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      Activating the past in the Ferguson protests: Memory work, digital activism and the politics of platforms

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          Abstract

          This article analyzes the Facebook page Justice for Mike Brown—set up during the 2014 Ferguson protests—in order to rethink the role of memory work within contemporary digital activism. We argue that, as a particular type of discursive practice, memory work on the page bridged personal and collective action frames. This occurred in four overlapping ways. First, the page allowed for affective commemorative engagement that helped shape Brown’s public image. Second, Brown’s death was contextualized as part of systematic injustice against African Americans. Third, the past was used to legitimize present action, wherein the present was continually connected to the past and future. And fourth, particular discursive units became recognizable symbolic markers during the protests and for future recall. Based on this typology, we show that memory work, although multidirectional and in flux, is stabilized by the interactions between the page administrator, users, and Facebook’s operational logic.

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          Most cited references26

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          Clicks, Cabs, and Coffee Houses: Social Media and Oppositional Movements in Egypt, 2004-2011

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            Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker

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              Remembering the Technological Unconscious by Foregrounding Knowledges of Position

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                New Media Soc
                New Media Soc
                NMS
                spnms
                New Media & Society
                SAGE Publications (Sage UK: London, England )
                1461-4448
                1461-7315
                22 November 2017
                September 2018
                : 20
                : 9
                : 3119-3139
                Affiliations
                [1-1461444817741849]Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
                Author notes
                [*]Rik Smit, Faculteit der Letteren, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Oude kijk in’t Jatstraat 26, 9700 AS Groningen, The Netherlands. Email: p.h.smit@ 123456rug.nl
                Article
                10.1177_1461444817741849
                10.1177/1461444817741849
                6256725
                ce40d0cb-f07f-43da-82c0-8fbb7b12761f
                © The Author(s) 2017

                This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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                connective memory,critical discourse analysis,digital activism,facebook,ferguson protests,interpretative repertoires,media memory,memory work,michael brown,police violence

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