Exploring Twitter’s role in the Indigenous world

An honours project now underway at the University of Alberta is exploring the reach of Twitter for Indigenous communities, and studying potential opportunities for connecting with students.
For her project, titled Indigenous Twibes in 140 Characters or Less, U of A student Kirsten Lindquist is following five prominent Indigenous intellectuals who use Twitter, sharing information on social media. She’s not ready yet to identify them specifically, but says some are from Eastern Canada and some from the west.

“I’ve been following these people to see the differences in teaching philosophies or their own philosophies on Indigenous studies, and they had quite a number of followers,” she said. “Quite a few more scholars are joining the conversations on Twitter.”

The goal, she says, is to seriously look at Twitter as not a replacement, but as an option to reach community members, to be a teaching tool and reach out to the everyday spaces that go beyond the classroom. She also wants to learn how extensive Internet access is in Indigenous communities and how it’s being used.

“It would be similar to taking comments from what people had written in a newspaper or on a blog,” she said. “Twitter is a further step in microblogging, restricted to 140 characters.”

Lindquist is a student in the Faculty of Native Studies at the U of A. She serves as president of the Native Studies Students Association and as editorial assistant for the U of A-based journal, Aboriginal Policy Studies. Originally from the Elk Point area in northern Alberta, Lindquist graduated with a commerce degree from the U of A in 2008. She worked in marketing for a few years but found herself less than satisfied with her career.

“I wanted to learn more about my own Métis connection and history. I was continuing to see Aboriginal people represented only in a negative light,” she said. “I knew this wasn’t where I wanted to be for the rest of my life, so I sought out Native Studies to understand these issues in a more supportive environment.”

When Lindquist was leaving her advertising career, social media was becoming a legitimate way for people to market themselves. A company similar to hers was seeking out a social media specialist, she recalls. “Somebody would be on Facebook or Twitter all the time. I was interested to see if this was becoming a career, how would that fit in to an everyday education component?”

Twitter has a jargon all its own, as seen in Lindquist’s collection of hashtags (like key words), mentions, number of tweets, followers and retweets for her research. Using that information, she plans to analyze content themes, discussion topics and the frequency of participation in Twitter conversations. “How are they taking what they’re talking about in class outside? And how do everyday community members get involved in this discussion about where they see Indigenous studies going?”

Social media is getting a voice out there that may not have been heard before, she said. Mobilizing social activism is a clear example, enabling flash mobs and rallies for a cause.

 “I’m really curious how it all ends up,” she said of her research project.  “I’m not trying to argue that social media can replace face-to-face conversations, but it has allowed us to gain a voice that has been historically marginalized. That is a difficulty in First Nations communities, but this is a space where we can come together in solidarity, to challenge the government’s relationship with native people. Although we are diverse, we have a common goal.”