Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Social Sciences Studies Journal, cilt.7, sa.82, ss.1858-1868, 2021 (Hakemli Dergi)
Today’s digital communication technologies provide anyone the ability to communicate and interact with others
conveniently, simultaneously, and efficiently, regardless of where they are located in the world. Digital platforms and social
media enable people to organize on specific topics and issues, making it easy for people to coordinate and organize. These
platforms enable people to express their opinions and provide reactions freely and persuasively. The "Black Lives Matter"
(BLM) movement, which began in 2013 and emerged prominently in 2020, is one of the most recent examples of this case.
Beginning in the USA and spreading throughout the world, BLM has qualities providing an example for agenda setting and
public opinion formation, especially prevalent through social media. Though the movement spread rapidly through
traditional media, due to its emergence on social media, it has become a global rather than local movement. Over time,
social media has become the main channel for communicating and organizing protests. People from all over the world,
especially the USA, have expressed their thoughts, comments, and opinions on this movement via social media. The purpose
of this study is to assess the effect of social media on the agenda setting and public opinion within the context of the BLM
movement and provide a new perspective on both social media and the BLM movement. In this study, description and case
study analysis techniques were favored in the research and analysis section. The BLM movement’s emergence and
development will be briefly explained and its reflections on different social media tools will be examined and interpreted.