#BlackLivesMatter: A study of social representations from Twitter

We aimed to identify the main content of Twitter posts marked with #VidasNegrasImportam (#BlackLivesMatter) in Brazil, as well as verifying how the # becomes tangible (objectification) and how it is attributed to one or more meanings (anchoring) in these posts. We also investigated which dimensions of the Social Representations were constructed through the posts of this hashtag. Tweets published between May 27 and June 8, 2020, were collected, totaling 1603 tweets with textual content and 1337 images. The analysis of textual data was performed using the IRaMuTeQ program, and the analysis of the images followed the three-step model proposed by Moliner (2016). We observed the use of the hashtag to disseminate information about racism, police violence and this collective movement. In the image dimension, faces of the murdered black people and symbols that objectify the movement were found, with an attitude largely favorable to the movement by Internet users.

我们旨在识别巴西标有#VidasNegrasImportam（#BlackLivesMatter）的Twitter帖子的核心内容，并验证该标签在这些帖子中如何变得具象化（objectification），以及如何被赋予一种或多种含义（anchoring）。我们还探究了社会表征（Social Representations）的哪些维度是通过该标签的帖子构建的。研究收集了2020年5月27日至6月8日期间发布的推文，共获得1603条含文本内容的推文和1337张图片。文本数据分析使用IRaMuTeQ程序进行，图像分析则遵循Moliner（2016）提出的三步模型。研究发现，该标签被用于传播有关种族主义、警察暴力及该集体运动的信息。在图像维度上，研究者发现了被谋杀黑人的面孔以及使该运动具象化的符号，且网民对该运动的态度总体上是支持的。