fracking, elsipogtog first nation, and the police: examining the social media discourse around a...
TRANSCRIPT
Fracking, Elsipogtog First Nation,
and the police: Examining the social media discourse around a
police-repressed environmental justice movement
Molly J. Simis, M.S. Ph.D. Candidate
Jill Hopke, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Environmental movements and new media
Police repression
Climate change
Contested energy technologies
• Computer-‐assisted content analysis of English language tweets with DiscoverText machine learning funcEon
• Narrowed down fracking-‐related tweets with hashtag keywords: #cdnpoli #rcmp #Elsipogtog #INM #IdleNoMore #nbpoli #FirstNaDon #FN
• De-‐duplicated the data, which groups all verbaEm duplicates
Methods
Methods
• Grouped the data into three categories based on # of re-‐tweets – Hi: 20+ retweets (n=49) – Low: 1-‐19 retweets (n=762)
– Single items: no retweets (n = 2872) • Coded each group into subsets of posts with images images and posts without images
Methods
• Coded text + images for – Movement response/presence
• Peaceful protest • DisrupEve protest • Solidarity
– Police acDon/presence • Use of force, surveillance and monitoring • Equipment and weapons
• Coded images for – Police-‐protester interacDon (present or absent)
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
Movement response/presence within Elsipogtog-themed posts
Hi # of RT; Image
Hi # of RT; No image
Low # of RT; Image
Low # of RT; No image
Single items; Image
Single items; No image
No movement response Peaceful protest
DisrupEve protest Solidarity
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
Police acDon/presence within Elsipogtog-‐themed posts
Hi # of RT; Image
Hi # of RT; No image
Low # of RT; Image
Low # of RT; No image
Single items; Image
Single items; No image
No police acEon Use of force, surveillance/monitoring Police equipment and weapons
Police action/presence within Elsipogtog-themed posts
Police-protester interaction
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0% No police-‐protester interacEon Police-‐protester interacEon
Hi # of RT; Image
Low # of RT; Image
Single items; Image
Conclusion
• Peaceful protests are a dominant theme of highly re-‐tweeted posts.
• Solidarity tends to be textually described more oaen than visually depicted.
• Police use of force/surveillance is visually depicted more oaen than textually described.
Repression galvanizes tweeEng
Questions? Thank you!
Molly J. Simis, M.S. Ph.D. Candidate [email protected]
Jill Hopke, Ph.D. Assistant Professor [email protected]