Activism & Hashtags

Hiyo! Sydnee here, and this week we covered hashtags, specifically Ruth Osario's definition and terminology.

Instead of hashtags being simply a tag or link to a main topic or issue, Ruth Osario labeled hashtags as a "storehouse." It stores the argument, goal/meaning, or topoi of a movement in the moment and even what it stood for in the past (but of course "past" is rather relative since a lot of these social media platforms that utilize hashtags haven't been around for that long).

Thus, in thinking about the current movement I'm researching "(getting) women in(to) the gaming industry," I found a hashtag that exhibits this trait. You can see the actual post on BlackBoard (BB), but talking about it briefly here: the #womeningames hashtag both stands for the organization that goes by that name and the movement of diversifying the gaming industry/space by promoting and supporting women to enter the field (the topoi).

However, I also found two other interesting ones. The first one relates to my current topic. The #FemDevsMeetup is another hashtag that is utilized by its corresponding organization. In looking into them, they're a German based organization that connects female German game developers together. Most of their posts (that I saw) were advertising and encouraging attendance to various meet-ups for this express purpose. The meet-up that I found the most interesting and lovely was done in Animal Crossing (a game I enjoy). But! That little spike of joy aside, I note this because I think I could possible reference or use this as inspiration for when I tackle the "planning an event" advocacy genre. And, as for the second post, it repped the hashtags #BlackgamedevShowcase and #Blackgamedev. Although I am not specifically studying Black game developers, I am noting it as a possible switch to or encompassing them into my current topic for some possible wiggle room in researching advocacy movements. However back to the hashtags, themselves, they're pretty self-explanatory: much like the hashtag #womeningames, these hashtags are to spread awareness, promote, and support these minority game developers.