The Technology of Hope: Twitter and the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign by

Chelsey Smith

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts In Intercultural and International Communication

Royal Roads University Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Supervisor: Dr. David Black August 29, 2015

• Chelsey Smith, 2015

Committee Approval

The members of Chelsey Smith’s Thesis Committee certify that they have read the thesis titled The Technology of Hope: Twitter and the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements for the

Degree of Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication:

Dr. David Black, Associate Professor [signature on file]

School of Communication & Culture

Royal Roads University

Dr. Chaseten Remillard, Professor [signature on file]

School of Communication & Culture

Royal Roads University

Dr. Merlyna Lim, Assistant Professor [signature on file]

School of Journalism and Communication

Carleton University

Final approval and acceptance of this thesis is contingent upon submission of the final copy of the thesis to Royal Roads University. The thesis supervisor confirms to have read this thesis and recommends that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements:

Dr. David Black [signature on file]

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NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/.

Some material in this work is not being made available under the terms of this license:

• Third-Party material that is being used under fair dealing or with permission.

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Abstract

On April 14, 2014 Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group, abducted 274 girls from a secondary school in the Chibok region of northeastern Nigeria. The mass abduction of the Chibok girls shook Nigerians and spurred a social movement where citizens took to the streets of Abuja in protest and demanded the return of the girls.

The movement quickly infiltrated online spaces, and splashed throughout social media where celebrities like First Lady Michelle Obama and talk show host Ellen

DeGeneres held up signs with the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Using semantic network analysis in following the “#BringBackOurGirls” hashtag after the one-year anniversary of the abduction, and in-depth interviews with activists and influencers in Nigeria and North America, this thesis explores how technology, expressly Twitter, can influence the progression of a new social movement like

#BringBackOurGirls. It finds Twitter serves as a powerful public space for minorities and marginalized voices to circumvent traditional media; once there, these actors can express opinion and opposition in a succinct format, as well as unite and organize swiftly in their capacity as new social movements. The case study also reveals important intersections between technology, radical Islam, gender, the tension between the Global North and the Global South, and online versus offline activism.

Keywords

New social movements, transnational activism, Twitter, Boko Haram, gender

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Acknowledgements

I graciously acknowledge the expertise, supervision, and patience of my thesis advisor, Dr. David Black. I am also grateful for the exemplary assistance of

Marc Smith, Director of the Social Media Foundation, as his dedication to open data and open scholarship made my project possible. But, most importantly, I am thankful to the participants of this study: the dedicated activists and those advocating for social justice across the globe, both online and in “real life,” that make change possible.

Thanks to my parents, Daryl and Jennifer Smith, for their support, sound guidance, and encouragement in all of my scholastic and humanitarian endeavors.

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Table of Contents

Background ...... 7 Literature Review...... 11 New Social Movements ...... 9 Political Communication & Civic Engagement 2.0...... 10 Clicktivism and Digital Advocacy in the Global Village ...... 14 Twitter and Social Activism………………………………………………………………………….15

Methods ...... 16 Presentation of Findings...... 19 Social Media as a Democratizing Force ...... 21 The Place of Emotion in #BringBackOurGirls……………………………………………… 21 The Players, Audience, and Opposing Ideas of Agency ...... 24 Rising Against Radical Islam...... 30 New Social Movements and #BringBackOurGirls ...... 31 Semantic Network Analysis: Community Clusters...... 34 Conclusion ...... 35 Appendix ...... 37 References ...... 39

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“Because people shouldn’t go to school and then not come home. That’s just

not right.”

– Biola Alabi, African media expert

(personal communication, April 23, 2015).

On April 14, 2014 Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group, abducted 274 girls from their dormitory at the Chibok Government Girls’ Secondary School, Borno

State, in northeastern Nigeria (Peters, 2014). The mass abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls shook Nigerians and spurred a social movement where citizens took to the streets of Abuja in protest and demanded the return of the girls. According to

TIME magazine, the news of the abduction broke two weeks later (Alter, 2014) and a social media campaign with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls went viral thereafter.

The #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign gained global attention from foreign governments and celebrities calling for action, and was managed by activists and influencers on the ground and online across Nigeria. The success of the Twitter campaign in raising awareness and coordinating activists in support of the Chibok girls, among other things, demonstrated the power and value of Twitter as a tool for new social movements.

The digitization of media and rise of social networking have radically changed the way people interact and organize, and how events are communicated and reported. Social media, given their ease of use and instantaneous nature, have advanced the rate of formation and development of communication, new social

7 movements and civic engagement by acting as a public sphere (Castells, 2011;

Ausserhofer & Maireder, 2013, p. 291). Social media are open, online networks that act as searchable databases for information, and as popular platforms for expression. Among social media, Twitter is a digital platform that variably supports one-to-many and many-to-many communication. Twitter users can retweet tweets by other users, follow other users, and follow conversations they are interested in by searching hashtags, a tagging system to organize content. Like Facebook, Twitter users may upload photos, videos, links, and biographies, but each tweet is limited to

140 characters. Although privacy settings are available, the organization of the platform is more open than Facebook, allowing users to connect with social networks based on interests, not necessarily who they know. Twitter users with the largest following and clout are commonly referred to as “influencers,” and will be referenced as such throughout this paper.

Twitter is evocative, in its nature and use, of elements of what digital media scholar Manuel Castells has famously called the “network society.” In his view, humans organize and communicate through networks and systems (Castells, 2013, p.6). In a network society power is multidimensional and decentralized, and actors create power and counter-power by holding and switching the power of the networks (Castells, 2013, p.7-9). While traditional social movements have formal leadership and organization and are spread through pamphlets and oral exchange, new social movements are less formal, less hierarchical, more interactive, and often highly digitalized (Castells, 2013, p. 15).

8 New social movement and social change theories will be used to aid in exploring Twitter’s conspicuous utility in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, alongside in-depth, semi-structured interviews with social activists in Nigeria and

North America; these theories will be used to illuminate the qualitative data yielded by the interviews and offer insight into the ongoing workings of the movement.

Furthermore, a semantic network analysis of the Twitter hashtag

#BringBackOurGirls over a 24-hour period immediately following the one-year anniversary of the abduction will explore the format and organization of the online conversation, adding a quantitative element to the research methodology here.

My research draws on and contributes to the digital and participatory media and new social movement literature (Benford & Snow, 2000; Carroll & Hackett,

2006; Downing, 2000; Shirky, 2011; Van De Donk, Loader, Nixon & Rucht, 2004), and highlights Twitter as a tool for political influence and social activism, using the

#BringBackOurGirls campaign as a case study (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012; Conover,

Gonçalves, Flammini, & Menczer, 2012; Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012;

Rheingold, 2008; Zywica, & Danowski, 2008). The goal of this research is to contribute to existing literature on social networking and social media theory, in particular regarding Twitter as a tool for advancing social movement and political discourse. I hope to contribute quantifiable, concrete examples which non-profit organizations, activists, and social change-makers can use to help harness Twitter as an effective tool for progress.

9 This research is significant to me as a communication scholar with an interest in new media, and as a humanitarian devoted to international development and the pursuit of peace. As a journalist, as well as a digital and social strategist, I have developed and managed social media campaigns for social change and as a means to engage government and citizens on justice issues. I have also worked with survivors of gender-based violence and in education programming for the girl child in Western and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Finally, and most importantly, this paper’s research question is defined as follows: what function and significance, potential and limitations does Twitter represent as a medium in its use by the new social movement

#BringBackOurGirls? My thesis statement, in answer to the research question written above, is as follows: When a social problem offers hope, anger, a uniting force, and pre-exists in the public consciousness, Twitter is a highly conducive marketing tool for activists. This research also revealed that in the case of

#BringBackOurGirls, Twitter functions as a means to inform, organize, and educate citizens; empower the feminist and emotive voice; and amplify the emotive messages of hope that drive the movement. Furthermore, Twitter serves as a powerful public space for minorities, marginalized, and feminist voices to circumvent traditional media in order to voice opinion and opposition, and to reframe the #BringBackOurGirls and other new social movements by way of appealing to multiple networks of potential support.

Background

10 Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country (“One World Nations Online,”

2014) and has a history of chronic political violence and insecurity (Aghedo &

Osumah, 2012, p. 857). Nigeria’s political history is burdened with complications of colonialism, military takeovers, violent elections, ethnic and religious wars, and complex foreign relationships due, in part, to Nigeria’s oil abundance (Singer, 2005;

Kew, 2007). The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has unsuccessfully attempted to curb the violence in the oil-producing states (Singer, 2005, p. 13).

Shell, a major foreign-owned oil producer in the country, estimates that one thousand Nigerians are killed in interethnic or political violence each year (Singer,

2005, p. 13).

Islam and Christianity are the two dominant religions in Nigeria, as traditional faith traditions dwindled due to colonialism throughout Africa (Onapajo,

2012, p. 44). The rising popularity of Christianity in the south of Nigeria conflicts with the Muslim population in the North; both include sects and divisions within themselves, and are differently and complexly tied to government (Kew, 2007, p.17). This geographical and religious polarization is attributed to Islam extending to the North in the 11th century through trade and missionary work as well as promotion of Western education in the 15th century bringing about Christianization in the South (Onapajo, 2012, p. 45).

Nigeria shifted to a democratic regime in 1999, and Sharia (Islamic) law was adopted and spread throughout northern Nigerian states. This shift pushed non-

Muslims from the North, and caused counter movements and campaigns from

11 Christians until Sharia was no longer accepted by 10 of the 11 states in 2007

(Onapajo, 2012, p. 51-53). Religious and ethnic-fueled political violence, including bombings and riots, erupted after the 2011 presidential election that ratified

Goodluck Jonathan’s early accession to power – Jonathan had been vice-president -- upon the 2010 death in office of President Yar’Adua (Onapajo, 2012, p. 56-57).

Jonathan’s main political opponent in the election was General Muhammadu Buhari, which added a strong Christian versus Muslim dynamic to the election (Onapajo,

2012, p.56). In the 2015 election, in a replay of their 2010 contest, General Buhari defeated Jonathan.

Boko Haram, which in Hausa (the indigenous language of Nigeria’s northern ethnic group, also called Hausa) translates to “ Western education is evil,” is a militant sect of fanatical Islam that is believed to have been formed in the 1990s

(Aghedo & Osumah, 2012, p. 858). Boko Haram has support from neighbouring countries and operates out of northeastern Nigeria under its current leader

Abubakar Shekau. Boko Haram also has ties to the Islamic terrorist network al-

Qaeda in the form of training, recruiting and financing (Aghedo & Osumah, 2012, p.

858) and to terrorist organization Islamic State, to which it more recently pledged formal allegiance; because of these relationships and Boko Haram’s own terrorist activities, the Nigerian terrorist group has been added to the United Nations

Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions List. Boko Haram targets high-profile leaders as well as public groups, and is responsible for the horrific murder of many thousands of Nigerians and the displacement of even more (Aghedo & Osumah, 2012, p. 858).

12 On April 14, 2014 Boko Haram abducted 274 girls from a secondary school in

Chibok, an act that brought the terrorist group to the world’s attention. The first two weeks following the abduction of the Chibok girls set the stage for what turned into a global social justice campaign. At first, the Nigerian government misreported and misrepresented the details of the case, and even denied acknowledgement of the abduction. Family members headed the investigations into the disappearance of the girls, and sources believe the girls may have been trafficked on the human market, sold into forced labour and sexual slavery, used as “mules” for drug trading, or exploited as “wives” by Islamic militants and Boko Haram members (McCoy, 2014).

The delayed response and inaction of the Nigerian state in a time of trauma infuriated the many affected by the atrocities of Boko Haram. The fecklessness of the government and the audacious crime provoked outrage across Nigeria and the world as the news spread.

#BringBackOurGirls went viral on Twitter after Ibrahim Abdullahi, a lawyer in Abuja, live-tweeted a televised speech in Port Harcourt, Nigeria delivered by Oby

Ezekwesili, a former minister of education and now a senior economic advisor with an NGO. In that speech, Ezekweseli said resonantly, “bring back our daughters”

(Neubauer, 2014). The subsequent #BringBackOurGirls hashtag garnered global attention and a slew of photos of sympathetic celebrities, politicians and other icons eager to participate in the popular trend by reciting (often digitally) the key words and taglines of social campaigns. This is typical of a phenomenon often referred to, sometimes pejoratively, as clicktivism, slacktivism or slacker activism (Glenn, 2015,

13 p. 81). Examples of slacktivism include liking a Facebook page devoted to a social cause, changing an avatar to a coloured ribbon, or signing an online petition. .

While social media has been studied in its contributions as a political platform and public sphere in the various Arab Springs and the Egyptian revolutions, the #BringBackOurGirls social movement offers a variety of complexities surrounding gender, technology, religion, and political efficacy that continues (a year later) to drive protest on and offline throughout Nigeria and North

America. The hope and anger that ignite social movements (Castells, 2013, p. 14) live on in the case of #BringBackOurGirls, as evident in the tweets from users across the world that use the hashtag to reference sorrow, sympathy, calls to action, questions, and point out other acts of terror or related cases of injustice against girls. While traditional media offer similar versions of one frame in which to understand a phenomenon, a successful hashtag will tell the stories from multiple perspectives of Twitter users that engage on a topic, with the most influential tweets filtering to the top of a search list. This feature invites users across the globe to witness first hand accounts of events, experiences, and ideas in regard to a topic.

Literature Review

New Social Movements

#BringBackOurGirls may be characterized as a new social movement, and hence the subject of what is often called “New Social Movement Theory.” To better understand this claim, it’s necessary to review some of the key distinctions between old and new social movements.

14 The classic distinction between old and new social movements derives from the work of Alberto Melucci, Alain Touraine, and Claus Offe. In their writings, a dichotomy is established that has become something of a rubric for social movement research. Old social movements, such as the abolitionist, labour, and the suffragette movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, were typically hierarchical, with a clean delineation between leader and follower, as well as movement member and non-member. Such older movements were focused on economic, legal, and human rights issues. New social movements, which have come into being notably since the 1960s, don’t feature the same hierarchical organization or well-drawn distinction between leader and led, member and ordinary uncommitted citizen. They are horizontal and porous where the old social movements were vertical and relatively closed, informal and less premeditated where the older cause-based groups were given to significant strategizing and careful planning.

Moreover, the new social movements are interested in issues that are more identity and lifestyle-oriented, rather than attached to well-defined issues like the end of slavery, the right to unionize and strike, or the right to vote. The new social movements, such as the civil rights, LGBT, and environmental movements, have more extensive if sometimes diffuse goals. They seek a broader transformation of society, encouraging a change in opinion and culture just as much as they aspire to concrete changes in law, such as the end of Jim Crow segregation in the U.S. South or marriage equality. Old social movements tend to be context-specific (to a state or institution), as in achieving the right to vote in Canada or the U.S. (Castells, 2011,

15 p.420). New social movements are geographically more distributed, and depending on the movement, can be transnational in nature, such as with attempts to end the use of landmines in war or help those with HIV-AIDS. The new social movements are fluid, communication-driven, and interested in themes like the body and sexuality, nature and quality of life (Barker, Johnson, and Lavalette, 2001, p. 198).

There is a strong viral nature in the new social movements. They seem to emerge from nowhere, like the Occupy Wall Street protests and Canada’s Idle No

More, and prefer collective decision-making to a strong leader-led model of administration. Their viral politics -- the newest movements being infectiously popular and increasingly conducted via social media -- typically express a distinct social justice value: “the new politics of participation, quality of life, individual self- realization and human rights” (Habermas (1987) in Carroll & Hackett, 2006, p. 96).

New social movements create counterpower, “deliberate attempts to change power relationships,” forming new values and goals that defy the current norm (Castells,

2013, p. 9). They are more personal, increasingly digitally mediated, and grow more rapidly than older movements (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). New social movements articulate themselves through a “discursive struggle” and contest the authority of

“cultural codes and points of view” (Cohen, 1985, in Carroll & Hackett, p. 86-87). The focus on discursive struggle shifts the aim of a movement from being single-action oriented to knowledge-driven, thus success and power are gained by opposing, redefining, or sharing a message.

The transnational scope of many new social movements acts to broaden sociopolitical spheres, and allows those involved to observe connections between

16 people, places and variables that were not visible before (Ilcan & Lacey, 2013). This notion benefits feminist causes especially, given how complexly gender is implicated in other discursive and material structures in the world. For example, the popularization of #BringBackOurGirls leads to awareness and education; this in turn makes greater the possibility for learning opportunities and action regarding global politics, acts of terror, human rights education, and the vulnerability of the girl child in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

Emotion and morality have a special place in social movements, be they old or new. History shows that social movements are usually triggered by an emotional response to a meaningful event that enables protestors to overcome the feelings of fear (Castells, 2013, p. 14). For social change to occur, emotionally motivated action from a person or a group of people must take place (Castells, 2013, p.14). Further to emotion, fear is a key component to triggering anxiety and anger at injustice

(Neuman et al. 2007 in Castells 2013 p. 219). Anger and risk are then combined with a process of communicative action whereby the emotion is expressed, which creates enthusiasm; such enthusiasm is a positive emotion that fuels social mobilization

(Castells, 2013, p.14). Positive and negative emotions are what generate the necessary agitation for collaboration and action in times of unrest, and are central to the increased engagement in new social movements demonstrable since the 1960s

(Castells, 2013, p.15).

Political Communication & Civic Engagement 2.0

17 The Internet enhances freedom of expression and empowers individuals, as the technology is not directly controlled “by any one person, group or government”

(Ogan, 2007, p. 20). Media are significant tools to express and explore identities, to connect with others, and a way for people to be active creators as well as consumers of culture (Bennett, 2008; Rheingold, 2008). As the communication infrastructure changes, the structure of society is likewise transformed from a sociocultural perspective (Lin, 2007); the way in which we engage shapes how we engage, and with what or whom. For instance, communicating via Twitter means posting an online tweet or direct message limited to 140 characters, using a computer or mobile device, with one or many people, which changes the landscape of conversation. The same message on Twitter would elicit a much different conversation with different limitations, associated meanings, and audience than over email.

In line with this perspective, new media, such as Facebook, Tumblr, and

Twitter, are thus conducive to advancing participation and freedom, as demonstrated by the printing press and its role in creating the 18th century public sphere, or the telegraph and its part in developing national markets in the 19th century. Media’s potential to support civil society and the public sphere continues to be immense, and will generate change for the foreseeable future (Shirky, 2011).

Users are able to shape these tools, and create large-scale social networks that can concentrate energies in critical moments of need changing the political landscape

(Bennett, 2008). The arrival of digital media, quite apart from their many uses and pleasures as sources of information, entertainment and networking, has the

18 additional benefit of offering a means to invite youth participation in political debate and process.

Younger generations have disengaged from conventional politics and government in growing numbers; youth dissatisfaction with conventional politics and democracy trends in the United States, Germany, Sweden and the United

Kingdom (Bennett, 2008). The political activity that does take place among youth is commonly related to lifestyle concerns, rather than traditional political conversations derived from theory or ideology; the latter are commonly expressed by voting in elections or membership in political parties, and such partisan and structured political activity is less typical for youth today (Bennett, 2008). In addition to lifestyle concerns and interests, examples of youth civic engagement are prominent in nongovernmental areas such as “community volunteer work, high levels of consumer activism, and impressive involvement in social causes from the environment to economic injustice in local and global areas” (Bennett, 2008, p. 2).

Digital media can be applied to reach and engage interest groups, hard-to- reach demographic cohorts – including youth -- and social movements in a way that is more social, entertaining, and seemingly more authentic than traditional media

(Bennett, 2008). While digital media may not lead in the most obvious or direct ways to the standard civic and political arenas, new media provides a horizontal space for personalized politics and political expression (Bennett, 2008). Twitter users express themselves politically by tweeting critiques of media bias in online articles, posting links to online petitions of where to shop, eat, and conduct business, and exchanging ideas about family, parenting, and how they feel about the latest

19 episode of their favourite network television series. Research shows “a shift in value patterns in postindustrial democracies” where people are more likely to participate in issues that are meaningful from a personal perspective, rather than subscribing to a specific or ideologically defined set of formal beliefs (Bennett, 2008, p. 20). Twitter is a platform for users to express a personal perspective, and create online identities, relationships, and networks that reflect their interests and expressions.

Clicktivism and Digital Advocacy in the Global Village

The term “clicktivism” refers to the email and social media marketing of a campaign or cause that invites users to participate by, often, simply the click of a button. Social media campaigns with sensationalized sound bites flood the feeds of

Facebook and Twitter. For every cause, product, and point of view, a hashtag or a specific string of characters (140 or less) can be posted to garner the attention and support of the public. These communication technologies and digital media have transformed the way social movements function (Van de Donk, Loader, Nixon, &

Rucht, 2004), and how citizens engage politically online and offline. Theorists suggest that communication technologies and digital information promote democratic involvement of citizens in a revolutionized style; new and participatory media offer a new system and means to empower and engage users (Van de Donk et al., 2004). Social movements are a dynamic expression of resistance, attested here a special form of engagement, and digital media are notably useful as a channel for counterpower (Downing, 2001, p. 22). This dynamic expression is particularly

20 evident in the online discourse of campaigns like Occupy Wall Street and

#BringBackOurGirls.

Studies testify to how social networking sites have a pro-social effect.

Networks serve as vehicles for the exchange of social capital; social capital is, as famously defined by Robert Putnam, the intangible moral and behavioural attributes of civilized society, such as trust, civility, empathy, and tolerance. As vehicles and multipliers for social capital, networks thus position people to act or speak in favor towards public good (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012). Or, at the very least, networks encourage people to post or retweet the content that has a pro-social feeling or message, or to share a photo or link that identifies the user as being engaged and involved in matters of political relevance. Individuals that use social networking sites for information and as a source of news tend to be more civically and politically engaged and active (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela (2012, p. 328). While there is much literature in support of this low-risk digital activism, many scholars, including popular theorist Malcom Gladwell, are unconvinced.

Gladwell (2010) argues that only true activism is high-risk, highly strategic and disciplined, and thus not attainable through the loosely connected networks of

Facebook and Twitter, nor by low-risk clicktivism in general. Gladwell (2010) also suggests that while the revolutions of Moldova, Egypt, and others appear to be heavily Tweeted from a western perspective, very few citizens in these countries actually have access to and use Twitter (p. 2). Additionally, the digital divide -- the gap between the information-rich, with their access to technology and data, and the information-poor without -- is a drawback to engagement. Marginalized populations

21 often lack or have limited net access (Witte and Mannon, 2010, in Murthy, 2011, p.785). That said, and to return to the case of #BringBackOurGirls, the use of and access to mobile technology is increasing in Nigeria as indicated by a 2014 survey; that survey revealed that mobile phone ownership (87.0%) surpassed household ownership rates for radio and television, and the household Internet access rate has almost tripled since 2012 (Broadcasting Board of Governors, 2014).

Twitter and Social Activism

Twitter is the first place news breaks (Murthy, 2011, p.782), and serves as both an open forum and a prime focus for new media studies. Twitter is “the second most important social media platform” (Bruns, 2011, as cited in Ausserhofer &

Maireder, 2013, p. 292). Because Twitter loads instantaneous mobile-friendly updates, it is common practice for reporters and citizen journalists to live-tweet a story as it happens, before writing the online article. Each tweet presents a short narrative. The discursive process frames and develops a packaged piece of reality and presents it as part of the issue or a preferred perspective. Examples of such strategic packaging include the slogans “Power to the People,” “We Shall Overcome,” and “Homeless Not Helpless” (Benford & Snow, 2000, p. 623). These catchy narratives and rhetorical strategies can be transformed into hashtags (searchable key phrases) that online influencers diffuse onto social media networks. Trending hashtags often gain traditional media attention once they have gone viral online, and help to create a buzz in the public sphere. Gladwell agrees that this buzz stems from

22 social media, but warns against it creating a false consciousness (2010, p. 2).

Existing Literature as it contributes to #BringBackOurGirls

The social campaign #BringBackOurGirls is a particularly interesting case to study, as it has the characteristics of a new social movement; that said, it invites the question: can a new social movement truly exist in a society, such as Nigeria, that has not yet passed into a post-industrial stage? #BringBackOurGirls presents in the

West as a new social movement, but also includes traits of more traditional social movements such as strong (yet informal) leadership, strategic coordination on the ground, and a high level of discipline (Gladwell 2010). The coordinated protestors in

Nigeria rushed to the streets dressed in red and white, a deliberate colour choice to reflect protest, danger, and innocence. While leadership and membership are not outright obvious in the movement, or evident as a dichotomy, the official website offers membership by way of acting as an ambassador for schoolgirls, a formality that is more common of old social movements. In this vein, there is also a call and response chant, and a written, clearly defined core value associated with the movements on the ground. These distinctions blur the lines between old and new. I believe the technological and social component of this campaign is what pushes this movement to align more so with new social movements, and see the role of digital mediation and the transnational effect as responsible for this.

The phrase “bring back our girls” presents the discursive framing Benford &

Snow (2000) find as key to social movements. The hashtag went viral and inspired official campaigns in Nigeria and the United States under this name. Choosing this

23 term to represent a complex travesty was a strong rhetorical strategy to simplify the situation, and to call for direct action: bring back our girls. The campaign on the ground continues to thrive, while the transnational support hit hard and fast, then quickly dwindled, perhaps, because as Gladwell (2010) and his supporters argue, true activism requires strong ties and closely connected relationships. Those attached through weak ties may participate in an issue, however, they do not actively engage in creating or working towards the solution.

This distinction aligns neatly with the assumption that (Western) digital natives and members of Generation Y in particular are more interested in exchanging social capital and being (or appearing to be) politically-minded. This again is contrasted with being politically active in a manner typical of strong-ties activism, such as the courageous acts by African-American civil rights activists in the

1960s to desegregate lunch counters and buses by entering into Whites-only spaces, putting themselves immediately in harm’s way (Van de Donk, Loader, Nixon, &

Rucht, 2004). Whereas, both the online and offline activism continues to flourish in

Nigeria and neighbouring countries where the ties are strong, and the issues of terror, rape, abduction, murder, and displacement are a daily reality and a hard reminder, not simply a flavor-of-the-month social issue to “like,” “share,” or retweet.

Methods

I applied a mixed-method framework to my research to incorporate both a qualitative and a quantitative strategy within this project. Using two (or more) research methods offsets a degree of the innate bias and limitations in research

(Greene, Caracelli, & Graham, 1989). First, I chose semi-structured interviews to

24 gain deeper understanding of strategy and motivation from activists and influencers. Second, I used semantic analysis to confirm the movement as transnational, to evaluate how the hashtag spreads between networks, as well as to identify the top word and domain pairings to interpret the rhetoric and associations in the tweets.

Qualitative methods

The qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with participants. Twelve participants were recruited through social media and email invitations, and were chosen via purposeful sampling of high-profile activists working on the campaign in Nigeria, or as academics and experts across North

America. Brief participant biographies are available in Appendix 1. The semi- structured, one-on-one interview approach lends to a more equal power dynamic between the researcher and participant, and allows the participants more freedom in their reflections (Creswell, 2012). Each interview was approximately 30 minutes long. The questions were designed so as to gain understanding of how Twitter is used as a tool for activism, political discourse and social movements. They were also structured to elicit ideas and observations about how technology intersects with marginalized voices, attitudes towards radical Islam and how to combat extremism, gender, as well as tensions that arise between North and South, and on the ground and online with transnational new social movements.

The Royal Roads University Research Ethics Board granted me ethical approval to involve human participants in my research, and all Tri-Council policies

25 were adhered to. Written informed consent from all participants was obtained, and I made the scope and objective of my research and the nature of the interviews entirely transparent. Participants were explicitly notified of the purpose, in addition to the contextual details and reach of the study as an academic research paper and digitally published product, and assured that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time without consequence. Because of the possible risk to the Nigerian interview candidates of being identified and quoted on record as criticizing Boko

Haram, there was some methodological reflection as to whether the participants should be named or instead recorded anonymously. Notwithstanding that early caveat, all participants but one were adamant about being named in my research, and fully acknowledged the inherent risk in doing so. After ethical consideration and advice from the thesis supervisor, thesis coordinator, and the Office of Research at the University, I decided to name my participants to honour their courage, commitment, and dedication to being a voice for the voiceless.

The interview data was coded, analyzed, and recoded in a deductive manner

(Marsh & White, 2006). The text from the semi-structured interviews underwent a quantitative and thematic content analysis, and was unitized and chunked (Marsh &

White, 2006) to reflect common themes in the interviews. I coded the transcripts by hand, grouping and counting occurrences and usage of emotional language, in addition to content patterns. The interview data grouping was coupled with social change and social movement theories in order to test hypotheses of the performative role Twitter played in the Chibok girls campaign.

26 Quantitative methods

As a quantitative method to supplement the qualitative use of interviews, I used semantic network analysis to create a relationship-based model of the

#BringBackOurGirls hashtag, and reference and contribute to the work of Diesner &

Carley (2005), Zywica & Danowski (2008), Himelboim, Smith, & Shneiderman

(2013), Himelboim, McCreery, & Smith (2013), and Mika (2005), all of whom use network analysis to quantify and map social media messaging. Semantic mapping was chosen to track the hashtag, and find where it was most popular (in what networks?) and what word pairings, domains, and influencers were associated with the hashtag. Node XL, a computer software program, was used to help verify and connect web semantics in popular networks. Semantic network analysis can be applied to a set of tweets from keywords and clusters on Twitter (Himelboim,

McCreery, & Smith, 2013); germane to this, the Node XL program reported statistics including the frequency of tweets using the hashtag, popular keywords, hyperlinks, users, and the overlap (clusters) of networks (Himelboim, McCreery, & Smith,

2013). The quantitative data (tweets) were mined through Node XL. Only one dataset was used for this paper to keep a narrow scope.

The data was collected following the one-year anniversary of the abduction; tweets were captured over a 23-hour, 48-minute period from Wednesday, 15 April

2015 to Thursday, 16 April 2015 (“Node XL Graph Gallery,” 2015). The Node XL

Graph (figure 1) represents 15,386 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained

27 "#bringbackourgirls," including mentions and retweets, taken from a data set limited to a maximum of 18,000 tweets (“Node XL Graph Gallery,” 2015).

This data helps to indicate popular ideology and endorsements of users, and the clusters will demonstrate the interconnectedness, relationships, and transfer route of a viral tweet (Himelboim, Smith, & Shneiderman, 2013). Further analysis of the clusters and the content of the tweets determine and discern the connection between organizations, ideas, and social structure (Diesner, & Carley, 2005). I analyzed the data using existing research relating to community clusters (Smith,

Rainie, Shneiderman, & Himelboim, 2014) and guidance from Marc Smith, Director of the Social Media Research Foundation.

Presentation of Findings

The Place of Emotion in #BringBackOurGirls

Analysis of the interview transcripts and considerations of social change theory and social movement theories, notably in comparison to other case studies such as the Arab uprisings, leads to several considerable findings. The most palpable and consistent theme in the transcripts was strong emotions of fear and outrage from all participants. Fear and outrage drive social movements (Castells, 2013) and were experienced by the participants on heightened levels; this fear was expressed for the safety of the abducted girls, the fear of the Boko Haram, the fear for lack of government stability, and fear for what the future may hold. This emotion motivated the participants to be involved in the movement, and to discuss

28 #BringBackOurGirls online, notably through Twitter. Such emotion had a part in motivating activists to move #BringBackOurGirls from a local to a transnational movement so as to add pressure on the Nigerian government, and to gain support from the international community.

According to participants, Twitter acts as a public space where public opinion struggles, social justice, and political will can be expressed, filtered, sorted, and amplified with ease; it is a place where access is not a concern. With this efficient and emotive foundation, actors become energized and the conditions are optimal to organize new social movements, as testified by multiple participants in my interviews. Moreover, prior discourse on Twitter about issues cognate to the

Chibok girls’ abduction meant that activists were already well socialized in the ways, for example, that gender and terrorism come together. For example, discussion on

Twitter about Malala Yousafzai’s story and campaign for education and the rights of women and children in the developing world, as three participants attested, offered a generative context for #BringBackOurGirls.

As mentioned by participants, Twitter is a prominent space where people of colour, women, and marginalized voices are able to instantly and easily unite regardless of space and with few barriers (J. Pozner, personal communication, April

25, 2015), and participants feel they are heard and acknowledged in a very powerful way. Many of the interviewed activists describe social campaigns, notably here the

#BringBackOurGirls movement, to be “emotional,” “educational” and “galvanizing” in a way that is so disruptive that corporate media and systems have no choice but

29 to respond (J. Wilson, personal communication, April 14, 2015). Participatory media research also shows that the tweets and posts in such movements then form, albeit complexly and indirectly, popular public opinion (Rheingold, 2008, p.99), which then becomes mainstream news. Disruption and emotion are central to social change theory and Castells’ (2013) social movement studies, where it is recognized that the momentum of movements increases with emotion.

Social Media as a Democratizing Force: A Public Sphere for Education and

Amplification of Minority Issues

All participants agreed that social media serve a higher function in their lives, and enhanced how they communicate and engage with information and each other.

Examples included sharing tweets or Facebook statuses with a pro-social message, and supporting friends, activists and causes, which produced feelings of participation and positive action. The most common comment from participants was that technology, especially social media, is user-friendly, removes barriers and aids in access to information, thereby reaching out to the largest possible network in the shortest time possible. While concerns about access and Internet penetration were acknowledged, one participant noted the increasing rate of mobile technology, and that these platforms aid with this access to information for those who aren’t in the room, or would have no other way of following a conversation. Another noted that “Nigeria is a big country” and that Twitter transcends the geographical distance.

Participants that identified themselves as media experts and critics explained social media as a “democratic force” and “opportunity,” and the platforms as

30 “strategic tools” for activists; moreover, participant activists viewed social media as an efficient means to get around the “gatekeepers.” To this end, professor Adel

Iskandar, a specialist in global communication, explains that Twitter can be used in an attempt to “circumvent structural boundaries” and “bypass a structural problem”

(A. Iskandar, April 16, personal communication, 2015). Media critic Jennifer Pozner and Nigerian-American writer Luvvie both noted that social media platforms have fostered many educational and emotional campaigns with succinct and relatable tags such as “survivor privilege” and “black lives matter.” Such campaigns uncover often-ignored injustices such as gender-based violence, sexism, and racism from a variety of primary perspectives in a way that traditional media can’t, perhaps because of the lack of diversity or the corporate ownership in the latter (L. Ajayi, personal communication, April 21, 2015; J. Posner, personal communication, April

25, 2015).

Social media supersede corporate media gatekeepers, and also allow for a direct path to communicate with policy leaders, influencers and government. In regard to the Chibok girls’ abduction, the head of strategic communications for

#BringBackOurGirls in Nigeria said, “Hadn’t this [campaign gone viral], the matter would’ve been covered up as has been done before. The Nigerian government would’ve pretended that nothing had happened and life would’ve moved on” (S.

Akume, personal communication, April 22, 2015). Participants regarded social media as a prime avenue for expression, promotion, consuming and sharing information. Words to describe engaging in this exchange included “visceral” and

“emotionally resonant,” and likewise related to feelings of inclusive societal and

31 civic participation. Nigerian lawyer Ibrahim Abdullahi, who was the first to use the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, says Twitter started as a resource for boosting business and means of connecting with clients and marketing services, but then became a means to influence his surroundings. “I realized I could use Twitter to influence happenings in my environment,” he said. “Mostly government policies, and fighting for people’s rights on Twitter” (I. Abdullahi, personal communication, April

17, 2015).

Jamia Wilson, an activist and executive director of an organization called

Women in Action Media, who self-identified as a millennial and a shaper and definer of social media “tools,” noted that these platforms change the way campaigns are constructed:

I’m working on a campaign right now and one of the questions that has come

up even before some of the other tactical questions that would usually come

up was, what’s the hashtag? That was the big question we all had: what’s the

name of the campaign on the micro site, what domain names do we want to

buy, and what’s the hashtag? Brand questions are so different now. (J.

Wilson, personal communication, April 14, 2015)

In contrast to the positive comments, Micah White, a founding member of

Occupy Wall Street, cautions against movements that are built on these networks:

Commercialized social networks like Facebook and Twitter want people to

believe that using those networks will change political reality because that

increases the amount of people using that network. And so they might

32 promote things like hashtag campaigns and point to it as an example of

positive political activism in a self-serving way to increase engagement on

their own networks. (M. White, personal communication, March 24, 2015)

The players, the audience, and opposing ideas of agency

An interesting theme that appeared in the interview transcripts was the use of pronouns in regard to taking action (singular versus collective), whom the communication was intended for, and diverse ideas relating to responsibility and the burden of agency. The latter underscored the critical questions so important to any social movement: who should be engaged, and who needs to take action? The responsibility of citizens, as well as national and foreign government involvement, varied in the perspective of participants.

However, ownership as a theme was deliberately embedded in the social media campaign name -- #BringBackOurGirls -- which African media expert Biola

Alabi notes is significant: the subject of this Twitter-driven social movement was

“not ‘the girls,’ nor ‘Nigerian girls,’ but ‘our girls’” (B. Alabi, personal communication,

April 23, 2015). This concern to frame the cause so as to encourage global identification with these girls in an otherwise obscure part of Nigeria was also stressed by the campaign communications team. A team member said, “We want our world leaders to deem our missing girls as theirs. And to do whatever can be done to

#BringBackOurGirls” (S. Akume, personal communication, April 22, 2015). This shared ownership created empathy that is inclusive of a broad and fundamental humanitarian support base. “If our government isn’t going to do anything, as

33 citizens we must compel our government to take the issue more seriously” said Oby

(O. Ezekwesili, personal communication, April 16, 2015). Most of the participants based in Nigeria spoke of the need for action from a “we” perspective, regardless of whether they were active protestors or leaders of the movement.

Two influential participants stressed the singular in response to why they began tweeting about #BringBackOurGirls. Ibrahim Abdullahi replied, “The news broke after a few days, some people here didn’t realize. [I live] in Abuja, the

[#BringBackOurGirls movement’s] headquarters of Nigeria. I thought it would be wise if I let people know what happened. Boko Haram is one of the biggest problems in the area” (I. Abdullahi, personal communication, April 17, 2015). Writer and rapper “BI Creezy” said, “I wanted to fight for my people, and my own rights too … the youth of Nigeria need to rise up. We can’t stop. We need to do something” (B.

Ibrahim, personal communication, April 18, 2015).

In response to the issue of with whom participants were trying to communicate -- that is to say, the intended audience -- many simply replied, “the

Goodluck administration,” “Mr. Buhari,” or “the Nigerian government.” All of the participants in Nigeria were furious with the lack of response and inadequate action from the Nigerian government. In addition to the government, many participants said they were hoping to reach and engage African, American, and European leaders across the world.

The North American participants generally voiced a degree of separation and uncertainty about their role in movement, noting that listening to the people on the

34 ground should be prioritized. These participants noted the importance of not creating a “top-down” or “outside-in” set of goals that may not be useful, or indeed may harm more than they help (J. Pozner, personal communication, April 25, 2015).

North American influencers such as Jamia Wilson and Ramaa Mosely lent their celebrity to support the cause. They did so by bringing attention to the voices of those working for the cause from inside Nigeria by retweeting the experiences of those on the ground, and organizing marches in the United States to draw attention to the abduction of the Chibok girls.

Online vs. On The Ground Activism

Adel Iskandar noted the increasing skepticism of online activism since the

“Kony 2012” campaign, the social media-led crusade to bring attention to Ugandan guerilla leader Joseph Kony and his notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (including the

LRA’s extensive use of child soldiers). The Kony 2012 campaign and related film had represented for some, because of its alleged simplification of the LRA’s terrorism in

Uganda and the campaign’s millennial-styled social media outreach, the most high- profile example of the rise of politically dubious clicktivism. “In order for the public to engage, they need to overcome the cynicism many feel toward such campaigns.

To do this the problem must be real and an international threat” (A. Iskandar, personal communication, April 16, 2015).

The majority of participants were of the opinion that online advocacy does not translate into actual advocacy or “real” action. The social campaigners were enthused by the voices on Twitter and Facebook keeping the Chibok girls front of

35 mind. However, there was also uncertainty about how those who were not on the ground could properly represent the problem, or even refer to themselves as activists. “Just because a celebrity finds a hashtag doesn’t mean it is a western campaign, or that well-meaning or intended western audiences know what’s needed on the ground” (J. Pozner, personal communication, April 25, 2015). Another participant felt there was a distinct difference between talking about a problem and solving a problem: “Getting media focus or attention on a cause is one thing, but actually taking action is another. We have not seen [the return of] 200 girls a year

[later], despite public outcry” (Anonymous, personal communication, April 14,

2015). The anonymous source continued by stating that popular opinion and discourse does not take into account the gravity of the situation, and often omits the actual core issues: “Popular activities do not translate to action on the ground. There have been serious concerns about the Nigerian military and their readiness to combat Boko Haram” (Anonymous, personal communication, April 14, 2015).

Two of the younger participants made comments about the “online” and “on the ground” forms of activism as having a symbiotic relationship that complement each other (J. Wilson, personal communication, April 14, 2015; L. Ajayi, personal communication, April 21, 2015). While they both agreed that digital activism cannot solve any problem on its own, they both saw a distinct “powerful,” beautiful” and

“inspiring” surge from social media in the formation and process of new social movements (J. Wilson, personal communication, April 14, 2015; L. Ajayi, personal communication, April 21, 2015). Digital activism thus helps to construct a social

36 problem and market the issue to the public with low risks for movement supporters, but cannot produce the outcomes that (high risk) on the ground activism can.

The Global South and Global North / Local vs. Global

Further to the tension between online and offline activism in the interviews was the division between North and South, as well as local and global, in discussing

#BringBackOurGirls and transnational movements at large. The participants were divided between a united view of global citizenship -- meaning global responsibility and ownership of an issue -- and the view that regional issues should be solved individually. One participant in particular was greatly offended by the passive support (Twitter activism) of Americans, chiefly politicians and celebrities, that posed in photos with placards that read “#BringBackOurGirls” when it was popular to do so. But these public figures, in the participant’s view, did not offer any further support or influence, and dropped the topic when it was no longer fashionable.

Many participants agreed that the challenges of a transnational campaign are

“scope and familiarity” (A. Iskandar, personal communication, April 16, 2015), and that “if something is not from your own community you are less likely to understand the contextual undercurrents that might also be important. And so focusing on domestic issues would be better….” (O.Ezekwesili, personal communication, April

16, 2015). Interview data that supports these quotations echoes that movements should be regionally and locally guided. That said, while the issue is regional, technology has transformed traditional borders and transcends lines in the sand.

And with mobile technology, happenings and contagious emotion jump from

37 regional to transnational instantaneously on Twitter. Contagious emotion and a topic that is relatable, like hope, anger, and outrage against adversity, warrant the retweets and responses needed to make a hashtag viral.

Whereas some movements pertain to a specific group or locale, the

#BringBackOurGirls movement is attached to a perceived international threat: international terrorism. This was discussed in the interviews as a function of technology and global/social networking making individuals feel more connected to each other, but also because terrorism is largely viewed as a global issue that unites concerned people and governments worldwide. Of this, Ramaa Mosley said, “Our own safety and security is directly related. We are not separate. To think we are separate is living in a bubble. And to allow this means our own safety is in danger”

(R. Mosley, personal communication, April 28, 2015). The larger threat of Islamic militancy and the global crisis of terrorism were referred to by many participants in the interviews.

Some informants believed the North is uninterested in the problems of the

South, and that there is not a collective will in the North for social justice for the

South (A. Iskandar, personal communication, April 16, 2015). The campaign was undoubtedly fashionable to support in its prime, as made evident in the social media posts from influencers. This was because of the careful framing (Snow & Benford) that fit within a transnational agenda for non-government organizations and diplomatic missions (Bob, 2002, p. 400), a framing that prioritized the rights of the girl child, gender-based violence, and antiterrorism. Rapper and activist BI Creezy

38 described resentment for (what he deemed) pseudo-activists like celebrities and politicians and who don’t understand the crisis:

I’m sorry to say the First Lady of the USA posts “#BringBackOurGirls” only

one week [and] after then we don’t see anything from her. She is in [the]

White House sleeping. Why can’t she send a direct message to Goodluck

Jonathan? She [doesn’t] do that. She’s just there waiting and that’s it. And

that’s the world we are living in. The superpower gets what the superpower

wants, and the superpower doesn’t talk anymore…. They say “black lives

matter,” but to them, it’s “money matters,” it’s all about the money. (B.

Ibrahim, personal communication, April 18, 2015)

I find that there is an obvious tension expressed between the global North and the global South, and within the local versus global dynamic. This case study is particularly interesting because there is unanimous moral support for the

#BringBackOurGirls movement; the kidnapping of several hundred girls is not an issue that brooks ambiguity. Support for the release of the kidnapped girls and opposition to abductions, sexual slavery, and acts of terror offers a moral clarity that unites the interview candidates and other activists and citizens worldwide; however, the rationale and approach to how to and who should solve this problem vary.

The acknowledgement (by participants) of living and participating in a global village -- the term McLuhan gave to the new cognitive and existential space manufactured by the compressing and intensifying power of global media -- creates

39 a tension between the global village or online social sphere, and a physical geographical society. There was a large level of variance as to what the appropriate response to the campaign should be: local or global? The notion of a global citizenship and a global response uniting against a common enemy – terrorists -- was prominent. But it was regularly contrasted in the interviews against resentment and expressions of certainty that a global response does not solve a local problem, and that autonomous action from within is the only answer.

The division and union offline is also apparent online when tracking the

#BringBackOurGirls hashtag. Analysis of the semantic map created by Node XL

(figure 1) reveals that a year after the abduction, the campaign had online community clusters and isolates tweeting about #BringBackOurGirls. The many disconnected users show interest in the topic, whereas the many small interconnected clusters show prominent advocacy groups discussing the topic in their networks. The top domains, users, and links show keywords and accounts like

“Charlie Hebdo,” “Malala,” and “UN Women,” and demonstrate the broad range of appeal and online support garnered from different geographic communities and communities of interest. A more elaborate analysis of the semantic map follows in a later section of these findings.

Rising Against Radical Islam & Terrorism

The role and actions of Boko Haram as a catalyst for the #BringBackOurGirls movement broadens the concern and the narrative, according to the participants.

Kidnapping, trafficking, sexual slavery, and acts of terror are easily opposed by

40 many publics, and so the #BringBackOurGirls movement readily gained support from large numbers of Christians, Muslims, men, women, and the wider global public.

In regard to terrorists, the majority of participants used the words “common enemy,” and stressed the need for all citizens, governments, and sectors to unite against a “global public bad” (O. Ezekwesili, April 16, 2015; my emphasis). Many participants speculated about Boko Haram being possibly connected to larger terrorist organizations and as having a possible alliance to ISIS. This speculation made the problem seem more “salient” and “relatable” to audiences that were not in the immediate region, or directly affected by the crisis, as it tied Boko Haram’s activities to the ongoing larger geopolitics of terrorism centered in the Middle East and Afghanistan (A. Iskandar, personal communication, April 16, 2015).

Furthermore, any existing knowledge of the additional atrocities perpetrated by

Boko Haram further united audiences against them, regardless of popular conspiracy theories.

One participant, identifying as Muslim, noted that his faith was motivation for him to be active in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. “I am Muslim and feel pained if people who claim to be, to practice my religion, have acted in such a way, and that is why I came out to denounce them and draw the attention of the people to the dangers of these kinds of groups” (I. Abdullahi, personal communication, April

17, 2015). This public support from the Muslim community in the

#BringBackOurGirls campaign further proves the broad audience and support base

41 of the movement, demonstrates how Twitter is used in supporting personal and political identity (Bennett, 2008), and further shows how Twitter can be a valuable tool for education and enlightenment through the sharing. The individual’s personal experience, as made public by online sharing or tweeting and exemplified by this

Muslim activist’s contributions, offers a poignant piece of information that is digested and trusted more than traditional or corporate media outlets (Bennett,

2008, p.2).

New Social Movements and #BringBackOurGirls

A very specific mix of timeliness, emotion, framing, and informal leadership yet strong online influencers contributed to making #BringBackOurGirls a social movement case study, and in that helps to further advance new social movement theory. The campaign has a broad spectrum of solidarity and advocacy; it is gendered and not gendered; it’s a humanist vision that does not alienate people; it’s an “easy one” to support (A. Iskandar, personal communication, April 16, 2015).

Several participants acknowledged that the threat of terrorism and ISIS, and stories of Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai being shot by the Taliban, were already prominent in public discourse before the Chibok abductions. And so a major case about girls’ education, children’s rights and terrorism -- the taking of the girls -- made its presence felt all the more strongly. It was the right moment for this kind of

“galvanizing movement,” said Jamia Wilson (J. Wilson, personal communication,

April 14, 2015).

42 #BringBackOurGirls is a serious movement with much at stake that brought about a breaking point for many participants. Of the seriousness of the case, one participant said: “This is reality, a section of humanity. This is not a middle-class sort of ephemeral complaint. This is an existential issue; this is a matter of life or death” (Anonymous, personal communication, April 14, 2015). Other participants agreed that the mass abduction of schoolgirls was the defining moment that initiated action; the knowledge that Boko Haram had kidnapped and enslaved schoolgirls delivered enough emotional truth to break through any inertia or ambivalence. As one informant said, it “broke my spirit” (O. Ezekwesili, April 16,

2015).

The central component of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign is the level of hope that it hinges on. Emotion is what fuels social movements (Castells, 2013): the emotion from the ground in Nigeria, and from the tweets collected, displayed an outpouring of tangible hope and emotion. Just over a month before the girls were abducted in Chibok, approximately 59 boys were shot or burned to death by Boko

Haram at a secondary school in Yobe, Nigeria (Hemba, 2014). This tragic incident puts the girls’ abduction into perspective, given that the latter are still thought to be alive. Because the Chibok girls were abducted and are understood as being alive, although their condition is unknown, participants express sentiments of hope even a year after the abduction. (57 of the original 276 abductees have escaped and returned.) When asked about the motivation and inspiration for participating in the movement, participants spoke of humanity, empathy, guilt, responsibility, and hope.

43 These emotions are strong and were expressed directly both in the interviews with participants, and as referred to in the tweets captured.

Centrality of Gender Rights and Children’s Rights

The exploitation of women is a problem in the developing and the developed world, but this disregard for the rights of children and women by Boko Haram was upsetting for all participants. UNESCO reports that over five million Nigerian girls are not attending school, and so the conspicuous loss of the kidnapped adolescent schoolgirls has a significant impact. Several participants said that these are young girls who would otherwise grow up to be mothers and decision makers, notably because of their educated status, and thus that their loss was even more greatly felt in view of the difficulties women and girls face in Africa.

Participants felt that much of the shock was that the victims were schoolgirls: schoolgirls are innocent and belong in a classroom. Participants’ voices echoed a theme taken from the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and agenda: educating girls is a solution, and it shouldn’t be the problem. The participants all felt they could relate to the victims as “everyone has a girl in their life”; these girls could be anyone’s daughters, sisters, aunts, and friends (I. Abdullahi, personal communication, April 17, 2015).

Semantic Network Analysis--Community Clusters

The graph (Figure 1) represents a network of 15,386 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained "#bringbackourgirls.” The network was obtained from

44 Twitter over the 23-hour, 48-minute period from Wednesday, 15 April 2015 at

01:50 UTC to Thursday, 16 April 2015 at 01:38 UTC. The graph's vertices were grouped by cluster using the Clauset-Newman-Moore cluster algorithm. The graph was laid out using the Harel-Koren Fast Multiscale layout algorithm (“Node XL

Graph Gallery,” 2015).

The graph (Figure 1) illustrates several different hubs or groups that are all discussing the same topic: #BringBackOurGirls. This represents a web of shared information on Twitter central to the movement following the first-year anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls. The graph shows medium-sized groups with interconnections, and a large number of disconnected contributors who mention the subject but do not engage with others in conversation. This means that while the topic was covered or tweeted globally and within several networks, there was little overlap between networks. This representation is common for hashtags and titles that relate to popular current events and news stories, according to Marc Smith.

Two top hashtags (Figure 2) overall in addition to #BringBackOurGirls were

“Malala”and “XenophobicSA.” These tags connect the case study to the larger conversation of violence, religious and political war. “Syria” and “Saudi Arabia” were also top hashtags in group 3. This connects the case study to a transnational movement and conversation where users are addressing international news and applying that information to other, presumably geographically closer, local or national cases. Top domains (Figure 3) included YouTube, Twitter, blog platforms

45 and traditional online media with little variance across the groups, meaning that everyone was receiving and sharing the same content largely.

Out of the top mentioned users overall (Figure 4), only one, CNN, was a traditional news outlet. This meant that the main influencers of the conversation were four Nigerian accounts, and international social justice organizations like

“Amnesty” and “UN Women.” This shows that the influencers and creators of the conversation are those directly leading the movement, or organizations advocating for the aims of the movement. This is important to note as it is evidence that social justice topics, activists, and marginalized voices can take precedence in a space like

Twitter and lead public discourse.

The Technology of Hope: #BringBackOurGirls

It is important to remember that digital communication tools like Twitter are simply tools, and not an answer to a problem. Twitter can be integrated effectively as a strategy to connect with a larger audience, and promote a message through weakly-tied networks, without the filtering and gatekeeping that encumber traditional communication strategies. The participant consensus and the semantic data from this case study suggest that Twitter is best used in self-promotion and the marketing necessary to a social campaign. The allure of #BringBackOurGirls to the vast majority -- beyond the low personal risk participation entailed -- seems to be that it is undisputedly ethical and moral to support. Many from the participants and the tweets captured represent emotion by referring to disgust, fear, hope, guilt, sadness, and the moral responsibility to participate or support the cause. Regardless

46 of the triumphs and pitfalls of the Nigerian and American campaigns, Twitter was an effective means to appeal to the mass public, and to succinctly articulate the outcries from within Nigeria. The viral support of this hashtag activism forced the Nigerian government to respond, meaning #BringBackOurGirls overshadowed other key issues during the country’s federal election. Moreover, it garnered aid from international governments and institutions like the United Nations and Amnesty

International; it also recruited support and grew awareness among celebrities, popular culture, and the White House. Hence Twitter was a powerful medium to use in order to popularize and market a powerful and timely social cause. This was a cause, of course, that many people were primed to support because of the international agenda and political landscapes being saturated by concerns of radical

Islam, terrorism, gender-based violence, and girls and education.

Sadly, many worthwhile causes and crusades for justice around the world go unnoticed. The case of the murdered school boys in Yobe, and similar cases of suicide bombings and mass pillaging, while sizably smaller but equally horrific, however, do not easily gain significant media attention in the West or lead protestors to the street. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign swiftly created an emotional, and feminist brand and voice that gained empathy and shock from around the world. The slogan, the colours, the palpable sorrow and alarm, and the strong women leading the movement contributed to the success of marketing the movement in addition to its timeliness. The women involved in the movement and the conversations online and offline in my research reflect a strongly motivated collective of feminists. Social media, in general, has opened up a space for a fourth-

47 wave of feminism with a vengeance: examples include mothers posting angry stories of their daughters being sent home and shamed for not abiding by conservative school dress codes, critiques of rape culture and the calling out of mainstream media for instances of victim blaming; and status updates and networks formed against exclusion, and hierarchy. Some of this political expression is diluted by the sarcasm, humour, and pop culture additives that envelop the sentiments, while other more concentrated expressions tend to rouse (Twitter) campaigns like

#YesAllWomen, which chronicles honest and everyday occurrences women face simply for being a woman. Fourth-wave feminists seem to embrace the missing

Chibok girls as they embraced Malala, in a way that is very public, social, and passionate.

The drawbacks of hashtag activism and digital campaigns like

#BringBackOurGirls can have negative consequences and far-reaching effects.

When mass media and social media are flooded by a single popular issue, such as celebrities posing with signs on social networks, other important social and political issues are missed or buried beneath trendier headlines. As mentioned previously, this was also made evident in the case of #BringBackOurGirls and Nigeria’s federal election, where a participant expressed anger and disappointment for the way his previous and current leaders handled the case of the abduction, and then furthermore used it as a ploy to gain support and popularity. While this social campaign is most certainly worthy of supporting, many other forms of digital marketing leave much to be skeptical of. Email spam, Facebook advertisements, and hashtag campaigns that do not have a simple call to action, a timely relevance, and

48 emotional resonance disenchant users, and can be difficult to fully understand when the issue isn’t relatable to an audience.

The specific mixture of hope, anger, a uniting force, and an issue that pre- exists in the public consciousness is necessary for the success of using Twitter as a marketing tool for activists, especially in transnational campaigns such as

#BringBackOurGirls. Hope and anger are powerful emotions that contributed to motivation for communication and exchange, according to participants. But common understanding and Western consciousness of radical Islam, and the barriers girls face to become educated empowers citizens to be courageous enough to participate in digital activism.

Perhaps the most significant and profound function of a hashtag is it’s potential to unite people. Hashtags spread from network to network to create new networks based on a common word, phrase, or belonging. Finding this space to belong and be heard is precisely what minority and feminist voices are clamoring for, and perhaps why Twitter seems to be the platform of choice for many activists and organizations looking to market and popularize a message.

Conclusion Twitter proves to be an invaluable resource for actors and organizations to share information, to organize and coordinate movements, and to convey emotion.

Twitter offers great potential for influencers to emerge, for activists to promote political agendas, and for a more representative discourse to take shape than is offered by traditional media. In turn, popular online conversations are more likely

49 to be reported on, which brings authentic, emotional, and first-hand perspectives to large, mainstream audiences. The lack of access is the greatest limitation of Twitter, especially in the Global South where there are more rural areas and more areas of poverty. Other limitations include the shallow and indirect effects of slacktivism, where important online conversations do not necessarily translate into effective and visible action. This passive engagement has the benefit of spreading awareness, but does not translate to immediate action in the case of #BringBackOurGirls.

One of the most interesting findings in this study was the diverse networks of positive support and the discursive framing of support. The clusters in the semantic network analysis reveal that Twitter users form networks by tweeting about a common topic, and that #BringBackOurGirls created discussion in a multitude of networks. Individuals and influencers support the movement with tweets and retweets, and many add on further pro-social and political frames by adding hashtags and links to other terrorist activity, instances of injustice, or references to

Malala Yousafzai and Charlie Hebdo. Fourth-wave feminist frames also appear in the semantic analysis and pair #BringBackOurGirls with #YesAllWomen and instances of sexism, misogyny, and gender-based violence. The networks of support show that men, women, and users from different backgrounds and geographic locations participated in the success of the campaign marketing and outreach.

Twitter is generally viewed by my interview participants to be an important and necessary tool for social movements because it provides a platform for perspectives that are rarely available through traditional media. As stated by these

50 informants, Twitter also offers a powerful space in which activists can disrupt the power and norms in our networks with little physical effort. The participants also, however, expressed caution and unease about overvaluing the progress allowed by digital communication, in light of the importance of “on the ground” action. This is an important note, and it provides an interesting dynamic in transnational cases like

#BringBackOurGirls, because it is not feasible nor proactive for all activists to be contributing in a physical on-the-ground manner. Twitter provides space for diversity, and a platform conducive to transnational marketing of new social movements, which may complement, but does not and should not translate to or replace high-risk activist work.

While digital activism is considered low-risk, there are indeed risks associated, and they are changing the way activists work. Feminists and minority voices report receiving threats and verbal abuse from extremists over social media, which adds to safety concerns, privacy concerns, and additions risks inherent in this form of advocacy.

Further research is required with respect to the longitudinal effects of passive online activism, and whether it has any correlation to social change.

Additional research focusing on the other tools used in conjunction with Twitter to mediate the movement may help to reflect on the role of Twitter. Further study on the leadership, framing, and marketing of #BringBackOurGirls may also help add to and strengthen this research. Online surveying of everyday Twitter users and social

51 media users may also be a fair strategy to use in order to better understand a user’s motivation to share content, or click to support a cause.

52 Appendix

Appendix 1: Participant Biographies

Obiageli Ezekwesili: Oby is a Senior Economic Advisor at Open Society Foundation and a former Cabinet Minister of Education for the federal government of Nigeria.

She is the unofficial leader of the #BringBackOurGirls movement in Nigeria, and an celebrated figure of justice, diplomacy, and righteousness in Nigeria.

Ramaa Mosley: Ramaa is a media activist and award-winning filmmaker, as well as the organizer of #BringBackOurGirls in the United States. Ramaa’s film work includes directing The Brass Teapot and a segment in Girl Rising. She made her first film, a documentary about pollution, when she was 16 years old, which was screened across the world and won a United Nations Global 500 Award.

Ibrahim Abdullahi: Ibrahim is a lawyer in Abuja, Nigeria. He uses Twitter to promote causes he cares about, and to promote his corporate brand. He was the first person to use the hashtag “#bringbackourgirls” on Twitter.

Sesugh Akume: Sesugh is the Head of PR and Strategic Communication for

#BringBackOurGirls in Abuja, Nigeria.

Micah White: Micah is a co-founder of Boutique Activism Consultancy, and most famously the co-founder of the Occupy Wallstreet movement in the United States.

He is an influential social activist, lecturer, and author.

Jamia Wilson: Jamia is the Executive Director of Women in Action Media, an activist, feminist, and storyteller. Her parents were active in fighting against the Jim Crow

53 segregation, and inspired her activism for as long as she can remember. Jamia is recognized as a NoVo Foundation Move To End Violence Movement Maker, featured in Refinery 29's 17 Faces of the Future of Feminism (2013), named one of Ms. blog's #SmartFeministsofTwitter (2013), and received a NYU NIA Administrator

Award from the Center for Multicultural Affairs (2007).

Bachiru Ibrahim: Bachiru is a rapper also known as BI Creezy in Nigeria. He is a writer and youth activist, and uses his music and profile to promote social rights education and awareness within Nigeria. His Twitter account was a top influencer in the semantic network analysis for #BringBackOurGirls. He collaborated with other

Nigerian rappers to write the song, “Stolen Dreams,” in tribute to the missing Chibok girls.

Adel Iskandar: Adel is an Assistant Professor of Global Communication at Simon

Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Iskandar's published works and lectures include topics relating to media, identity and politics.

Luvvie Ajayi: Luvvie is American-Nigerian and an award-winning writer and digital strategist. Her niche is intersecting comedy, technology and activism. Luvvie blogs about pop culture, social justice, and race.

Jennifer Pozner: Jennifer is the founder and executive director of Women in Media &

News. She is an American author, anti-racist feminist, media critic, and public speaker based in New York City.

54 Biola Alabi: Biola is an African media expert & Managing Partner at Biola Alabi

Media Consulting. She is recognized as one of “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa” by Forbes (2012), a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2012), and the

AABLA West African Business Woman of the Year (2013).

The last participant requested to be anonymous.

Figure 1: #bringbackourgirls Twitter NodeXL SNA Map and Report for Thursday, 16 April 2015 at 01:39 UTC (“Node XL Graph Gallery”, 2015).

55 Figure 2: Top Hashtags in tweets from Figure 1 (“Node XL Graph Gallery”, 2015).

Top Hashtags Top Hashtags in Top Hashtags Top Hashtags Top Hashtags in Top Hashtags in Group 1 Group 2 in Group 3 in Group 4 Group 5 Overall bringbackourgi bringbackourgi bringbackourgi bringbackourgi bringbackourgi bringbackourgi rls rls rls rls rls rls bokoharam nevertobeforgo nigeria nigeria malala nigeria nigeria tten bringbackourch chibok bokoharam chibokgirls chibokgirls chibokgirls ildhood chibokgirls nigeria bokoharam blip nigeria chibokgirls nevertobeforgo tcot nevertobeforgo bloop bokoharam outofschool tten wearen2015 tten blap chibok syria 365dayson pray bringbackourch heroinesofthein joinrepwilson bokoharam bokoharam rightswatch ildhood ternet 365dayson saudiarabia dearsisters voicetv21 365dayson nevertobeforgo bringbackourgi chibok bbog unfreeboosie chibok tten rlsnowandalive nevertobeforgo kidsmatterok xenophobicsa chibok chibok1year tten malala

Figure 3: Top Domains from tweets in Figure 1 (“Node XL Graph Gallery”, 2015).

Top Domains in Top Domains in Top Domains in Top Domains in Top Domains Top Domains Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 in Group 5 Overall cnn.com youtube.com trib.al ow.ly cnn.com cnn.com blogspot.com post- ow.ly trib.al twimg.com trib.al twitter.com nigeria.com msnbc.com cnn.com facebook.com youtube.com ynaija.com cnn.com un.org pmnewsnigeria. unam.mx twimg.com facebook.com huffingtonpost.c huffingtonpost.c com blogspot.com ow.ly instagram.com om om malala.org aim.org twitter.com youtube.com washingtonpost cnn.com nytimes.com co.th huffingtonpost.c google.com .com ctx.ly huffingtonpost.c theroot.com om blogspot.ca twitter.com unfpa.org om ohchr.org blogspot.com huffingtonpost.c ynaija.com unicef.ca twimg.com org.za facebook.com om omojuwa.com youtube.com refinery29.com co.uk facebook.com twitter.com trib.al

Figure 4: Top Users Mentioned From Figure 1 (“Node XL Graph Gallery”, 2015).

Top Mentioned Top Mentioned Top Mentioned Top Mentioned Top Top Mentioned in Group 1 in Group 2 in Group 3 in Group 4 Mentioned in Overall Group 5 equalrights4aii bukkyshonibare hrw malalafund cnn cnn joe2bees obyezeks un_women amnesty ishasesaycnn bukkyshonibare horluwargbear aishayesufu msnbc mashable citizengoes thechallenge10

56 iamengnrdre bbog_nigeria un ishasesaycnn accuracyinme 0 dimkay_ repwilson phumzileunwo cnn dia obyezeks 7 youtube men cnnopinion opendoorssa amnesty iam_flemenkant clancyreports theworldpost pmnewsnigeria theroot unicef i omojuwa mtvnews thedesmondtut voice_tv empirestatebldg carovibesmedia post_nigeria samerhrw u palomaunicef malalafund _bolawa oyinto mausisegun girlup unrightswire thisisbuhari geazyfact selfmagazine womeninthewo naacp un_women rld

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