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'Tweeting in Solidarity': a Corpus Linguistics-Driven Analysis of Tweets

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'Tweeting in Solidarity': a Corpus Linguistics-Driven Analysis of Tweets Linguistics Department School of Literature, Language and Media University of the Witwatersrand ‘Tweeting in Solidarity’: A corpus linguistics-driven analysis of tweets during the South African student protests By Amé Bolton 674657 A Master’s Research Report submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master’s in Linguistics Supervisor: Tommaso Milani Date of Submission: 31 March 2018 ❖ Contents ⁂ Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 3 0. Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 5 2. Literature ................................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 The Internet as social ....................................................................................................... 7 2.2 The Internet as political ................................................................................................. 13 3. Key concepts and definitions ................................................................................................. 19 3.1 On identity politics ......................................................................................................... 19 3.1.1 Identity and community online ............................................................................... 20 3.2 Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis ..................................................... 26 4. Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 31 5. Historical Overview ............................................................................................................... 34 5.1 Protest within the South African Context ....................................................................... 34 5.1 South African student protests ....................................................................................... 37 5.1.1 Social media use during the protests ....................................................................... 41 6. Analysis of corpora ................................................................................................................ 45 6.1 #RhodesMustFall ........................................................................................................... 45 Table 6.1.1: Top 15 lexical tokens for #RhodesMustFall ..................................................... 45 Table 6.1.2: Keywords for #RhodesMustFall ....................................................................... 51 6.2 #OpenStellenbosch ......................................................................................................... 54 Table 6.2.1: Top 15 lexical tokens for #OpenStellenbosch ................................................... 54 Image 6.2a ............................................................................................................................. 62 Table 6.2.2: Keywords for #OpenStellenbosch ..................................................................... 63 6.3 #WitsFeesMustFall......................................................................................................... 65 Table 6.3.1: Top 15 lexical tokens for #WitsFeesMustFall .................................................. 66 Table 6.3.2: Keywords for #WitsFeesMustFall..................................................................... 71 Image 6.3a/b .......................................................................................................................... 72 6.4 #UCTFeesMustFall ........................................................................................................ 72 Table 6.4.1: Top 15 lexical tokens for #UCTFeesMustFall .................................................. 73 Table 6.4.2: Keywords for #UCTFeesMustFall .................................................................... 76 1 Image 6.4a ................................................................................................................................. 77 6.5 FeesMustFall .................................................................................................................. 77 Table 6.8.1: Top 15 lexical tokens for #FeesMustFall .......................................................... 77 Table 6.8.2: Keywords for #FeesMustFall ............................................................................ 82 6.5 The protests as a whole .................................................................................................. 84 Table 6.6.1: Frequent lexical words across the protests ........................................................ 85 7. Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 86 7.1 ‘South Africa is a black and white country’ ................................................................... 86 7.2 Disunity of the ‘fallist’ protests: Black Consciousness to a Colourblind Discourse ..... 89 7.3 ‘Aluta Continua’ ............................................................................................................. 91 7.4 The hashtag as the message ........................................................................................... 92 7.5 Is participation an illusion? ........................................................................................... 93 8. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 95 9. Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 98 10. Appendices ....................................................................................................................... 111 a. Appendix A: The Constitution of South Africa ................................................................. 111 b. Appendix B: MA Research Report Release Form ............................................................ 112 c. Appendix C: Plagiarism Declaration Form .................................................................... 113 2 ⁂ Acknowledgements I have an extensive number of thank-yous due, for this work could not have been possible without the efforts of many actors along the way. Firstly, a massive hat-off to my supervisor, Dr Tommaso Milani, who, at many times- I’m sure, had to find the inner strength to always support me regardless of my antics and self-doubt. You have been a true pillar of support and the best mentor that I could ever have had the privilege of learning from, for which I will be forever grateful. A big thank you also must go to both the University of Witwatersrand, as well as the Linguistics Department. I have met so many influential mentors, friends, and colleagues, and learnt so much within your walls. I must also commend my family and friends for their support, but none so much as my partner, Devin Botes who was my rock during the production of this work. I would also like to acknowledge Morgan Bolton and Koki Kapa for their assistance with comments and editing, as well as Natalija Cerimaj, whom I have relied on through the course of my studies - we’ve really been on a long journey together. Finally, a thank you to anyone who reads this. A lot of love, and a lot of me has been poured into this work, and I appreciate your reading it. Amé 3 0. Abstract The social media boom has affected people the world over, allowing them a platform to voice their opinions and sentiments, but also allowing them to create connections with people around the globe. In many instances, these connections have been based on shared political beliefs, effectively creating ‘issue communities’, which has lent itself to the reappropriation of social media as a space that can facilitate political activism both in the online sphere and in the physical sphere, as well as widening the action opportunities for participation. This work seeks to uncover the different identities, communities, and discourses that were constituted on the social media site Twitter during the student protests spanning from the #RhodesMustFall protest of 2015, to the #FeesMustFall protests that spread like a veldt fire through 26 of South Africa’s universities. Collections of 1000 tweets per hashtag (namely #RhodesMustFall, #OpenStellenbosch, #WitsFeesMustFall and #UCTFeesMustFall) were collected and run through the corpus linguistics software AntConc, whereafter findings were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Overall, users were able to use Twitter for the purpose of information-sharing by reporting on the live events of the protest, requesting resources and for the purposes of organization and planning. While the ‘fallist’ protests, which are often categorized and grouped under the umbrella as the student protests of South Africa, further analysis exposed that in fact, the discourses that were prominent in the earlier protests, namely the #RhodesMustFall and its derivative protest #OpenStellenbosch were far more aimed at the metaphysical conditions of higher education, where the #FeesMustFall protests focused on the material conditions of student life. Moreover,
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