Brent Bender

Prof. Beckelhimer

Intermediate Comp.

11/1/17

Activism Analysis

Social media has been flooded by activism on many issues, and the debate on whether

or not the Bengals should fire Marvin Lewis is no exception. Fans have used Twitter to express

their positive and negative feelings on the Bengals play and Marvins coaching decisions.

Photos, videos, and individual tweets follow every good or bad happening in the Bengals

season. Tensions rise when the Bengals struggle, which has been fairly often in recent years.

Twitter serves as a platform that allows people to share their opinions, as well as respond to

others in agreement or disagreement. Interesting debates arise, and different forms of activism

are included in each debate. Fans who strongly believe that Marvin Lewis should be fired have

started a Twitter campaign #FireMarvin. This form of activism is easy to participate in, and

many fans have used it as a method to express their disapproval of Marvin Lewis coaching.

The #FireMarvin campaign has emboldened thousands of people who are looking to

participate in discourse on social media. After bad plays or bad losses, the hashtag can be seen

trending on Twitter due to a spike in the number of users participating in conversations

surrounding the hashtag. Users can reach thousands of people by simply adding the hashtag to

the end of their posts. People who participate in this debate on Twitter want to reach as many

people as possible when trying to sway people to their side of the argument. Because the

purpose of someones argument is simply to get other people to think the same way they do
about Marvin Lewis, reaching as many people as possible is paramount for most users. The

hashtag campaign not only allows people to reach many people, but in turn allows more people

to participate in the conversation on Twitter. Twitter user @break_man tweeted, Every week

Marvin says this team needs to be consistent. The team consistency is on YOU, Marvin

(Twitter). Even after wins, people on Twitter can be divided about what it means for Marvin.

After a recent win, user @cavsbkball23 tweeted Nothing about this win is worth celebrating.

This team is simply too talented to celebrate mediocrity (Twitter). By allowing the general

public to participate in the debate, users can end up in discourse with people they do not know

or have not had the conversation about the issue with. Often this can lead to users seeing new

points or arguments they have not heard for the other side of the argument, and this can make

some of the conversations very interesting to read.

Some of the more wide-spread debates on this issue stem from a well-known analyst

tweeting something about Marvin Lewis, and someone responding with a tweet including

#FireMarvin. Then everyone who follows the analyst or reads his/her tweets sees the hashtag

and can participate in the debate. Because people who tend to be well-educated on the subject

follow a lot of the same analysts, these are where some of the stronger arguments for each side

can be seen. Stephen A. Smith and Eric Allen, to name a few, have tweeted about Marvin Lewis

in the past, which led to long chains. These threads of tweets can span several hundred tweets

long, and hundreds of people contribute. The threads can reach an audience of millions and can

influence any of the readers who have not developed an opinion the issue.

Twitter hashtags can serve as an effective form of activism on social media. A multitude

of movements have used hashtag campaigns to spread a message. They can spread a message
to millions of people and are open for others to contribute to the argument. While not

everyone tweeting #FireMarvin knows a lot about the issue, the hashtag still allows everyone

to share their opinion on the topic to a large audience.

 Works Cited

Twitter.com. Twitter.com, @break_man, 30 Oct. 2017.

Twitter.com. Twitter.com, @cavsbkball23, 29 Oct. 2017.