Presented by: Jinman Zhang; PhD student, Media Studies – FIMS, Western University, Zahra Falahatpisheh; PhD student, Media Studies – FIMS, Western University, Molly-Gloria Patel (she/her); professor at Okanagan College, in Kelowna, BC; postdoctoral fellow at the SocioDigital Media Lab at Western University, Anabel Quan-Haase (she/her); Professor of Information and Media Studies and Sociology and the Rogers Chair in Studies in Journalism and New Information Technology at Western University

Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Zoom link

Abstract:

In September 2022, after the death of Masha Amini, who allegedly violated Iran’s strict rules regarding women covering their hair by not wearing a headscarf properly, protests escalated and erupted in Iran where citizens, particularly women, demanded more freedom and justice. As seen with other viral movements like #MeToo, the features and affordances of social media helped to encourage and foster digital activism and create global awareness around the violation of women’s rights. In this research, we use Iran as a case study to explore the use of Twitter and Instagram by Iranian influencers in disseminating protest-related information to their followers. To address these objectives, we conducted a content analysis of the Twitter and Instagram posts of 19 Iranian influencers. Our research has strong implications for understanding the role of social media regarding feminist digital activism. In particular, our research makes a central contribution to the literature on the topic of Iran and digital feminist activism as well as through providing a typology of social media influencers and how they use social media to disseminate protest-related information.

This event is part of the Mediations Lecture Series.

Host:

Faculty of Information and Media Studies

URL:

https://www.fims.uwo.ca/

Contact:

FIMS Communications
fims-communications@uwo.ca

Department:

Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS)