TY - JOUR
T1 - THIS PROTEST WILL BE TWEETED
T2 - Twitter and protest policing during the Pittsburgh G20
AU - Earl, Jennifer
AU - McKee Hurwitz, Heather
AU - Mejia Mesinas, Analicia
AU - Tolan, Margaret
AU - Arlotti, Ashley
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Alex Halavais, who created the archives of tweets studied here, and Maria Garrido, Dana Fisher, Rachel Einwohner, and Kelly Garrett for their comments and feedback. We would also like to thank the National Science Foundation for generous support of the content coding of the tweets and subsequent analysis through an NSF CAREER Award (SES-0547990). Finally, we thank the many research assistants who worked on this project (see http:// jearl.faculty.arizona.edu/internet_and_activism_lab for a full listing) and Heidi Reynolds-Stenson for her research assistance.
PY - 2013/5
Y1 - 2013/5
N2 - This article examines the use of Twitter at protests surrounding the G20 meetings held in Pittsburgh, PA in September 2009. Based on work on information communication technologies and protest, and on more recent work on Twitter usage at protests, we develop several hypotheses about the content of tweets during protests. Most significantly, we argue that Twitter is a widely available mobile social networking tool that can be used to reduce information asymmetries between protesters and police. Examining the content of 30,296 tweets over a nine-day period, we find that protesters frequently used Twitter to share information, including information about protest locations, as well as the location and actions of police, which is information that was formerly monopolized by the police. Twitter use may be creating a new dynamic in protester and police interaction toward information symmetries. We conclude by identifying implications for policing practices and for protesters.
AB - This article examines the use of Twitter at protests surrounding the G20 meetings held in Pittsburgh, PA in September 2009. Based on work on information communication technologies and protest, and on more recent work on Twitter usage at protests, we develop several hypotheses about the content of tweets during protests. Most significantly, we argue that Twitter is a widely available mobile social networking tool that can be used to reduce information asymmetries between protesters and police. Examining the content of 30,296 tweets over a nine-day period, we find that protesters frequently used Twitter to share information, including information about protest locations, as well as the location and actions of police, which is information that was formerly monopolized by the police. Twitter use may be creating a new dynamic in protester and police interaction toward information symmetries. We conclude by identifying implications for policing practices and for protesters.
KW - Twitter
KW - information asymmetry
KW - protest
KW - protest policing
KW - repression
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84876345899&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84876345899&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1369118X.2013.777756
DO - 10.1080/1369118X.2013.777756
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84876345899
SN - 1369-118X
VL - 16
SP - 459
EP - 478
JO - Information Communication and Society
JF - Information Communication and Society
IS - 4
ER -