Coalition for Women's Identities
Thursday, 2 October 2014 - 11:56am
Engaging Students in Feminist Dialogue Through Social Media
Over the past year, I have recognized the increasing amount of feminist talk shared on the Internet. In September, I virtually approached a Facebook friend who suggested that Janay (Palmer) Rice was unintelligent for marrying the man who punched her out cold in an elevator. As someone who usually backs off from a potential argument, I was proud of myself for voicing my opinion, sharing my viewpoint on a public platform, and standing up for other women. I am so excited that women are speaking up all over the world in support of each other. I am thrilled that men are supporting us in feminist rhetoric. In this post, I will explain how social media has been a wonderful way for feminists to spread their knowledge to a large audience with Twitter campaigns like #YesAllWomen, #ItsOnUs, #WhyIStayed and discuss how Student Affairs practitioners have the ability to integrate these ideas into our campuses by creating platforms for students’ voices to be heard.
Twitter is the platform known for 140 character, bite-sized nuggets of thought. The word “twitter” means to talk in informal, inconsequential ways. This was the intention of the company according to Chairman, Jack Dorsey (Colgan & Chow, 2011). When Twitter users began to use the website to deliver political ideologies and shared interests, the company adapted by creating hashtags. The most influential use of hashtags for spreading feminist rhetoric that I have seen is #YesAllWomen. A response to the tragic Isla Vista Killings, #YesAllWomen shares instances of misogyny and sexual harassment or violence that women face on a daily basis. A week after the May 23, 2014 attack, the hashtag had already hit one million tweets and it is still going strong with 94,775 tweets in the month of September (Topsy, n.d.a).
After the wild success of #YesAllWomen, it was only a matter of time that someone would create a hashtag response to the September 8th TMZ video-leak of Janay (Palmer) Rice’s traumatic domestic violence experience. Over the past thirty days the hashtag, #WhyIStayed, has been tweeted 146,400 times (Topsy, n.d.b). #WhyIStayed gives women and men the opportunity to express the complexities of abusive relationships and gives victims and survivors hope to move past their traumas.
Now, following the trend, President Obama’s administration has called upon the public to stand up against and take responsibility for sexual violence by creating the It’s On Us campaign with #ItsOnUs as the vehicle for internet exposure. In response, NASPA created the #SApledge to unify Student Affairs professionals to take the responsibility to stop sexual violence and harassment on college campuses. If you would like to be part of this movement, you can take the pledge here.
Student leaders have been called upon to take the It’s On Us pledge as well. Involving students in the sexual violence conversation is extremely important for campus climate. This lets students know that their voices, actions, and opinions are important, giving the movement more leverage. At the 2014 ACPA Conference, Reynol Junco presented on his upcoming book, Engaging Students Through Social Media: Evidence-Based Practices for Student Affairs Use. During this presentation, he showed us studies that found a correlation between social media use and student engagement. One of the studies used two groups of students to measure engagement based on how they used Twitter. One group used Twitter in the classroom setting and the other did not. The students in the group that used Twitter as an intentional educational tool were 17% more likely to engage face-to-face on campus and have better grades than those in the control group. For a more in depth understanding of the study, you can click here (Junco, Heiberger, & Loeken, 2011; Junco, 2014b).
In Junco’s book, published in August, he suggests that the findings of this study and similar ones should inform the work that we do as Student Affairs practitioners. This study may be the key to engaging students in a feminist conversation. If we use Twitter as an intentional, educational tool on the Internet then we can probably get them to engage in person as well (Junco, 2014a).
Most of us, as Student Affairs practitioners, do not have access to whole sets of classrooms like Junco did for his study, but we do have access to student organizations and groups. Through Greek Life, Student Activities, Tutors, Resident Assistants, and beyond, we have access to nearly the entire student population of our campuses. This is, after all, the digitally connected generation. If we set the stage for them and get them passionate about the issue, then we can get the entire campus engaged in a healthy discussion about feminism.
If we unify our student leaders to participate in hashtag campaigns that already exist, then they can set the example for the rest of the student body. We can also endorse the campaigns by publicizing them on our own departmental social media sites. Retweet a school-appropriate and eye-opening #YesAllWomen or #WhyIStayed comment, ask your student followers to contribute to the conversation by posting on your site, or start a hashtag specific to your campus for students to use. Then, after you see some traction within the student population, hold an event showcasing all the different feminist movements online so that students can engage face-to-face. My friend outside of Student Affairs came up with the idea to hold a Feminist Fair where booths are set up to highlight different feminist issues and provide information for students who are interested in learning more. She suggested that the theme be a direct result of student social media interaction with the campaigns that Student Affairs endorses on display to highlight student interests specific to your campus.
However you choose to engage your students through social media is up to you; the possibilities are endless. I think the important thing is that you try to get students talking about feminism in a positive way. Use students who are already passionate about feminist issues to champion for them. As I wrote this blog post, Emma Watson’s HeforShe speech at the United Nations went viral. She shed light on the negative impression people have of feminism and how it is synonymous with man-hating. She encouraged men to join the feminist movement because, in reality, feminism is an everyone issue. I was surprised that a lot of my students had not heard about the speech when I mentioned it to them a week later. I understood, then, that students who are not already passionate about feminism are not often exposed to it. I am suggesting that we give students who have a positive interest in feminism proper exposure to it through social media, as Reynol Junco suggests, for an intentional tool.
Heather Whedbee
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
References
Colgan, J., & Chow, L. (2011, July 18). How Twitter was nearly called Twitch: Twitter
co-founder Jack Dorsey on coming up with a name. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from http://www.wnyc.org/story/146115-twitter-co-founder-jack-dorsey-how-his-company-was-nearly-called-twitch/
Junco, R., Heiberger, G., & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on college student
engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(2), 119-132.
Junco, R. (2014a). Engaging students through social media: Evidence-based practices for use in
student affairs. John Wiley & Sons.
Junco, R., (2014b, April). Using social media in student affairs: An evidence-based approach.
ACPA 2014 Convention. Lecture conducted from American College Personnel Association, Indianapolis, IN.
Junco, R., Heiberger, G., & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on college student
engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(2), 119-132.
Topsy, (n.d.a). Twitter Search, Monitoring, & Analytics. Topsy Lab Inc. Retrieved September
26, 2014, from http://topsy.com/s?q=#yesallwomen&window=m
Topsy, (n.d.b). Twitter Search, Monitoring, & Analytics. Topsy Lab Inc. Retrieved September
26, 2014, from http://topsy.com/s?q=%23whyistayed&window=m