. In this case, the "IfTheyGunnedMeDown" hashtag is sparking an important discussion of media accountability in situations like Brown's, and it's a conversation that likely wouldn't be happening otherwise. Here are some other hashtag movements that were highly impactful:
- #YesAllWomen: After young Eliot Rodger killed six people following a misogyny-fuelled rampage, many women were left understandably concerned about their safety. The resulting #YesAllWomen trend provided a forum for women to show how Rodger's rampage was not just a lone act of horror, but was instead symptomatic of a wider problem. An example of one such tweet: "#notallmen practice violence against women but #YesAllWomen live with the threat of male violence. Every. Single. Day. All over the world."
- #Kony2012: Occasionally a Twitter hashtag movement has been impactful for the wrong reasons, and such was the case with #Kony2012. Intended to raise awareness and ultimately stop Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony, the hashtag and the accompanying movement were much maligned due to a perceived lack of activism on the part of the supposed activists. As critics argued, the people engaging in the Kony discourse did so in a detached and self-satisfied way, never really doing or even advocating specific action, but instead just making noise. The Kony movement succeeded in one thing: giving a name – and a bad name, at that – to "hashtag activism." Perhaps more fruitful efforts like "IfTheyGunnedMeDown" can change that notion.
