Microsoft Word - Zaher-USERS_ SENSE OF EMPOWERMENT, COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOR, AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT-USERS_ SENSE OF EMPOWERMENT, .docx Selected Papers of #AoIR2022: The 23rd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers Dublin, Ireland / 2-5 Nov 2022 Suggested Citation (APA): Zaher, Z., Dejmanee, T., Weber, K., (2022, November). Users’ Sense of Empowerment, Communicative Behavior, and Public Engagement on Instagram: an Examination of the #Blackouttuesday Conversations. Paper presented at AoIR 2022: The 23rd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers. Dublin, Ireland: AoIR. Retrieved from http://spir.aoir.org. USERS’ SENSE OF EMPOWERMENT, COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOR, AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ON INSTAGRAM: AN EXAMINATION OF THE #BLACKOUTTUESDAY CONVERSATIONS Zulfia Zaher Central Michigan University Tisha Dejmanee University of Technology Sydney Kirsten Weber Central Michigan University #BlackoutTuesday was a digital action devised by Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas, two Black music executives, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis and the subsequent, unprecedently large Black Lives Matter protests. Agyemang and Thomas presented #BlackoutTuesday as a day for the music industry to reflect on their systematic exploitation of Black artists, however this hashtag went viral due to widespread participation by celebrities, influencers and corporate brands, and was commonly represented through posting a black square on Instagram. Black Lives Matter has been the focus of a number of studies. For example, Mundt, Ross, and Burnett’s (2018) study on #BlackLivesMatter illustrated that communicative features of social media are beneficial for building connections, mobilizing participants and resources, coalition building, and amplifying alternative narratives. Ince, Rojas, and Davis (2017) examined #BlackLivesMatter tweets and found that this hashtag was variously used to: a) express solidarity or approval of the movement, b) refer to police violence, c) mention movement tactics, d) mention Ferguson, and e) express counter- movement sentiments. We argue that the study of #BlackoutTuesday Instagram posts is a significant contribution to research on Black Lives Matter as 1) they reflect the commentary of a large community of allies who do not fit the main demographic groups of participants in BLM conversation previously identified by Freelon, McIlwain and Clark (2016), and 2) this conversation was centered around Instagram, rather than Twitter which is often considered the foundational platform of the movement. This study has three main objectives: To test three new independent variables — race, gender, and source — in determining the demonstration of users’ empowerment; to test race, gender, and source to determine users’ communicative behavior on Instagram; and, to investigate the connection between source types and user engagement on Instagram. Significance The results of this study have significance for scholars interested in digital audience behavior, particularly users’ sense of empowerment regarding social platform-centric collective action. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence for social movement scholars, political communication scholars, and public relations scholars on the impact of gender, race, and source types on online mobilization, as well as users’ communicative behavior related to Instagram-based collective action. Method We conducted quantitative content analysis to address the research questions. Using CrowdTangle we collected ten thousand Instagram posts containing #BlackOutTuesday published on June 2, 2020. This study is based on 1250 posts randomly selected from the original sample. To examine the influence of gender and race in relation to sense of empowerment and communicative behavior, we adapted studies by Mazid & Zaher (2020) and Smith et al. (2015) and developed a coding scheme for analysis. We employed a mix of deductive and inductive approaches to identify existing constructs used by previous research and explore unique practices that were not explored before. Two coders inductively analyzed 500 Instagram posts to develop 24 categories (listed in Table 2) that examined the users’ sense of empowerment, communicative behavior, gender, race, message source types, message structure, and emotional tone (positive and negative). To establish intercoder reliability, two trained coders coded 10 percent of the sample. After the two rounds of coding, coders achieved the average reliability of 0.75 on all the variables, as assessed via Krippendorf’s alpha. Results This study tested eight hypotheses. Using a series of Chi-Square tests, the results revealed that the users’ gender, race, and source types were significantly associated with their sense of empowerment and communicative behavior regarding #BlackOutTuesday conversation on Instagram. This study also investigated the factors that influenced higher engagement. Employing a One-Way ANOVA, the results showed that source types, particularly celebrities and for-profit and media organizations, generated more Likes. We also found that negative emotions created more Likes and Comments. However, the results did not support the association of post structure with higher engagement (See Tables 1 and 2 for more detailed information). Table 1. Information about hypotheses, variables, statistical tests, and results Hypotheses/Research Questions Independent Variables Dependent Variables Statistical Procedure Results H1 Gender Users’ sense of empowerment Chi-Square H1 Supported (p< .005) H2 Race Users’ sense of empowerment Chi-Square H2 Supported (p< .005) H3 Source Types Users’ sense of empowerment Chi-Square H3 Supported (p< .005) H4 Gender Communicative Behavior Chi-Square H4 Supported (p< .005) H5 Race Communicative Behavior Chi-Square H5 Supported (p< .005) H6 Source Types Communicative Behavior Chi-Square H6 Supported (p< .005) H7 Source Types Number of Like and Comments One-way ANOVA Celebrities and for-profit organizations generated more Likes. H8 Emotional Tone Number of Like and Comments Multiple Regression Negative emotions received more Likes and Comments (p<.005). Table 2: Frequency of source, gender, race, sense of empowerment, communicative behavior, and post structure Variables Frequency Percentage Source Celebrity 646 51.7 Black Entertainers 120 9.6 Government/Politician 3 .2 Profit Organization 345 27.6 Activist/Non-Profit 38 3.0 BLM Enthusiast 64 5.1 Other 34 2.7 Sense of Empowerment Enactive attainment 75 6.0 Vicarious Experience 240 19.2 Autonomy 799 63.9 Other 136 10.9 Communicative Behavior Solidarity 551 44.1 Self-promotion 72 5.8 Social Criticism 141 11.3 Offering a solution 45 3.6 Call to action 303 24.2 Educational 75 6.0 Inspirational 63 5.0 Post Structure text+album 143 11.4 text+image 1040 83.2 Infographics 25 2.0 text+video 42 3.4 Gender Female 486 38.9 Male 288 23.0 Non-Binary 7 .6 Organization 469 37.5 Race Self-identified as black 179 14.3 Other 1071 85.7 Conclusion Preliminary findings reveal that source types and emotional valence, mostly negative emotional tone, are significantly associated with higher engagement (e.g., number of Likes and Comments) on Instagram. These preliminary findings will be interpreted in relation to platform (notably, the positivity bias generally associated with Instagram), the personalization of political expression encouraged by ‘connective action’ movements such as Black Lives Matter (Jackson et al., 2020; Bennett & Segerberg, 2013), and the relationship between #BlackoutTuesday – widely circulated by influencers and celebrities, and subject to controversy for its ‘performative activism’ – to the Black Lives Matter movement. Further, future studies need to look into the diffusion of social movement posts on Instagram to investigate the engagement. This topic relates to the conference theme by focusing on the ways in which users engage in racial justice discourse and movements through social media. References Bennett, L., & Segerberg, A., (2013). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Cambridge University Press. Freelon, D., McIlwain, C. D., & Clark, M. D. (2016). Beyond the Hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the online struggle for offline justice. Centre for Media and Social Impact. Ince, J., Rojas, F., & Davis, C. A. (2017). The social media response to Black Lives Matter: How Twitter users interact with Black Lives Matter through hashtag use. Ethnic and racial studies, 40(11), 1814-1830. Jackson, S. J., Bailey, M., & Welles, B. F. (2020). # HashtagActivism: Networks of race and gender justice. MIT Press. Mazid, I., & Zaher, Z. (2020). Twitter users’ sense of empowerment and communicative behavior: An examination of the #Burkini conversations on Twitter. Ohio Communication Journal, 58, 40-52. Mundt, M., Ross, K., & Burnett, C. M. (2018). Scaling social movements through social media: The case of Black Lives Matter. Social Media+ Society, 4(4), 2056305118807911. Smith, B. G., Men, R. L., & Al-Sinan, R. (2015). Tweeting Taksim communication power and social media advocacy in the Taksim square protests. 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