Retweet or Reply Why do People Interact with Images of Police Brutality on Social Media

School of Social and Political Sciences

Retweet or Reply: Why do People Interact with Images of
Police Brutality on Social Media
September 2019
GRADE A2

Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Degree of
M.Sc. in Human Rights and International Politics
University of Glasgow

15,186 words

, TABLE OF CONTENTS




List of Figures i
List of Tables ii
Acknowledgments iii
Abstract iv
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Theoretical Framework 4
The Key Concepts 4
Literature Review 6
The Analytical Framework 12
Chapter 2: Research Design 16
Data and Method 17
Data Analysis 20
Chapter 3: Analysis and Findings 21
Representations of Police Brutality Online 21
Results 24
Discussion 34
Conclusion 37
Bibliography 41
Appendices 46

, LIST OF FIGURES


Figure 1: A schematic view of potential determinants 13
Figure 2: Original tweet of example incident 22
Figure 3: Reposts of example incident 22
Figure 4: Respondent’s views on the function of videos 26
Figure 5: The main determinants based on interviews 33




i

, LIST OF TABLES



Table 1: Participant information 19
Table 2: Overview of videos presented to interviewees 19
Table 3: Examples of /hashtags related to police brutality 23
Table 4: Respondents’ reactions to interacting with images 24




ii