Political storytelling on Twitter

Abstract

Exploring the narratives that establish (or affect) the reality of society in dealing with social injustice issues and, in particular, epistemic injustice is important. The historical formation of narratives can help us understand the reproduction processes and their effects, including the media, to undermine their credibility, transform them, and create and strengthen their opponents. As in every period, the stories of the disadvantaged groups in the society, as well as their experiences of injustice, are not visible, are misrepresented or distrusted, and their voices are not heard at the present time. In order to reverse these structures that create a kind of spiral of silence, the stories of the disadvantaged people’s experiences of injustice must be made visible. At the same time, this visibility process can help to empower other people and groups that remain silent to speak their truths. To ensure the epistemic and hermeneutical justice for disadvantaged groups, we need to be attentive to their stories. Although community-based projects use various media tools, the stories cannot always reach a wider public, and digital media can offer an opportunity to engage a wide audience with participatory and interactive features. Therefore, this chapter looks at the hashtag of the “sendeanlat” (Metoo) movement in Turkey, launched on Twitter after Özgecan Arslan’s murder in 2015, where thousands of women from all over the country have shared their experiences of harassment, and who create a collective narrative together that would be difficult to express in another environment. Based on this feminist digital storytelling, this chapter aims to examine and discuss how women’s rights organisations have built narratives on the Twitter platform to make women’s problems and the injustices more visible and to discuss the potential of this platform with regard to constructing public opinion and in challenging the dominant sexist narratives.