Select one social issue #Hashtag movement (e.g. #RUReferenceList, #RapeMustFall,
#NakedProtest, #TotalShutDown, #RhodesMustFall, #ShutItAll) that have come to pass over the past few years in South Africa. Do ethnographic research using a space outside of social
media that still speaks on this #Hashtag and discuss why it is still important to have conversations about your select social issue #hashtag movement even outside the online space. Explain why this chosen space outside the #hashtag is significant as a way to imagine an equal or just society for all.

For your essay you should conduct ethnographic research where you find a space where conversations about this #hashtag are still happening. This could be an art form, a song, an NGO, an online space, a clip from a local series etc; as a way of showing the move of the
#Hashtag online to another space years later.

Select 3 online articles (websites, brief media articles—not long academic articles), provide their references (these have to be real sources). For the discussion of your research you should also use at least 3 of the prescribed articles for this course.

Introduction

Step 1: Choosing the #Hashtag

Identify one social issue #hashtag movement in South Africa. Identify the platform it was mostly active in. Write why you chose this #Hashtag. Write about the significance of the chosen hashtag. Why was it created? What issues does it address? How did it gain momentum? Give a timeframe of when it was active online and when it fizzled out, or even came back. ( Here use prescribed reading and also online articles)

Step 2: Ethnographic research process

Find a space outside the social media where conversations about the #Hashtag are still happening (a space to keep the memory alive). This can be an art form, a song, an NGO etc.

Describe the research process:

• Why did you choose this specific space?
• How did you come to know this space?
• Discuss the process of finding the space. Did you have to spent time online looking for it? Did you have to listen to songs to understand the lyrics and the meaning of it. Did you have to travel to another location to find the art-form?
• What method did you use? (Doing interviews, listening to songs, traveling to find the art-form.

Provide visuals (quotes from the lyrics of the song or pictures of the art-form or the building space you chose).

Step 3

• Discuss specific results/findings of space you have chosen and how it creates a space of memory to keep the memory alive of the #Hashtag. (Here also use prescribed readings and online articles)
o If it’s an art-form or song etc. tell us about it, what does it say, you can quote some lyrics or provide pictures of the art-form (what is the art-form saying). You can also here interview someone who might know more about the song or the art.
o If you use a space e.g., NGO or foundation, you can do an interview with one person and ask about the space and the memory it try to create. (Tell us the findings of the interview)
• Explain why it is significant even beyond the social media #Hashtag that conversation continue as a way to imagine an equal or just society for all. (Here also use prescribed readings and online article)
• Provide some of the limitation, if any, of the space outside the social media #Hashtag (Here use prescribed readings and online articles)

Conclude

Answers to Above Questions on Hashtag Activism

Answer 1: The hashtag movement in South Africa that is selected for the purpose of analysis is total shutdown movement which focuses on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. This movement was mainly driven by the alarming rates of gender based violence and it was raised to ensure that government of South Africa come up with steps regarding femicide, rape and other forms of abuse against women.