‘There will be screen caps’: the role of digital documentation and platform collapse in propagation and visibility of racial discourses

ABSTRACT

Digital technologies facilitate the existence of online spaces where understandings about race and racial inequality are co-created and contested as part of social networks and within the context of existing power relations and social identities. This project qualitatively explores US college students’ exposure to and experiences with content on social media that they consider to be related to race and racial discrimination. Based on analysis of focus groups, we highlight the role of digital documentation, mediated spillover, and platform collapse as key processes in propagation and communication visibility of racial discourses. We begin by delineating first level-digital documentation that digitally captures local campus and national events from second-level digital documentation – the copying of already digitized content (e.g., via screenshotting). We then introduce the concept of ‘platform collapse’ – second-level digital documentation that enables mediated spillover of content in ways that disrupt discourse architectures, affordances, and audience contexts. Platform collapse emerged in student discussions of how content was documented and moved from relatively private to more public spaces to call attention to racist events, messages, and behavior, and to spur conversations and action. This extended reach and frequency, and also changed the context of racial discourses. Conversely, there was also evidence of platform collapse where content was moved from public to more private spaces to address social groundlessness and avoid masspersonal engagement on social media. We conclude by discussing implications of digital documentation and platform collapse for communication theory and methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• young people
• surveillance/privacy
• race

Acknowledgements

We thank all those on the research team who contributed to this project, including Chelsea Butkowski, Luzmarina Garcia, Lirong Kou, Jillian Moga, Alexandra Moll, Khierra Moore, Lisa Ortiz, and Sandy Wong. We also thank the anonymous reviewers, Sally Jackson, and ‘Big Tech, Information, and Society’ reading group members for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 IRL is a colloquial abbreviation for ‘in real life’; however, we do not mean to imply that digital spaces are not a part of ‘real life’.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Funding Initiative for Multiracial Democracy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the university.

Notes on contributors

Cabral A. Bigman

Dr. Cabral A. Bigman is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her work focuses on communication about health, risk, and inequality.

Arrianna Marie Planey

Dr. Arrianna Marie Planey is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is a health geographer with interests in health policy, health communication, and health outcomes.

Lillie D. Williamson

Dr. Lillie D. Williamson is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work examines the ways in which racial experiences and health communication interact to influence racial health disparities.

Marisa A. Smith

Dr. Marisa A. Smith is an assistant professor in the Department of Advertising + Public Relations and the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. Her research investigates news disseminated in digital environments and sociopolitical influences of these messages.

Shardé McNeil Smith

Dr. Shardé McNeil Smith is an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on the relationship between racial discrimination and mental and behavioral health outcomes within the African American family context and the role of social support.