#BlackTwitter, The New CNN | Alternet
▻http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/blacktwitter-new-cnn
The story behind the hastag would eventually make it on the front cover of the New York Times.
Kimberly C. Ellis, Ph.D, American and Africana Studies Scholar and Public Intellectual who is completing a book titled “The Bombastic Brilliance of Black Twitter,” told AlterNet that the hastag played a very influential role in how the media covered Ferguson after it began trending.
“That set the precursor for the media and they had to think about how they were going to present Mike Brown,” Ellis said, who goes by the handle “@drgoddess” on Twitter. “I honestly believe that #IfTheyGunnedMeDown prevented mainstream media from doing their usual lazy presentation on black youth in particular and black people in general.”
One area where African Americans are the majority is in their use of Twitter—especially younger users. Forty percent of African Americans between the ages of 18-29 use Twitter, as conpared to just 28 percent of whites in the same age range, accordiing to the Pew Reseach Internet Project. African Americans are also just as likely to own a cellphone; 96 percent own one, with 56 percent of that number using a smartphone.