Visual Social Media and Black Activism: Exploring How Using Instagram Influences Black Activism Orientation and Racial Identity Ideology Among Black Americans

Abstract

During the civil unrest emphasizing the Black Lives Matter movement amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Instagram was widely adopted by activists, journalists, and the general audience to disseminate and gather information about critical social issues and protests. Through a survey sampling Black Instagram users (N = 402), this study examined how Black people’s use of Instagram and its specific features—Instagram Carousel, Instagram Live, Instagram Story, standard post, and comment section—influenced their Black activism orientation, in-app activism engagement, and Black racial identity ideology. The results indicated that, along with Instagram use, Instagram network politicalness, diversity, and authenticity are also important predictors.

Keywords

Black activism social media Instagram multidimensional model of racial identity Instagram Carousel #BlackLivesMatter racial identity

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ables

(2020, August 15). Selfies and sunsets be gone: The latest Instagram trend is PowerPoint-style presentations. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/08/15/instagram-race-activism-slideshow-graphics/

Almoqbel

M. Y.

Wohn

D. Y.

Hayes

R. A.

Cha

(2019). Understanding Facebook news post comment reading and reacting behavior through political extremism and cultural orientation. Computers in Human Behavior, 100, 118–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.06.006

Auxier

Anderson

(2021). 7 facts about Americans and Instagram. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/#fn-27044-1

Bennett

Entman

R. S.

(2001). Mediated politics: Communication in the future of democracy. Cambridge University Press.

Boulianne

(2019). Revolution in the making? Social media effects across the globe. Information, Communication & Society, 22(1), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1353641

Brown

D. K.

Mourão

R. R.

(2021). Protest coverage matters: How media framing and visual communication affects support for black civil rights protests. Mass Communication & Society, 24(4), 576–596. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2021.1884724

Brown

D. K.

Mourao

R. R.

Sylvie

(2019). Martin to brown: How time and platform impact coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement. Journalism Practice, 13(4), 413–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2018.1507680

Clark

M. D.

(2020). Remaking the #Syllabus: Crowdsourcing resistance praxis as critical public pedagogy. Communication, Culture & Critique, 13(2), 222–241. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcaa017

Clark

M. D.

Bland

Livingston

J. A.

(2017). Lessons from #McKinney: Social media and the interactive construction of police brutality. The Journal of Social Media in Society, 6(1), 284–313.

10.

Corning

A. F.

Myers

D. J.

(2002). Individual orientation toward engagement in social action. Political Psychology, 23(4), 703–729. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895X.00304

11.

Crenshaw

(1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

12.

Crocker

Luhtanen

(1990). Collective self-esteem and ingroup bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.58.1.60

13.

Curtin

McGarty

(2016). Expanding on psychological theories of engagement to understand activism in context(s). Journal of Social Issues, 72, 227–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12164

14.

Davies

(2018, February 15). How the Guardian’s Instagram strategy is winning new readers. Digiday. https://digiday.com/media/guardians-instagram-strategy-winning-new-readers/

15.

Delli Carpini

M. X.

Keeter

. (1996). What Americans know about politics and why it matters. Yale University Press.

16.

Diehl

Weeks

B. E.

Gil de Zúñiga

(2016). Political persuasion on social media: Tracing direct and indirect effects of news use and social interaction. New Media & Society, 18(9), 1875–1895. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815616224

17.

Duggan

Smith

(2016). The political environment on social media. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/10/25/the-political-environment-on-social-media/

18.

Ekman

Amnå

(2012). Political participation and civic engagement: Towards a new typology. Human Affairs, 22, 283–300. https://doi.org/10.2478/s13374-012-0024-1

19.

Elmasry

M. H.

el-Nawawy

(2017). Do Black lives matter?: A content analysis of New York Times and St. Louis post-dispatch coverage of Michael Brown protests. Journalism Practice, 11(7), 857–875. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2016.1208058

20.

Enberg

(2020, December 8). Global Instagram users 2020. eMarketer. https://www.emarketer.com/content/global-instagram-users-2020

21.

Freelon

McIlwain

Clark

(2018). Quantifying the power and consequences of social media protest. New Media & Society, 20(3), 990–1011. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816676646

22.

Gil de Zúñiga

H. G.

Copeland

Bimber

(2014). Political consumerism: Civic engagement and the social media connection. New Media & Society, 16(3), 488–506. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444813487960

23.

Gil de Zúñiga

H. G.

Jung

Valenzuela

(2012). Social media use for news and individuals’ social capital, civic engagement and political participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 319–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01574.x

24.

Graham

Smith

(2016). The content of our #Characters: Black twitter as counterpublic. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2(4), 433–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649216639067

25.

Greijdanus

de Matos Fernandes Carlos

Turner-Zwinkels

Honari

Roos

C. A.

Rosenbusch

Postmes

(2020). The psychology of online activism and social movements: Relations between online and offline collective action. Current Opinion in Psychology, 35, 49–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.03.003

26.

Guerrero

(2020, August 10). Swipe-through activist guides are the new zines. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/style/instagram-activism-graphics-zines.html

27.

Habermas

(1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere. MIT Press.

28.

Hope

E. C.

Gugwor

Riddick

K. N.

Pender

K. N.

(2019). Engaged against the machine: Institutional and cultural racial discrimination and racial identity as predictors of activism orientation among black youth. American Journal of Community Psychology, 63(1–2), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12303

29.

Hope

E. C.

Pender

K. N.

Riddick

K. N.

(2019). Development and validation of the black community activism orientation scale. Journal of Black Psychology, 45(3), 185–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798419865416

30.

Huckfeldt

Beck

Dalton

Levine

(1995). Political environments, cohesive social groups, and the communication of public opinion. American Journal of Political Science, 39(4), 1025–1054. https://doi.org/10.2307/2111668

31.

Jackson

Foucault Welles

(2016). #Ferguson is everywhere: Initiators in emerging counterpublic networks. Information, Communication & Society, 19(3), 397–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1106571

32.

Kim

Hsu

Gil de Zúñiga

H. G.

(2013). Influence of social media use on discussion network heterogeneity and civic engagement: The moderating role of personality traits. Journal of Communication, 63(3), 498–516. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12034

33.

(2022). Influence for social good: Exploring the roles of influencer identity and comment section in Instagram-based LGBTQ-centric corporate social responsibility advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 41(3), 462–499. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1884399

34.

Bernard

J.-G.

Luczak-Roesch

(2021). Beyond clicktivism: What makes digitally native activism effective? An exploration of the sleeping giants movement. Social Media + Society, 7(3), 1–22 https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211035357

35.

Makalintal

(2020, June 9). On Instagram, artists are creating a shareable language of protest. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/xg8d97/on-instagram-artists-are-creating-a-shareable-language-of-protest

36.

McLeod

J. M.

Scheufele

D. A.

Moy

(1999). Community, communication, and participation: The role of mass media and interpersonal discussion in local political participation. Political Communication, 16(3), 315–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/105846099198659

37.

Newman

Fletcher

Schulz

Andı

Nielsen

R. K.

(2020). Reuters institute digital news report 2020. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-06/DNR_2020_FINAL.pdf

38.

Nguyen

(2020, August 12). How social justice slideshows took over Instagram PowerPoint activism is everywhere on Instagram. Why do these posts look so familiar? Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21359098/social-justice-slideshows-instagram-activism

39.

Nielsen

R. K.

Fletcher

Newman

Brennen

J. S.

Howard

P. N.

(2020). Navigating the “infodemic”: How people in six countries access and rate news and information about coronavirus. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/infodemic-how-people-six-countries-access-and-rate-news-and-information-about-coronavirus

40.

Pender

K. N.

Hope

E. C.

Riddick

K. N.

(2019). Queering black activism: Exploring the relationship between racial identity and black activist orientation among black LGBTQ youth. Journal of Community Psychology, 47(3), 529–543. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22136

41.

Putnam

R. D.

(2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster.

42.

Quintelier

Stolle

Harell

(2012). Politics in peer groups: Exploring the causal relationship between network diversity and political participation. Political Research Quarterly, 65(4), 868–881. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912911411099

43.

Ramasubramanian

Banjo

(2020). Critical media effects framework: Bridging critical cultural communication and media effects through power, intersectionality, context, and agency. Journal of Communication, 70(3), 379–400. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaa014

44.

Scheufele

D. A.

(2000). Agenda-setting, priming, and framing revisited: Another look at cognitive effects of political communication. Mass Communication & Society, 3(2–3), 297–316. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0323_07

45.

Scheufele

D. A.

Hardy

B. W.

Brossard

Waismel-Manor

I. S.

Nisbet

(2006). Democracy based on difference: Examining the links between structural heterogeneity, heterogeneity of discussion networks, and democratic citizenship. Journal of Communication, 56(4), 728–753. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00317.x

46.

Schmitt-Beck

(1996). Mass media, the electorate, and the bandwagon: A study of communication effects on vote choice in Germany. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 8, 266–291. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/8.3.266

47.

Selenu

(2017). Reading Dante impolitically: Gramsci’s contrapuntal criticism of Inferno 10. Mediaevalia, 38, 209–248. https://doi.org/10.1353/mdi.2017.0007

48.

Sellers

R. M.

Smith

M. A.

Shelton

J. N.

Rowley

S. A.

Chavous

T. M.

(1998). Multidimensional model of racial identity: A reconceptualization of African American racial identity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(1), 18–39. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0201_2

49.

Shah

D. V.

McLeod

D. M.

Rojas

Cho

Wagner

M. W.

Friedland

L. A.

(2017). Revising the communication mediation model for a new political communication ecology. Human Communication Research, 43(4), 491–504. https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12115

50.

Southern

(2020, August 30). Instagram Carousels are the most engaging post type [STUDY]. Search Engine Journal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/instagram-carousels/379311/#close

51.

Statista. (2021, January 27). Global Instagram users 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/730315/instagram-stories-dau/

52.

Sundar

S. S.

(2008). The MAIN model: A heuristic approach to understanding technology effects on credibility. In Metzger

M. J.

Flanagin

A. J.

(Eds.), Digital media, youth, and credibility (pp. 73–100). The MIT Press.

53.

Tamir

(2021). The growing diversity of Black America. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/03/25/the-growing-diversity-of-black-america/

54.

Thomas

Kureshi

(2020). Consumer skepticism towards cause related marketing: Exploring the consumer tendency to question from emerging market perspective. International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, 17(2), 225–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12208-020-00244-5

55.

Tropp

L. R.

(2008). The role of trust in intergroup contact: Its significance and implications for improving relations between groups. In Wagner

Tropp

L. R.

Finchilescu

Tredoux

(Eds.), Improving intergroup relations: Building on the legacy of Thomas F. Pettigrew (pp. 91–106). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444303117.ch7

56.

Valenzuela

Park

Kee

K. F.

(2009). Is there social capital in a social network site? Facebook use and college students’ life satisfaction, trust, and Participation. Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, 14(4), 875–901. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01474.x

57.

Waddell

T. F.

Bailey

(2017). Inspired by the crowd: The effect of online comments on elevation and universal orientation. Communication Monographs, 84(4), 534–550. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2017.1369137

58.

Walter

Brüggemann

Engesser

(2018). Echo chambers of denial: Explaining user comments on climate change. Environmental Communication, 12(2), 204–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2017.1394893

59.

White-Johnson

R. L.

(2012). Prosocial involvement among African-American young adults: Considering racial discrimination and racial identity. Journal of Black Psychology, 38(3), 313–341. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0095798411420429

60.

Williams

(2015). Digital defense: Black feminists resist violence with hashtag activism. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), 341–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1008744

61.

Wise

(2022, January 24). Instagram live statistics 2022: Is livestreaming effective? Earth Web. https://earthweb.com/instagram-live-statistics/