Evaluating universities Twitter web pages responding to the Black Lives Matter movement

Abstract

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in May 2020, many colleges and universities responded by making statements on their website and social media channels condemning racism. Higher education institutions began initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for faculty, staff, administrators, and students on campus. Three years later, this study investigates whether universities are still offering and promoting workshops, classes, events, and activities related to DEI to campus communities. To do so, the researchers conducted a content analysis on Twitter categorizing tweets over a one-month period, then they classified the Tweets using the top 10 colleges in the U.S. News & World Report published in 2021. Tweets were categorized by the authors with the following classifications: equality and diversity, academics, campus life, faculty and student research, campus upgrades, administrative information, community service, and others. The researchers discovered that all categories were utilized to engage current students and to attract potential new students. The faculty and student research category was tweeted the most by universities over the one month of Twitter classification. Even though the category of “diversity, equality and inclusion” was not the most tweeted category, it was still frequently utilized as higher education institutions strongly highlighted content and information related to DEI initiatives.