Blurred (Identity) Lines: A Content Analysis of the #deleteuber Crisis on Twitter

Katharine Miller, Purdue University, Megan Kendall, Purdue University
2018 Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research  
Social media have established a growing prevalence and infl uence in social change, in political movements, and as vehicles for messages related to crisis. The movement #deleteuber demonstrated this growing trend. Using quantitative content analysis, 2,000 tweets posted on Twitter were analyzed in the 2 weeks following the incident to measure how media framing may impact organizational identity. Findings reveal that users on Twitter largely framed the crisis as political, opinionated, and
more » ... ic in nature. Additionally, users most commonly associated the crisis with the organization as a collective rather than with the CEO as an individual responsible for actions prompting the crisis, thus blurring the demarcation between personal and organizational identity in online spaces. In today's world of 24/7, around-the-clock news and networking platforms, the act of protest has taken on a new form in the age of social media (Tucker et al., 2015) . First, social media provide a platform for building protest-drawing attention to issues and allowing for their quick dissemination to a wide audience. Second, once in existence, social media sites play a role in recruiting participants to support the protest and continue to spread the word, while continually and simultaneously encouraging participation. Third, once in full swing, social media continue to spread information about the protest. In this case study, we analyze the Uber crisis and resulting #deleteuber protest movement on Twitter. We draw on literature from media CONTACT Katharine E. Miller, MA •
doi:10.30658/jicrcr.1.2.4 fatcat:n3gjuq55qjerxigjgqhnhs7y5e