Degrees of Freedom

Exploring Agency, Narratives, and Technological Affordances in the #TakeAKnee Controversy

Bibliographic Data

ID2413972
AuthorsJudith E Rosenbaum (0000-0003-1295-5325, University of Maine, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume5
Issue2
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Media + Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2056305119826125
OpenAlexW2945188008
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited45

This study extends current research into social media platforms as counterpublic spaces by examining how the social media narratives produced by the #TakeAKnee controversy negotiate technological affordances and existing discourses surrounding American national identity. Giddens' Structuration Theory is used to explore the nature of user agency on social media platforms and the extent to which this agency is constrained or enabled by the interplay between the systems and structures that guide social media use. Exploratory qualitative content analysis was used to analyze and compare tweets and Instagram posts using the #TakeAKnee hashtag shared in September 2017. Results showed that narratives are dominated by four themes, freedom, unity, equality and justice, and respect and honor. Users actively employ technological affordances to create highly personalized meanings, affirming that agency operates at the intersection of reflexivity and self-efficacy

Aesthetics · Affordance · Honor · Internet privacy · Media studies · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Negotiation · Reflexivity · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Structure and agency · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Media and Politics