A feminist analysis of the global adoption of the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls

Abstract

This thesis explores the framing of #BringBackOurGirls on twitter and in the mainstream media, particularly through the lens of third world feminism. Using feminist content analysis, it explores themes extracted from the Nigerian twitter and North American/European twitter and reveals a larger discussion and perspectives of Nigerians and non-Nigerians, concerning the kidnapping of the Chibok girls. It finds that themes extracted from the Nigerian twitter were based on lived experiences, while themes found in the North American/European twitter were influenced by uninformed opinions of third world countries. It finds that social media activism tends to lead to slacktivism and the mainstream media outside of Nigeria is mostly influenced by the political interests of their nation-states. Finally, it finds that the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls not only addresses the oppressions of third-world women, but also exposes issues of political corruption, inefficiencies and the importance of international policies that protect the security of women.