Black Social Television: How Black Twitter Changed Television

Presented by Dr. Sherri Williams

Join Dr. Sherri Williams, author of 'Black Social Television: How Black Twitter Changed Television', for a conversation about how social media and Black audiences are shaping television today. This program will explore the power of Black voices in media and culture, and how this influence is transforming what we watch and the way television is made.

Dr. Sherri Williams is the author of 'Black Social Television: How Black Twitter Changed Television' and an Associate Professor in Race, Media, and Communication, as well as Inclusion Officer at the School of Communication, American University.

In her book, 'Black Social Television: How Black Twitter Changed Television', Sherri Williams explores the digital activism of the Black social TV audience, a subset of Black Twitter. In addition to demands for social equality and shifts in social justice, Williams argues, the Black social TV audience advocated for a representation revolution in television, leading to some shows being blocked from airing, some being taken off the air, and others even being revived. Williams positions this activism as an extension of Black people's historic advocacy related to the use of their image, dating back a century to when the NAACP attempted to block screenings of the notoriously racist 1915 film The Birth of a Nation.

This book details how Black audiences' use of social media impacted the way television is watched, developed, and produced through digital discourse and activism, primarily on Twitter (now known as X). Williams also demonstrates how Black content directors, like Justin Simien and Quinta Brunson, used social networks to develop their content and loyalty among audiences to ultimately bypass Hollywood's traditional gatekeepers. Finally, the book touches on contemporary events, such as the COVID pandemic and Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, have affected the ways in which Black content creators engage with their content and audience and vice versa. Scholars of television studies, social media studies, cultural studies, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

This program has been co-sponsored by the Oxon Hill Friends and Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Prince George’s County Truth Branch