Competing Social Constructions of Police on Instagram and Twitter
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The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Summer 8-2017 Black and Blue: Competing Social Constructions of Police On Instagram and Twitter Mary Frances Thornhill University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Thornhill, Mary Frances, "Black and Blue: Competing Social Constructions of Police On Instagram and Twitter" (2017). Master's Theses. 314. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/314 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLACK AND BLUE: COMPETING SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF POLICE ON INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER by Mary Frances Thornhill A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School, the College of Science and Technology, and the School of Criminal Justice at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts August 2017 BLACK AND BLUE: COMPETING SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF POLICE ON INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER by Mary Frances Thornhill August 2017 Approved by: ________________________________________________ Dr. Joshua Hill, Committee Chair Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice ________________________________________________ Dr. Charles Scheer, Committee Member Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice ________________________________________________ Dr. Laura Gulledge, Committee Member Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice ________________________________________________ Dr. Lisa Nored Director, School of Criminal Justice ________________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School COPYRIGHT BY Mary Frances Thornhill 2017 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT BLACK AND BLUE: COMPETING SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF POLICE ON INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER by Mary Frances Thornhill August 2017 Mass media outlets newspapers and television were traditionally where individuals gathered their news information; however, with the growth of new media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, individuals are now co-producers of the content that is seen by the public. Previous research indicated that media-generated images of the police influence public perception and that new media outlets are becoming increasingly influential, particularly in regards to social and political conflicts. This means that research on the role of new media outlets in socially constructing reality is essential, though not much of this research has yet been completed. This current analysis fills this gap in the literature by examining the question of how images of police are constructed by different social groups, using ethnographic content analysis on the social media platforms Instagram and Twitter in relation to police images with the #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter hashtags. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of this thesis could not have been done without the assistance and encouragement from my committee members: Dr. Joshua Hill, Dr. Charles Scheer, and Dr. Laura Gulledge. I would like to thank Dr. Hill, my thesis chair, without whom this thesis would not have been possible. His continued guidance, insight, and patience throughout this project were immeasurable. Thank you to Dr. Scheer, for all his valuable feedback and support for this project. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Laura Gulledge for being my mentor during my time in graduate school and for all of her feedback and help during this process. I would also like to thank the School of Criminal Justice faculty and staff for their encouragement and constant assistance during my master’s program. Graduate school is a challenging but rewarding experience and I have learned a lot during my time here. I would like to express my gratitude to my fellow graduate students for their endless support. I am extremely grateful to Citlali Deverge, Kelly Helldorfer, and Blake Edwards for all their encouragement and pushing me to get things done. I could not have done this without you. iii DEDICATION To mom and dad, thank you for everything you did to ensure that I finished my education. I could not have made it to where I am without your love and support. To my siblings, Charity, Samuel, and Roger, and to my cousin Jessica, thank you for being there for me through drafts and breakdowns. I am grateful to have all of you to encourage me, and for helping me in any way possible. For Aunt Clair. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................. ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. x CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Statement of Purpose ...................................................................................................... 1 Purpose ............................................................................................................................ 7 CHAPTER II – LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... 9 Cultural Criminology ...................................................................................................... 9 Visual Criminology ................................................................................................... 10 Social Construction ....................................................................................................... 13 Claims Makers .......................................................................................................... 17 Claims Makers and the Media .................................................................................. 19 Social Media ................................................................................................................. 21 The Social Construction of Police ................................................................................ 24 The Black Lives Matter Movement .............................................................................. 26 Historical Precedent .................................................................................................. 27 v The Black Lives Matter Movement .......................................................................... 29 The Blue Lives Matter .............................................................................................. 33 Summary ................................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER III - METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 39 CHAPTER IV – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .......................................................... 44 Black Lives Matter ........................................................................................................ 44 Celebration of Excessive Force ................................................................................ 46 Racial Animosity ...................................................................................................... 52 Police as Social Justice Disruptors ........................................................................... 57 Community-Oriented ................................................................................................ 59 #BlackLivesMatter Construction of Police ............................................................... 62 Blue Lives Matter ......................................................................................................... 63 Police as Victims....................................................................................................... 65 Humanization of Police............................................................................................. 68 Symbol of Patriotism ................................................................................................ 71 #BlueLivesMatter Construction of Police ................................................................ 74 Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter ................................................................... 75 Competing Social Constructions of Police ................................................................... 77 CHAPTER V – CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 79 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 82 vi Future Research ............................................................................................................ 83 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................