Hill, 1 | P a g e

Andrew Hill

CMGT 510

August 9, 2015

Our Work Matters

A Campaign for the Expansion of Local Action in Association with #BlackLivesMatter

#BlackLivesMatter- A Movement Summary

The hashtag that became both banner and rallying cry for a new generation of the Civil

Rights Movement- Black Lives Matter. The Black Lives Matter Movement began in the

groundswell following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the accused party in the case of the

shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter is a part of a larger historical backdrop of

tension between police and communities of color, with the new occurrences of perceived

extrajudicial harassment and murder of Black women and men inspiring protests nationally; from

these protests 26 chapters of Black Lives Matter have been founded from New York to

California, as well as Toronto, Canada.

Responding to these Challenges

With its international base, as well as nationally active demonstrations and events, Black

Lives Matter depends on its local chapters to provide cause-relevant local community stories and

participation to the advancement of Black Lives Matter. Cause-relevant community stories are

those of Trayvon Martin, of Eric Garner and Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, and more recently Sandra

Bland and Sam Dubose- people whose deaths bring to question the justice system and the

Hill, 2 | P a g e

pretenses that inform its execution.

The challenge is informing the broader public of the ongoing dialogue- with

innumerable contributors the conversation is vastly dispersed, while simultaneously exclusive as

much of the online exchange and tradigital media is targeted at millennials and their networks.

To that assertion, the online publication ColorofChange.org recently sponsored nine billboards

featured outside of the Quicken Loans Arena during the week of the U.S. Republican presidential

debate (i.e. pictured here).

The message the billboard’s headline text “He was a child playing at the park.” speaks of

Tamir Rice- a 12-year-old boy gunned down by a police officer while playing with a toy gun at a

park. This narrative (and the name to whom it belongs, Tamir Rice) is privileged information for

those within the network of those discussing it; a tragic but forgotten news story for those who

can recall the traditional media coverage of the case. Another point, the advertisement features a

hashtag that does not meaningfully inform the reader of the dialogue; it does not direct the reader

to the Black Lives Matter dialogue and it does not highlight the significance-in-association:

Tamir Rice was a child of Cleveland, Ohio, killed in Cleveland, Ohio, and in a convention where

presidential hopefuls pander to the rest of the country from Cleveland, Ohio they should forget

about the safety of Cleveland, Ohio’s children.

Hill, 3 | P a g e

The challenge is to also establish a locally-relevant platform connected to the

national body. Black Lives Matter has chapters in both Los Angeles and Long Beach, yet to the

average person in either southern California county how connected is Black Lives Matter to day-

to-day experience they have, or how important is it if it does not address the issues in my own

community? Without a meaningful bridge between the national voice and the local community

Black Lives Matter is a network of isolated action. A lesson learned from the protest movements

of the ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘European Summer’ and the Occupy Movement is that the use of social

media can carry the sense of exclusivity, and of seclusion when not coupled with the traditional

organizer practices of local action and meaningful interaction with people regardless of their

personal investment in social media (Gerbaudo, 2012).

On ‘Our Work Matters’

This campaign is an extension of the Black Lives Matter Movement whose network

already includes several common-cause initiatives. As CNN reported in the days leading up to

the one-year anniversary of Mike Brown’s shooting death in Ferguson, Missouri, these

“disruptors” (Gregg et al., 2015)- grassroots bodies for Black lives- have revolutionized a

political dialogue for the 21st century with an aim to changing the discourse altogether.

This campaign, “Our Work Matters” seeks to further the advocacy of this network into locally-

sustained communities. If the thrust of the Black Lives Matter Movement is to build a social

consciousness to the need for action against the systemic injustices of race and class (as well as

other social identity-based discriminations) then that goal must be actively shared intra-

communally.

Hill, 4 | P a g e

Campaign Goals

In light of the challenges listed previously [1. Informing the broader public of Black

Lives Matter and the advocacy it represents; and 2. Establishing a locally-relevant body

connected to the national movement] this campaign will:

a) Produce a community event for the recognition of the Black women and men who have

been lost to the violence of extrajudicial and/or racially-motivated circumstances. This

event will provide a service in celebrating the lives of these victims, and will bring their

stories to bear in the local community.

b) (From the community event) Aggregate demographic data informing future messaging

relative to the local issues held most highly by community members.

c) Develop a community team of contributors available to coordinate collective community

service and regular social media messaging [on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr;

publishing cross-platform content (Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, etc.) on Paper.li as

applicable]

d) Sustain an informed community voice through outreach and digital marketing- online

platforms, word-of-mouth (WOM)

Key to the success of the campaign- and central to the goals themselves- is the

engagement of the millennial demographic. The Millennials are a connected demographic in that

they occupy both higher academic and professional spaces, are old enough to have multiple

children (Centennials), while also being young enough to be living with their

parent(s)/guardian(s) (Baby Boomers). This generational and social network lends Millennials to

be a key medium of communication, being familiar with the technology of those before and after

Hill, 5 | P a g e

them.

Planned Demographic Outreach

Our target demographic overall are Millennials (ages 15-40) in the Los Angeles areas of

Baldwin Hills and Inglewood, and Long Beach. A concerted effort will be made in connecting

with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles (Facebook) and Black Lives Matter Long Beach (website),

as well as the Black Student Union at California State University, Long Beach and Long Beach

City College campuses.

Within the same geographic areas of southwest Los Angeles and Long Beach we will

look to engage seniors (ages 65+) through churches and senior centers, by way of recruitment

and, of the latter, service.

While this campaign’s messaging will focus on the latter two demographics, it is our

hope for serendipitous exposure with other community members through the ongoing social

media and community service presence. This would include the Latino populations of Long

Beach and Los Angeles, the Black communities of South Central and south Los Angeles-

Lawndale, Gardena, Carson, Compton, and Watts.

Further outreach will also be strategically implemented in consideration of the survey

results from the community event which is the starting point for this campaign. With thought to

what data the survey returns, participants will be asked to identify themselves by:

Age,

Ethnicity

Area of residence

Ages of those living with them

Hill, 6 | P a g e

Their perception of the demographics of their neighborhood

Their personal social media use, and

A series of questions looking to understand what they feel the greatest issues are

in their immediate community

Campaign Structure & Theoretical Support

Central to “Our Work Matters” are the principles of Social Proof, Similarity and

Collectivism. The principle of social proof suggests that people categorize appropriate behavior

by what they perceive from others (Cialdini, 2009; Lun et al., 2007) It is also held that this

principle of persuasion is most effective when the people we observe are “just like us” (Cialdini,

2009; Festinger, 1954; Platow et al., 2005). With knowledge of these theories the central aim

was to highlight the community element, a fabric that people cling to in light of the common

needs and experiences on the basis of locality.

Community Coalition Gathering: Public Display of Awareness

In addition to promoting the sense of community, the emphasis on community service

follows the same principles in modeling the very behavior and culture we seek to further. Theory

supports demonstrations active community participation, especially in places or with projects

where that behavior is uncommon. Such a showing would constitute a “Disruption Trigger”- a

perceived break from normal (or “expected”) behavior- which would have a strong pull on the

attention of an observer (Parr, 2015). In the same way, our accumulated owned media content

should standout- this campaign relies on earned media exposure, the word-of-mouth and re-

Hill, 7 | P a g e

broadcasted story of the public work that we will do. Radio, local television and bystanders

alike, whether as street onlookers or social media consumers, can see the faces of the ongoing

work and commitment in their own areas- a model that we would hope to draw more people into

the exercise of intracommunity development.

#ForMyCommunity: Giving a Voice to the Streets Themselves

As modeling has been most effective when the observer perceives similarity to the

models performing the behavior, this campaign looks to emphasize that similarity with local

action and messaging highlighting collectivism. Some of the brand messaging considered thus

far include #ForMyCommunity #(My City) and #WhereWeCanBeGreater. The benefit to these

hashtags, specifically on Twitter and Instagram, is the ability to filter for the hashtag specifically

and to see the amassed content together. With that you can be directly linked to the local

conversation:

#ForMyCommunity #(My City) is a through-line for all service through Our Work

Matters campaign and will be included on all images and videos shared of our service

experience, as well as for work done by local heroes yet apart from this campaign

#WhereWeCanBeGreater would be a tag where people could ask for support in

community service in their area

Hill, 8 | P a g e

These stories would highlight faces familiar to a community

building the appeal for others to support the campaign effort.

The benefit to be available to various communities and being

outspoken (with shareable content) is that it gives an observer

a wider field from which to perceive similarity, a key tenet in

social liking (Cialdini, 2009; Burger et al., 2004). Thorough usage of ‘we’ and ‘community’

also promotes the sense of collectivism that has come to characterize activism and social

movements today- what Paul Gerbaudo, an ethnographic researcher of the ‘Arab Spring,’

‘European Summer,’ and ‘American Autumn’ protests of 2011-12, describes as

“choreography” (Gerbaudo, 2012). This campaign relies upon his notion that this nature of

collectivism can utilize the personal nature of social media participation to the end of

developing local spheres of familiarity (Gerbaudo, 2012). Success in this regard would be to

observe participation from community members outside our target audience, as seen in this

image (above). Images such as these would go even further in branding as the diversity and

presence of participation can snowball with people inspired to be part of the movement.

‘Share Our Stories’: Cross-Generational Dialogue

Stepping beyond the community service itself, “Our Work Matters” would want to

promote the development of community voice with the ‘Share Our Stories’ initiative. This

effort would be to open dialogue between Millennials and their elders, encouraging the

exchange of life experiences within their community. Having dedicated social media

planners would allow for the creation of content around the narratives people share around

Hill, 9 | P a g e

their personal history and the meaning in these stories today.

Video Production: Tupac’s Classic “Changes” and the Hope of “See You Again”

Additional social media production would be exercised in the creation of videos within

the #ForMyCommunity #(MyCity) initiative. According to Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends

report 64% of last year’s internet traffic was on video content (55% of mobile internet traffic)

(Meeker, 2015). This informs our campaign in creating video because there is such a demand for

that form of content [as well as being engaging content that can be repurposed for television].

Just as the images of Black Lives Matter protests are able to generate public buzz, video content

to new purposeful action would garner eyeballs from local media. Assuming copyrighting can be

negotiated, producing a number of videos to the soundtracks of Tupac Shakur’s “Changes” and

Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” would provide a familiarity for a wide demographic of media

consumers.

“Changes,” one of the most recognizable songs from the late visionary and artist Shakur (known

Hill, 10 | P a g e

as Tupac), speaks of his visions for a better community and challenging the status quo- in no

small way an influence for revolutionary spirit of Black Americans nationally. Creative editing

of recordings of service projects, in conjunction with footage of the ongoing Black Lives Matter

Movement unifies the message, placing the local in context of the national. In a more

emotionally-charged tone Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” proved a perfect soundtrack to the

closing scene of Furious 8 dedicated to the memory of the late Paul Walker. The song’s chorus

sang by the featured artist Charlie Puth carries the tone of a hopeful sadness- of loss and the faith

of a future reuniting. Placing this song as a backdrop to images of the women and men (and

children) inspiring the Black Lives Matter Movement would illicit an emotion response, and

further contextualize the emotional investment we have in our cause.

Paper.li: Web-Based Tool for the Collective; Community Newspaper

The key facilitator for this campaign and the management of its content (specifically in

balance to that of the national movement) is the implementation of the platform Paper.li. As a

web tool, Paper.li allows an author to aggregate and curate content into a web-based feed akin to

a newspaper. A chief reason this campaign seeks to limit social media profiles to Facebook,

Twitter and Tumblr is because Paper.li is equipped to aggregate content from Instagram,

Pinterest, blogs and other platforms, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Paper.li allows

the social media team for “Our Work Matters” to hone the message of the people we reach (i.e.

their services, their stories) along with that of the national movement into a coherent daily news

source, featuring tabs for various communities and thought pieces and content from their resident

voices. This too falls under the necessary ‘choreography’ of contemporary protest movements-

Hill, 11 | P a g e

Gerbaudo suggests the sustainability of a movement is predicated on the “popular reunion” or the

“fusion of individuals” into a collective of shared ambition (Gerbaudo, 2012). Reasonably, the

regular generation of new content speaks to the life and active body of the movement. Lacking

the uniqueness and creativity of the people who uplift the action in their participation in anyway

undercuts the very purpose of the collective. Social media as a resource created a channel

whereby no voice has to go unheard, and it is through “collective aggregation” of these voices

that the many become one, and that there can be “unity despite diversity.” (Gerbaudo, 2012)

Paper.li thus will act as the fulcrum for the social media presence, and the central means of “Our

Work Matters” providing an account for the communities with which it becomes connected.

Value in Sustainable Community Action

The impact of this campaign is ultimately measured in the outcomes received by communities in

need. This project was inspired by young people, still finding their ways professionally, but

emotionally invested in the needs of a community around themselves. That has been the power

of #BlackLivesMatter as it continues to call people to look outside themselves the innumerable

needs of the people across the U.S.

The hope for this campaign fits within the narrative of trying to narrow down the demographic

for this write-up: originally pegged for ages 18-30, the limits were slow stretched year-by-year to

15-40 years old because on one end the campaign needed to account for young parents (and their

parents) who would benefit from having an outing where the family can participate and the

community can support ad educate that child and her family; on the other end the campaign had

to account for the founders of this movement- many of whom are in their early-to-mid-thirties-

Hill, 12 | P a g e

and continue to bear the torch by combining their passion and professional expertise to move us

forward. This campaign is for them, and for us because our work matters.

Hill, 13 | P a g e

Bibliography

(Images Credit to ColorofChange.org and Tumblr)

Burger, J.M., Messian, N., Patel, S., del Prado, A. & Anderson, C. (2004) What a coincidence!

The effects of incidental similarity on compliance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,

30, 35-43.

Cialdini, Robert B. (2009) Influence: Science and Practice (5th

Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson

Education, Inc.

Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140

Gerbaudo, Paolo (2012) Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Cotemporary Activism. New

York, NY: Pluto Press.

Ginsberg, Emanuella, Griggs, Brandon, Hetter, Katia, Massey, Wyatt, McAfee, Melonyce,

Shortell, David, Vega, Tanzina, Watkins, Eli. "The Disruptors." CNN. Cable News Network.

Web. 9 Aug. 2015.

Lun, J., Sinclair, S., Whitchurch, E.R., & Glenn, C. (2007). (Why) do I think what you think?

Epistemic social tuning and implicit prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

58, 823-831.

Meeker, Mary. “Internet Trends 2015- Code Conference” via TechCrunch: Web. 27 May 2015.

Parr, B. (2015). Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention. New York, NY:

HarperCollins Publishers.

Perloff, R. (2014). The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the 21st

Century (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Routledge

Platow, M.J., Haslam, S.A., Both, B., Chew, I., Cuddon, M., Goharpey, N., Maurer, J., Rosini,

S., Tsekouras, A., & Grace, D.M. (2005). “It’s not funny if they’re laughing”: Self

Categorization, social influence, and responses to canned laughter. Journal of Experimental

Psychology, 41, 542-550.