Abstract

The youth-led March For Our Lives is founded on the idea of young people forced into advocacy by unthinkable tragedy. The movement exists in a digital age where the lines between the physical and digital have become increasingly blurred. By using the work of scholars such as Manuel Castells and Henry Jenkins as a foundation to analyze this movement, we can gain a deeper understanding of why MFOL has succeeded and failed in the ways that it has. These noted digital activism academics will be used to explore how collective anger is expressed and created through the use of personal stories about gun violence to create unity across the United States in the hopes of fueling legislative action. These concepts will then collide with classic film theory, utilizing scholars such as Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin, and Bela Balazs to examine how this physical protest is immortalized in a digital format, using film conventions to translate the emotional impact online. This analysis points to the unique structure of a movement fueled by emotion and run by a digitally native generation. It will also point out ways in which the original research on digital social movements can be updated to reflect changing models of social activism.

Degree

College and Department

Fine Arts and Communications

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