Political identity in contemporary South Africa: a study looking into the construction and articulation of gender on the online phenomenon of Black Twitter
Date
2017
Authors
Lebethe, Tsholofelo Emily Kelebogile
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Abstract
This study examines the new online phenomenon called Black Twitter and the publics
that have been formed on this platform in regards to issues affecting black lives.
Specifically, it not only introduces to the reader the South African Black Twitter
market, but more importantly, it looks at how Black Twitter users construct and
articulate their gender identities online. This is done through analyzing trending topics,
particularly, through a specific hashtag (#IFApartheidDidntHappen) and accounts
(@blak_terrorist and @KasiMlungu) which offer rich insight around racial identities
and enables one to analyze the content and possible discourses that come into play on
this Black Twitter platform. This paper also contributes to the growing literature on the
growing black middle-class by exploring how Black Twitter is providing a voice to
groups that were historically excluded from the mainstream media discourse. The key
purpose of this paper was to explore, as has been suggested, Black Twitter as a public
platform and how its young group of users are moving into spaces to challenge the
status quo and change historically dominant discourses.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Arts (Development Studies), August 2017
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Citation
Lebethe, Tsholofelo Emily Kelebogile (2017) Political identity in contemporary South Africa: a study looking into the construction and articulation of gender on the online phenomenon of Black Twitter, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <https://hdl.handle.net/10539/24625>