The Impact of Live Tweeting on Social Movements

Social networks have supplemented or reduced in-person communications substantially in recent years. Twitter, for instance, offers multiple mechanisms for digital communication, including drop-in commenting, scheduled support group discussions and event-based discussions. In 280 characters or less, users express sentiments, make declarations, post relevant resources and commiserate online around a central topic. The duration of these interactions are anchored by the prevalence of common hashtags used by those members contributing to the discussion. In this work, we focus on an event-based discussion, e.g., live tweeting, and its impact on timely social movements. We follow the gender and racial live tweeting dialogue during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 2016 to 2018. We identify, evaluate and correlate timely hashtags and keywords.