PARTICIPATION OF INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA WALES STUDENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT EVENT

Abstract

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement has ignited passionate participation by people around the world, including normal daily citizen, public fgures, celebrities, politicians, and even the younger generation. Using social media as its main tool, the BLM movement has allowed social media users to use their channel as an avenue to support the issue and to speak of problems in relation to racism. Postings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are flled with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter using texts, photos, and videos. Active participation by social media audience worldwide, including among Malaysians, has generated millions of conversations on the movement. Related issues such as police brutality and racial injustice are heavily discussed among Malaysians through various social media channels. This paper studied 55 students from the International University of Malaya-Wales and overall, this research found students as actively seeking news and information via social media channels. The respondents also believed that social media are efective in making awareness of various social issues. Participation among the younger generation into the related conversations are also high. Overall, the respondents also agreed that social media aids the awareness of the movement and the issues they discussed on their channels.