Chinese American Social Movement In The Era Of Social Media

After more than two decades' lull,the Asian American movement(AAM)was suddenly revitalized by New York Police Officer Peter Liang in 2016.The former rookie Officer Peter Liang was charged with and tried for second-degree manslaughter and other severe crimes.However,in prior cases,white police officers were acquitted by the grand jury and released without any indictment.Therefore,the sharp contrast motivated tens of thousands of people to assemble in streets,protesting against unjust trial and racial discrimination against Asian Americans.This national level demonstration inherited the values from former AAM from 1960s-1990s and manifested a new distinctive feature,involvement of social media,including WeChat,Facebook and Twitter.As an indispensible constituent of this demonstration,social media's role deserves special attention because it not only facilitated the occurrence of the demonstration but also influenced Chinese Americans regardless of physical boundaries by constructing shared identities.Hence,an in-depth analysis may produce critical insights into social media's influence on the demonstration.Although this thesis studies social media,the disciplinary orientation is social movement studies and cultural sociology,rather than communication studies.Therefore,the research only selects the posts or tweets from CivilRights on WeChat,Facebook(@FreePeterLiang)and Twitter(@Justice4Liang),combining textual analysis and resource mobilization theory to delve into:1)how moral,cultural,human and material resources were mobilized through posts and tweets from the three media tools;2)what identities have been constructed to motivate people to the streets;3)what are the function commonalities and distinctions among WeChat,Facebook and Twitter during the rally?The main contributions of this thesis are twofold:First,this pro-Peter Liang demonstration is the newest development of Chinese American movement,from which the research attempts to identify the new trends of Chinese American movement and Chinese American politics.Second,the thesis attempts to explore the unique social media features in this demonstration.