Social Media for Social Justice

ABSTRACT

As the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, we are tasked with stimulating a national dialogue on race and helping to foster a spirit of reconciliation and healing. This directly impacts our social media practice and how we engage with digital audiences. It helps us reach new audiences, highlight relevant museum collections, create participatory experiences, and confront issues of race and social justice. We believe that all museums can participate in online discussions about race and social justice to create inclusive digital spaces that welcome all visitors. Museums can and should use their unique collections and individual missions to help their audiences make connections to our shared American history by telling stories outside the common narrative. This article illustrates the way one museum uses its collections, programming, and storytelling to uplift marginalized voices in the digital sphere.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• storytelling
• social justice
• digital engagement
• digital audiences
• museums

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

About the authors

Lanae Spruce is a Digital Engagement Specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She uses digital media to foster learning, creativity, and shared discovery – as a means to transform our understanding of the African American experience, American History, race and modern society. She has an interest in Black Twitter, equity and inclusion, technology, and social justice.

Kaitlyn Leaf is a Digital Learning Specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Her areas of specialization include digital learning, visual infographic design, and object-based interactive museum programming. She also has an interest in digital storytelling, user experience, design thinking, food ways, audience research, and designing participatory experiences.

Notes

1 Wyman et al., “Digital Storytelling in Museums.”

2 Levine, “Experiments in Web Storytelling.”

3 Seitz, “No More White History.”

4 Obama, “Remarks by The First Lady.”

5 Farrell and Medvedeva, “Demographic Transformation and the Future.”

6 Moore, “An Exploration of Race, Social Media, and Museums.”

7 Pew Research Center, “Social Networking Fact Sheet.”

8 Williams and Domoszlai, “#BlackTwitter: A Networked Cultural Identity.”

9 Anderson and Hitlin, “Social Media Conversations About Race.”

10 Filene, “Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority.”