Movements such as #Occupy, #Egypt, #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter have shifted the culture, inspired revolutions and influenced policy change and legal actions. Protests for Black lives, spurred by the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, have already led to shifts in attitudes toward police and to real policy change in several US cities. This movement, like many others, would not be possible without social media. My research extends literature in HCI/CSCW on networked movements and popular social movement theory by focusing not on how emerging technologies replace traditional movement infrastructure, but how networked activism, such as a hashtag campaign, is contextualized within broader social movements and is complementary to traditional forms of organizing and protest.

Informed by my interdisciplinary background as an organizer and theatre artist, this thesis draws from the sociological lens of dramaturgy and performance studies to develop a framework for understanding how scripts communicated through social media guide action and role development in local activist networks. The framework investigates how movements play out on different "stages," each affording different "scripts," which guide role formation, coordination, framing processes and behavior, transforming an audience member into an activist. This thesis involves empirical research of the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests with a focus on events in Pittsburgh, the Justicefor Antwon Rose II movement, self-identified social justice activists on Twitter, and a community-organized festival.

Each study adds to our understanding of how local, sometimes offline organizing, works hand-in-hand with networked forms of activism. I describe the type of locally situated action described in these studies as cooperative action and compare cooperative scripting processes to devised theatre processes. I propose that the dramaturgical approach can help activists, researchers, and technology designers understand how movement scripts guide action and lend to growth in local activist networks.

212 pages

Thesis Committee:
Jessica Hammer (Chair)
Jodi Forlizzi
Sarah Fox
Deen Freelon (University of Pennsylvania)

Brad A. Myers, Head, Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Martial Hebert, Dean, School of Computer Science

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