Praxis, hashtag activism, and social justice: a content analysis of #StopAsianHate narratives

Abstract

The Atlanta Shootings spurred worldwide discussion about anti-Asian hate incidents in the U.S., which eventually evoked the #StopAsianHate movement on Twitter. Based on the theory of praxis, this study extended Walton et al.’s (2019) social justice heuristic of the ‘4Rs,’ which mainly focuses on actions of praxis, to include an additional ‘R’ to represent Reflection. A content analysis study was performed to explore how activists strategically employed the ‘5Rs’ social justice practices within tweets shared during the #StopAsianHate movement. This study further examined the chronological trends of the five social justice practices evident in the hashtag narratives. The results indicate that the public should pay more attention to the actions spurred by the hashtag movement while also reflecting on how its effects can be optimized to promote social justice.