Full Description
In this book, Sherri Williams explores the digital activism of the Black social TV audience, a subset of Black Twitter. In addition to demands for social equality and shifts in social justice, Williams argues, the Black social TV audience advocated for a representation revolution in television, leading to some shows being blocked from airing, some being taken off the air, and others even being revived. Williams positions this activism as an extension of Black people's historic advocacy related to the use of their image, dating back a century to when the NAACP attempted to block screenings of the notoriously racist 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. This book details how Black audiences' use of social media impacted the way television is watched, developed, and produced through digital discourse and activism, primarily on Twitter (now known as X). Williams also demonstrates how Black content directors, like Justin Simien and Quinta Brunson, used social networks to develop their content and loyalty among audiences to ultimately bypass Hollywood's traditional gatekeepers. Finally, the book touches on contemporary events, such as the COVID pandemic and Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, have affected the ways in which Black content creators engage with their content and audience and vice versa. Scholars of television studies, social media studies, cultural studies, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.
Contents
Chapter 1: Black Social TV: Posting, Clicking, and Tweeting toward Change
Chapter 2: Twisted Sisters: Distorted Images of Black Women
Chapter 3: Digital Discourse: Analyzing Black Social TV Dialogue
Chapter 4: Digital Gladiators: How Social Television Made Scandal a Hit
Chapter 5: Second Screen Strategies: How Networks and Shows Engage in Black Social TV
Chapter 6: From the Second Screen to the TV Screen: How Black Creators Bypass Hollywood's Gatekeepers through Social Media
Chapter 7: The Pandemic Pivot: How Club Quarantine and Verzuz Transformed the Second Screen into the First Screen
Chapter 8: Platforms, Protests and Programs: The Present and Future of Black Social TV
