The Black Lives Matter Movement’s Use of Digitized Media and the Prospects for Antiracist Struggle in the United States, 2013 onwards

Abstract

The present dissertation examined the Black Lives Movement (BLM) in order to explain its origins, motivations, and goals. It focused on the adopted strategy, the employed means, and efforts deployed by the BLM movement’s activists to provide a better explanation of the views, prospects, and effects of this contemporary movement regarding the issue of racial injustice in general, and the issue of racially-motivated police violence in particular. In addition, this work compared the movement under study to the Civil Rights Movement to demonstrate that the BLM movement is a continuation of America's historical racial struggle. More precisely, this research work investigated BLM virtual activism as well as the roles of digital media in expanding and strengthening the movement. The aim was to explore whether this revolutionary movement, which largely depends on digital activism, has brought any refinement to resolve the issue of police brutality against Black people in the American society since 2013, or it has failed in voicing Blacks’ demands and aspirations. Finally, this dissertation concluded that BLM use of social media did not only raise awareness and debates on race in the United States but reached far audiences as well. Nonetheless, despite the fact that the BLM movement has brought large and diverse groups together to share knowledge, personal experiences, and organize around police violence; racial inequality still persists in the American society.