Social Accountability, Ethics, and the Occupy Wall Street Protests

This study examines the 3.5 m+ English-language original tweets that occurred during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests. Starting from previous research, we analyze how character terms such as the banker, politician, the teaparty, GOP, and the corporation, as well as concept terms such as ethics, fairness, morals, justice, and democracy were used by individual participants to respond to the Occupy Wall Street events. These character and concept terms not only allowed individuals to take an ethical stance but also accumulated into a citizen's narrative about social accountability. The analysis illustrates how the centrality of the different concepts and characters in the conversation changed over time as well as how the concepts ethics, morals, fairness, justice, and democracy participated within the conversation, helping to amplify the ethical attributes of different characters. These findings contribute to our understanding of how demands for social accountability are articulated and change over time.

Automated summary

This study analyzes the use of character and concept terms in English-language tweets during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, demonstrating how individuals crafted a narrative of social accountability through ethical stances. The centrality of these terms in conversations shifted over time, amplifying the ethical attributes of different characters and contributing to an evolving understanding of demands for social accountability.