| The study of Howard University Students social media--based social capital (creating "networks with shared norms, values, and understanding that facilitate cooperation within a group" (O'Donnell, 2016) and Black Lives Matter digital activism (using digital technology for political and social change) has been hampered by inadequate and simplistic theories and paradigms. I contend the central problem of the various approaches to the study of digital phenomena is the lack of a theory of digital political socialization theory (DPST) the process by which social media is used by people to politically socialize and to acquire their political orientations. I reviewed traditional and alternative approaches to the study of digital social capital (DSC) and digital activism and discuss their limitations. At the core of this exploration, is the following question: how does DPS produce social capital among Howard students engaging in Black Lives Matter digital activism? The study employs an exploratory research design that includes an analysis of Howard University students in terms of how DPS produced social capital, influenced the establishment of Black Lives Matter in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, and activism through blogging, Instagram, hashtags, and digital citizen journalism in America, especially in Ferguson, Missouri, in response to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 (Lussenhop, 2015). Both the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases demonstrate how social media served to facilitate political socialization and social capital from information not easily accessible through mainstream media and government sources. Following some alternative frameworks, I will advance a theory of social capital and paradigms of digital activism through Digital Political Socialization. |
