Participatory Culture in the Black Lives Matter World

6:10 PM A Student's Perspective 0 Comments

Participatory Culture is something which has been widely and exceedingly prevalent in the last few years. As Jenkins et al. states, it is a culture “which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another – at the heart of the movement.” Jenkins then goes on to showcase how participatory culture encompasses 4 main features.

  1. Affiliations – Memberships whereby online communities can communicate
  2. Expressions – The production of content
  3. Collaborative Problem-Solving – Collaboration in teams
  4. Circulations – Shaping that of media

Ellcessor builds on Jenkin’s theory, applying it to social movements. She argues that that to solve the world’s biggest issues, one must utilise the web and its technologies of communication, transparency and collective intelligence.

These theories are showcased through multiple online communities including that of the social community Black Lives Matter. In fact their very website reads:

#BlackLivesMatter is an online forum intended to build connections between Black people and our allies to fight anti-Black racism, to spark dialogue among Black people, and to facilitate the types of connections necessary to encourage social action and engagement.”

This one sentence happens to exemplify Jenkin’s four features and Elcessor’s argument and thus participatory culture as a whole. Examples of BLM collaboration include the following artworks:


As Diani writes, contemporary social movements and their success are due to the culture, technologies, infrastructure and national boundaries of their era. BLM current era involves such technologies as search engines like YouTube and Google.

YouTube as an online media vehicle is very powerful. It is the second largest search engine, the third largest social media network and it facilitates amateur work, educational videos, entertainment and more (Mushroom Networks). As a result, BLM allows for those involved in the movement to create their own videos and upload them to YouTube to share their message and bring about activism. The theory of moral panic is at play here as BLM attempts to spread the apparent issue which they are hoping to remove. As Burgess and Green state, “moral panics are further amplified by the utopian hyperbole about ‘Web 2.0’ and the democratization of cultural production.” YouTube revolves around Web 2.0 and so provides a network whereby BLM can amplify their message.

The following is a YouTube video created by multiple BLM members for the sole purpose of spreading their message and bringing about change.



Yet this works 2 ways. Though videos are uploaded for BLM, many are uploaded to argue against and convey the other side of the movement.




Thus YouTube is rather democratic as it portrays all sides including BLM, the social groups targeted by BLM and those against it.

Google, the largest search engine, is argued by Carr to be making its users more stupid and argued by Turkle to be making its users less communicative. Yet, in terms of the BLM movement, it is doing the exact opposite. It allows for great communication of its members as users can locate the social networks of BLM through Google. Users can also discover forums and information related to the group through the search engine and so it widely benefits BLM.

Google and YouTube facilitate the participatory culture which has been so necessary to BLM in gaining a voice and subsequently support.

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BLM and Police Brtuality

4:16 PM A Student's Perspective 0 Comments

The Black Lives Matter movement has brought about a lot of support from many different areas across the world. What the movement embodies and encompasses is in all honestly for the best. The Black population wants fairness and equality in their lives and the movement seems to have the view that the police force targets their people specifically over other races.

Is this true? Are Police racist? Do they have an agenda against the Black population?

It is truly a grey matter. There is no doubt that racism exists and you would be pretty hard pressed to find a police force where everyone deems all races equally. Yet to say that all Police are racist and unfair is a huge exaggeration and overstatement.

The Police are no doubt perfect yet they are a force for goodness in the world and so need to represent such goodness in all their employees. Thus when one lone policeman shoots a Black person in arguably a wrong scenario, the news is spread rapidly and the supposed ‘goodness’ of the police force is heavily argued about. When such a scenario happens again and again then there is reason to have doubts and this is why the Black Lives Matter movement are campaigning so hard to have scrutiny in the police force and fairness amongst who they target.

This matter against the police is a rather difficult thing to talk about. There are more Black deaths from policeman and yet there is more crime in the Black community than any other community in America. Hence why this topic is so hard to talk about and hence why people’s opinions can often be made to be racist.

I highly encourage you excellent readers out there to look at some studies, particularly this one:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/26/a-year-of-reckoning-police-fatally-shoot-nearly-1000/

It is important to understand the full picture when it comes to the police force and the Black Lives Matter campaign for it is indeed a difficult topic to grasp.

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BLM Around the World

3:29 PM A Student's Perspective 0 Comments

The movement Black Lives Matter started in America. It began, grew and flourished throughout all states and eventually came to have an incredible national influence. No one truly at first saw nor realised how big this movement could become and its achievements can be seen as the result of the Postmodern Age.

What this Postmodern Age accommodates is a more globalised world. With the advent of the Internet and the social influence of Web 2.0, the Postmodern Age allowed for the world to come closer and become more connected. As a result images, ideas, information and more could all be shared internationally allowing for the participation of a single idea to build exponentially.

Though Black Lives Matter began in one state, it grew to one country and just as it grew throughout America, it too touched the whole world...



It even touched my home country.

The power of the Internet is truly immense. This issue has become globalised. It has reached millions of people who may have never become aware of the movement if it weren't for the social implications of the modern world. Strikes and petitions have grown immensely as a result and Black Lives Matter has achieved much because of it.


Joseph Badaan

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